4AANA001: Greek Philosophy 1
Prof Peter Adamson ([email protected])
Teaching
Like most of your first-year (level 4) modules, the teaching for this module will consist of a weekly
one hour lecture, taught in this case on Wednesdays from 12-1, and a weekly one hour tutorial. You
should already have been in touch with your tutors. For those tutorials you‟ll need to write two 1000
word formative essays, due in at the Department Office by XXX on XXX and XXX. THESE MUST
BE COMPLETED IF YOU ARE TO PASS THE MODULE.
In your tutorials you will read about, and write essays on, Plato‟s Meno and Aristotle‟s Physics Book 2.
The lectures will cover these texts but also take a broader look at Plato and Aristotle.
Exam
The summative assessment will be a 2-hour exam. You will write two essays, one answering a
“thematic” question; you will be able to choose from about six questions based on the lectures. The
second essay will be a “comment” question on a short passage from either the Meno or Physics 2. You
need to write a formative essay of each time, as your tutors will explain or already have explained.
Primary Texts
Plato texts in Plato, Complete Works, ed. J.M.Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Hackett: 1997); Aristotle
texts in The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. J. Barnes (Princeton: 1984) and elsewhere. A good
collection is J. Ackrill‟s An Aristotle Reader but it is out of print – you may be able to find a secondhand copy. Please read the primary texts listed in this syllabus, preferably before each week‟s lecture
so you will get more out of them. Secondary literature is also provided below, but it‟s more important
that you read the primary texts.
Secondary literature
Online, there are numerous relevant articles on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. You may also
find my podcast useful (it has already covered everything that will be taught in this module):
www.historyofphilosophy.net
On Socrates:
• S. Ahbel-Rappe and R. Kamketar (eds.), A Companion to Socrates (Oxford: 2006).
• T.C. Brickhouse, and N.D. Smith, Plato’s Socrates (Oxford: 1994).
• G. Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher (Cambridge: 1991).
On Plato:
• H.H. Benson (ed.), A Companion to Plato (Oxford: 2006).
• G. Fine (ed.), 1999, Plato 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology, and Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion,
and the Soul (Oxford: 1999).
• T. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics (Oxford: 1995).
• R. Kraut (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge: 1992).
On Aristotle:
• J. Ackrill, Aristotle the Philosopher (London: 1981).
• J. Barnes (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (Cambridge: 1995).
• J. Barnes, Aristotle (Oxford: 1982).
• J. Lear, Aristotle, the Desire to Understand (Cambridge: 1988).
• G.E.R. Lloyd, Aristotle (Cambridge: 1968).
• The series edited by Barnes, Schofield, and Sorabji: Essays on Aristotle, 4 vols. (1: Science; 2: Ethics
and Politics; 3: Metaphysics; 4: Psychology and Aesthetics).
Course of Lectures
Oct 6: From the Pre-Socratics to Plato, by way of Socrates
• G. Vlastos, „The Socratic elenchus‟, in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 1983
• M.F. Burnyeat. „Socratic midwifery, Platonic inspiration,‟ in H.H.Benson, Essays on
the Philosophy of Socrates, Oxford University Press 1992.
Oct 13: Defining virtue in the Euthyphro
Primary text: Plato, Euthyphro
• T. Penner, “Socrates and the Early Dialogues,” in R. Kraut (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Plato
(Cambridge: 1992).
• A. Nehamas, “Socratic Intellectualism,” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 2
(1986), 275-316, reprinted in Nehamas, The Virtues of Authenticity. Essays on Plato and Socrates (Princeton:
1999).
• P. Geach, “Plato‟s Euthyphro, an Analysis and Commentary,” The Monist 50 (1966), 369-82, also in R.
Kamtekar, Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito: Critical Essays (Lanham, MD: 2004).
Oct 20: Defining virtue in the Meno
Primary text: Plato, Meno
• D. Scott, Plato’s Meno (Cambridge: 2006).
Oct 27: Recollection and true belief in the Meno and Phaedo
Primary text: Phaedo 72e-77a.
• G. Fine, „Inquiry in the Meno,‟ in R. Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato
(Cambridge: 1992).
Nov 3: The Phaedo: the immortality of the soul, and Forms
Primary text: Phaedo 96a-107d.
• G. Vlastos, „Reasons and causes in the Phaedo,‟ The Philosophical Review 78 (1969), 291-325, reprinted in
Vlastos, Platonic Studies (Princeton: 1973).
• D. Sedley, „Platonic Causes‟, Phronesis 43 (1998), 114-32.
• MM McCabe, Plato’s Individuals (Princeton: 1994), ch. 2.
[Reading Week]
Nov 17: Change and the principles in the Physics
Primary text: Physics book 1, especially chs. 7-9.
• D. Bostock, „The principles of change in Physics 1‟, in M. Schofield and M. Nussbaum, eds, Language and
Logos (Cambridge: 1982).
• R.J. Hankinson, „Philosophy of science‟, in J. Barnes, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (Cambridge:
1995).
Nov 24: The four causes
Primary text: Physics book 2, chapters 1-3.
Guest lecturer: Frisbee Sheffield
• J. Lear, Aristotle: the Desire to Understand (Cambridge: 1988), 26-42
• R. Sorabji, Necessity, Cause and Blame (London: 1980), ch. 10
Dec 1: Problems with final causality
Primary text: Physics book 2, chapters 4-9.
• D. Sedley, „Was Aristotle‟s teleology anthropocentric?‟ Phronesis 36 (1991), 179-196.
• J. Cooper, „Hypothetical Necessity and Natural Teleology,‟ in A. Gotthelf and J.G.
Lennox, eds, Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology (Cambridge: 1987), 243274.
Dec 8: Soul
Primary text: On the Soul [De Anima], book 2, chapters 1-4.
• S. Everson, „Psychology‟ in J. Barnes, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle
(Cambridge: 1995).
• M. Durrant (ed.), Aristotle’s De Anima in Focus (London: 1993).
Dec 15: Ethics
Primary text: Nicomachean Ethics book 1, chapters 1-7.
• D.S. Hutchinson, „Ethics‟ in J. Barnes, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle
(Cambridge: 1995).
• A. Rorty (ed.), Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics (Berkeley: 1980).
• S. Broadie, Ethics with Aristotle (Oxford: 1991).