The course is aimed at introducing students to the idea that philosophy is not only philosophia perennis but had a historical beginning and a geographical cradle.

It will be shown that early philosophical language simultaneously gave voice both to human doubts about the world and to the human need to make sense of it. This general survey will serve to demonstrate 1, how the basics of modern Western philosophical traditions find their origins in ancient times (modern philosophers' short excerpts will be read); 2. that philosophical language expresses neither an evolutionary nor a revolutionary sense of accomplishment, nor does it imply definitive answers about the human conditions, 3. that philosophy was born as the art of turning the seemingly absurd aspects of life into cosmological harmony.

AUTHORS (online texts):

Pre-Socratics (a short history of their re-evaluation)

Gorgias and the Sophists

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Epicurus

Cynics, Sceptics, Stoics.

Epictetus, Seneca

Plotinus

Short texts and quotations by contemporary philosophers (Bergson, Nietzsche, Marx, Heidegger, Nussbaum, Popper, Chomsky, Heisenberg, and others) will show the continuity between ancient and modern thinking.

TEXTBOOK:

Thomas A. Blackson, Ancient Greek Philosophy: from the Presocratics to the Hellenistic Philosophers, 2011 (electronic format)

REFERENCE BOOKS ON RESERVE:

M.Nahm, Selections from Early Greek Philosophy

C.Shields, Classical philosophy

D. Roochnik, Retrieving the Ancients

J.L.Saunders, ed., Greek and Roman Philosophy after Aristotle

FILMS

Oedipus Rex by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Classes will regard a general historical reconstruction of Ancient Greek and Roman Western philosophical traditions, with a special focus on Plato and Aristotle. Some of the most influential philosophers will be read in the English translation of their original texts. One or more films are envisaged, depending on time schedule. Lectures and presentations imply a strong motivation and an active participation in class.

By the end of the semester students will be able to master and use basic philosophical concepts.  They will also be capable of understating the roots and the origin of our Western traditions in such fields as ontology, epistemology, politics, logic, ethics, and of critically constructing their own perspective on these issues.

Students should plan to regularly attend the class, since we will often broaden the topics contained in the texts to contemporary issues, and since this class is mainly intended to the rousing of students’ personal thoughts and ideas.

Please refer to the university catalog for the attendance and absence policy.

Academic honesty:

As stated in the university catalogue, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course.