montejohnson - Philosophy 100: Plato

A complete set of minutes of the lectures for this class, produced by student scribes, can be downloaded by clicking here.

Syllabus

Date Topic Reading

Sep. 27 Socrates Apology

Oct. 2 Citizen and City Crito 43a-49e

Oct. 4 A dialogue with the law Crito 50a-54e

Oct. 9* Socrates' Defense Phaedo 57a-69e

Oct. 11 Arguments for immortality Phaedo 69e-84b

Oct. 16 Objections and replies Phaedo 84c-95a

Oct. 18 Generation and destruction Phaedo 95a-118a

Oct. 23 Knowledge and recollection Meno 70a-86c

Oct. 25 Can virtue be taught? Meno 86c-100b

Oct. 30 Review, Questions, and Answers

Nov. 1* Midterm examination in class

Nov. 6 Education, rhetoric, and politics Gorgias 447a-466a

Nov. 8 Morality, power, and fear Gorgias 466a-481b

Nov. 13 Law, nature and pleasure Gorgias 481b-499b

Nov. 15 Politics, power and punishment Gorgias 499c-527e

Nov. 20* Origin of the cosmos and gods Timaeus 17a-41d

Nov. 22 Thanksgiving Holiday -- No Class

Nov. 27 Bodies, properties and sensation Timaeus 41d-69b

Nov. 29 Living things, organs, and health Timaeus 69b-92c

Dec. 4 History and myth Critias 106a-121c

Dec. 6 Review, Questions, and Answers

Dec. 11* Final examination, 7-10pm

* Indicates a date on which a writing assignment is due.

Please notice that the reading assignments become progressively longer throughout the term. You should make notes while reading of difficult or important passages, so that you may comment on or ask about them in class. Questions on the final exam may be drawn from any of the readings listed above.

Course Description

Plato, a pupil of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, is the most influential philosopher of the classical age. He founded the first institution of higher education in the western world, the Academy. His innovation of the prose dialogue resulted in several works of astounding literary beauty and unprecedented philosophical depth. In this course we will read several complete dialogues, from each stage of his literary career, focused on the themes of science, politics, and nature. The purpose of the course is to guide you in reading difficult ancient philosophical works, and help you develop facility with interpreting and criticizing the philosophical ideas contained in them.

Required Text

We will be reading Plato’s dialogues in English translation. The following is available at Groundwork Books: Plato: Complete Works. Edited by J. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1997. ISBN: 0-87220-349-2.

There are other translations, both online and in the library, and you are encouraged to consult these in order to observe differences in translation.

Scribes

Two “scribes” will be assigned to take notes for each class. The rest of the class is encouraged not to take notes, but to concentrate on listening to the lecture, asking questions, and participating in the discussion. The students assigned to take notes will meet sometime after the class and compose a special set of “minutes” of the class. The minutes will not be a verbatim version of the lecture. Rather, the scribes will write out, in complete English sentences (not note form), a narrative of the lecture and discussion. They will fill in any references to the text (or other texts), providing complete citations. (On the proper method of citation, see below.) They will also compose two original questions about the lecture. A hard copy of the minutes will be due at the start of the next class meeting. The minutes will be read out at the beginning of the next class by the scribes. A discussion of the scribes’ original questions will follow. The hard copy will then be edited by me and returned to the scribes, who will input the corrections into the electronic file and send that file to me not later than one week from the lecture on which the minutes are based. This final electronic version will then be graded. The final electronic version will also be posted to the course website and WebCT for the benefit of all the students in the class. The result will be a complete set of typed notes for the entire class, produced by its members, and checked for accuracy and completeness by me. The minutes will be graded on the following criteria: (1) accuracy; (2) completeness; (3) concision (1500-2000 words); (4) grammatical and typographical correctness, especially with reference to textual citations; (5) elegance; and (6) insight and import of the original questions. Scribal assignments will be made by me. The assignment is worth 10% of your final grade. You must indicate on your information form any day on which you are not capable of attending. You may trade dates, but it will not be possible to “make up” an assignment if it is missed.