Description:

This course provides a thorough exploration of ancient Greek and Roman philosophical thought from the original efforts of the Pre-Socratics to understand the fundamental operations of the natural world to concerns about the way a person might live successfully in nature and society. Also explored are the notable Athenians of the classical period, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and the later schools of thought such as cynicism, skepticism, hedonism and stoicism. In the process, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the philosophical foundations of the Western world view. 3 hrs./wk.

Supplies: Refer to the instructor's course syllabus for details about any supplies that may be required.

Prerequisites: NONE

Textbook(s): For information see - http://bookstore.jccc.net

Course Fees: NONE

Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course the student should be able to:

1. Describe the social and material conditions of ancient Greek and Roman cultures that provided the context for the prevailing philosophical ideas of the period.
2. Identify, describe, and explain the important philosophical positions of this period.
3. Relate ideas and issues contained in ancient philosophy to later philosophical and cultural ideas.
4. Display the ability to write expository and evaluative essays in a focused, informed, coherent, and thorough manner.
5. Display the ability to read complex material interpretively.
6. Display habits of character contributive to academic and philosophical excellence.

Content Outline & Competencies:

I. Pre-Socratic Philosophy
   A. The Milesians
      1. Thales
         a. Explain the basis for regarding Thales as the first
philosopher in the West.
         b. Describe what is known of Thales’ account of nature.
      2. Anaximander
         a. Explain how Anaximander responded to Thales’ teachings in
terms of what he accepted, what he rejected, and his basis for rejecting
it.
         b. Describe Anaximander’s account of what exists and how change
occurs.
      3. Anaximenes 
         a. Explain Anaximenes’ amendments to Anaximander’s account of
nature.
         b. Identify the advancement Anaximenes is credited with
introducing into natural philosophy.
      4. The coherence and contributions of the Milesians.
         a. Identify the presuppositions made by all three of the early
Milesians.
         b. Identify the conceptual innovations each of them contributed.
   B. The Transition Philosophers
      1. Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism
         a. Explain the connection between mathematics and the soul made
by the Pythagoreans.
         b. Explain the Pythagorean cosmology as summarized by their
claim, "All things are numbers."
         c. Evaluate the adequacy of this account in explaining the origin
of physical things.
         d. Connect Pythagorean cosmological beliefs with their ethical
and political practices.
         e. Identify the innovations introduced in natural philosophy by
this movement.
         f. Explain why the discovery of irrational numbers produced a
crisis for Pythagoreanism.
      2. Xenophanes
         a. Describe the scientific discoveries Xenophanes is credited
with making.
         b. Explain Xenophanes’ religious views.
      3. Heraclitus
         a. Explain the basis for Heraclitus’ rejection of Milesian
accounts of what exists and how it undergoes change.
         b. Explain Heraclitus’ account of permanence and change.
         c. Assess the significance of Heraclitus’ contributions to
philosophy.
   C. The Eleatics
      1. Parmenides
         a. Explain the controversy regarding whether Parmenides should be
seen as reacting to Heraclitus or Pythagoreanism.
         b. Explain how Parmenides’ poem may be read as a rejection of
Pythagorean dualism.
         c. Explain how the Eleatics introduced logic to advance
rationalism beyond its Pythagorean form.
         d. Explain how Parmenides finds a place for Pythagoreanism in his
‘Way of Opinion’ section of his poem.
         e. Formulate an explanation for Parmenides’ use of the poetic
form in putting forth his account of reality.
      2. Zeno
         a. Connect Zeno’s paradoxes with the issue between Parmenides
and Pythagorean cosmology.
         b. Explain what a ‘reductio ad absurdum’ form of argument is
and show how Zeno can be seen as reducing the Pythagorean account of space
to absurdity.
      3. Melissus
         a. Explain the two sides of the debate over the nature of being
expressed by Melissus and Parmenides.
         b.  Show how Einstein’s solution to this issue that he borrowed
from Riemann is an attempt to reconcile these two sides.
   D. The Pluralists
      1. Empedocles
         a. Explain how Empedocles uses four elements and two forces to
account for reality.
         b. Connect Empedocles’ account with Parmenides’ basis for
rejecting Pythagoreanism.
      2. Anaxagoras
         a. Trace Anaxagoras’ pluralism to the Ionian accounts of
reality.
         b. Identify the significant innovation Anaxagoras introduces in
his account.
      3. The Atomists
         a. Correlate Leucippus’ account of reality with Pythagorean
cosmology.
         b. Explain how the world of sensory objects issues from the
atoms.
         c. Explain how the Atomists’ account of knowledge led to the
basis for skepticism.
         d. Assess the significance of atomism on subsequent science and
philosophy.

II. The Athenian Apex
   A. The Sophists & Socrates
      1. Protagoras
         a. Trace Protagoras’ metaphysical agnosticism and
epistemological skepticism to its roots in Atomism.
         b. Describe Protagoras’ ethical position.
         c. Explain why the Sophists were highly regarded in Greek culture
during this period.
      2. Gorgias
         a. Explain and evaluate the three claims and their supporting
arguments that characterize Gorgias’ teachings.
         b. Compare Gorgias’ position with the modern period British
empiricists.
      3. Socrates
         a. Explain why the historical Socrates is an enigma based on the
sources we have about his life and teachings.
         b. Explain why it is necessary to separate the historical
Socrates from the character in Plato’s dialogues.
         c. Explain why Plato’s ‘Socrates’ has been so widely
accepted.
   B. Plato
      1. Euthyphro
         a. Identify the issue Plato is dealing with in the Euthyphro and
what he seems to be rejecting.
         b. Show how the Euthyphro exemplifies the dialectic process or
"Socratic method."
         c. Explain why the dialogue ends inconclusively.
      2. Apology
         a. Contrast the old accusations against Socrates with the formal
charges made by Meletus.
         b. Explain how Socrates acquired his divine mission and how this
led to the old accusations.
         c. Explain what Plato seems to be trying to accomplish by
manufacturing these old accusations.
         d. Summarize and evaluate Socrates’ defense against the formal
charges brought against him by Meletus.
         e. Describe the facts the jurors would have been aware of which
support the charge of corrupting the youth but which Plato omits any
response to.
         f. Identify the political basis for the charges Plato appears to
be emphasizing.
         g. Evaluate the reasonableness of the penalty Socrates proposed
in Plato’s account against other alternatives available to him.
      3. Crito
         a. Explain the reasons why Crito believes Socrates should escape
from prison and avoid the death penalty.
         b. Summarize Socrates’ argument showing it would be unjust to
avoid the penalty.
      4. The trial dialogues as a philosophical trilogy.
         a. Describe the philosophical problem Plato is posing in the
trial trilogy and explain how each dialogue contributes to the problem and
to his proposed solution.
         b. Explain how this interpretation helps us to understand the
apparently deliberate weaknesses in Socrates’ hypothetical defense in
the Apology.
         c. Evaluate the solution Plato is proposing to the problem of the
social value of the reformer.
      5. Meno
         a. Diagram the dialectic examination of virtue in the first
section of the dialogue.
         b. Describe the learner’s paradox and explain Socrates’
solution to it.
         c. Explain how the interrogation of the slave boy exemplifies the
two stage structure of dialectic inquiry.
         d. Summarize the argument Socrates uses to establish that virtue
cannot be taught, and explain why it must be seen as a satire of sophistic
reasoning.
         e. Explain the satire involved in the conclusion that virtue must
be acquired by divine dispensation.
      6. Theaetetus
         a. Map the dialectic structure of the definition of knowledge
through its three primary formulations and the key objections made to
each.
         b. Explain how Plato uses the reality versus appearances motif in
the dialogue.
         c. Identify the key error Plato believes is being made in
Protagoras’ view that knowledge is simply perception.
         d. Relate Plato’s objection to the modern period British
empiricists’ account of knowledge we examined in connection with
Gorgias’ arguments for skepticism.
      7. Republic
         a. Trace Plato’s justification in Book II for organizing the
ideal state into two classes of people.
         b. Explain why in Book III Plato sees it necessary to add a third
class and to employ a ‘noble lie.’
         c. Explain how Plato uses the harmonious reconciliation of the
tripartite soul to characterize justice in the ideal state in Book IV.
         d. Describe the ‘three waves’ that Plato sees threatening to
swamp his proposal for the ideal state in Book V.
         e. Diagram Plato’s metaphor of the divided line given in Book
VI, and identify the four states of mind he distinguishes along with their
objects.
         f. Summarize the main features of the Allegory of the Cave given
in Book VII, and explain what Plato uses it to accomplish.
      8. Plato’s achievement.
         a. Explain how Plato’s Theory of Forms constitutes a synthesis
of the pre-Socratic conflict over permanence and change.
         b. Explain how Plato’s philosophy constitutes a rejection of
the Sophists’ skepticism and relativism.
   C. Aristotle
      1. The Organon
         a. Identify the four areas of inquiry in Aristotle’s conception
of philosophical thought.
         b. Identify the three basic laws of thought.
         c. Explain the key elements in Aristotle’s syllogistic logic
that permits the determination of the validity of reasoning purely on a
formal basis.
         d. Explain how this logical system along with a theory of
rhetoric allowed Aristotle to confront the Sophists in a way not open to
Plato.
      2. Physics
         a. Explain Aristotle’s form-in-matter doctrine and relate it to
Plato’s Theory of Forms.
         b. Explain Aristotle’s basis for rejecting monism.
         c. Describe the four causes of change Aristotle identifies and
indicate which of these previous philosophers overlooked.
         d. Explain Aristotle’s account of nature.
      3. Metaphysics
         a. Explain why Aristotle’s analysis of the views of his
predecessors is both invaluable and unreliable.
         b. Summarize his objections to Plato’s Theory of Forms.
         c. Describe the four types of change Aristotle distinguishes and
the three elements that exist.
         d. Explain Aristotle’s entelechy doctrine in terms of
potentiality and actuality.
         e. Explain Aristotle’s argument for the existence of a prime
mover.
      4. On the Soul
         a. Distinguish the three types of souls Aristotle identifies.
         b. Explain the powers of the human soul in terms of these types
of souls.
         c. Explain how Aristotle ties reflection and knowledge to his
form-in-matter doctrine.
      5. Ethics
         a. Explain how Aristotle’s definition of the good is a result
of his empirical thesis on happiness and his metaphysical thesis on the
nature of humanity.
         b. Identify the two types of virtue he distinguishes and explain
how he believes each is acquired.
         c. Explain the role the mean plays in virtue for Aristotle and
how he believes it is to be determined. 
         d. Explain how his analysis of moral responsibility can be seen
as superior to Plato’s.
         e. Describe the general conditions Aristotle believes might be
morally excusing conditions for the responsibility of an act.
         f. Explain the influence Aristotle’s ethic has had on both
bio-ethics and natural law ethics.

III. Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy
   A. Conditions that changed philosophy.
      1. Describe the political and social conditions following the
break-up of the Alexandrian empire that caused the shift in philosophy to
an emphasis upon personal satisfaction.
   B. Cynicism
      1. Antisthenes
         a. Trace Antisthenes’ unconventional behavior to the example of
Socrates.
         b. Describe the key elements in Antisthenes’ ethic.
         c. Explain the basis for Antisthenes’ anti-intellectual
epistemology.
      2. Diogenes
         a. Illustrate how Diogenes carried out the message of his mentor
Antisthenes.
         b. Explain the claim that Diogenes was the second king of the
empire.
      3. Crates
         a. Describe the shift made in cynicism by Crates in his
interpretation of natural living.
   C. Skepticism
      1. Pyrrho
         a. Explain the claim that philosophical skepticism was originally
an ethical position using the concept of ataraxy.
         b. Identify the three things Phyrro believed the person who would
be happy ought to consider.
      2. Sextus Empiricus
         a. Describe the skeptics account of ‘the way things are’
according to Sextus.
         b. Explain the state of mind the skeptics strived to adopt and
how they proposed to achieve it.
         c. Identify the four things skeptics followed as operational
guides and the attitude they held toward them.
         d. Explain how the skeptics hoped to avoid the two main sources
of unhappiness.
   D. Hedonism
      1. Aristippus of Cyrene
         a. Trace Aristippus’ hedonism to the influence of Socrates.
         b. Explain the basis for Aristippus’ sensationalism and the
consequences this had for social conventions and theoretical knowledge.
         c. Explain why Aristippus’ view of pleasure requires him to
regard the neutral state of quietude as undesirable.
      2. Epicurus and Lucretius
         a. Explain why Epicurus was disinterested in science and
mathematics but interested in metaphysics.
         b. Explain how Epicurus’ atomism avoided the main sources of
unhappiness in people.
         c. Explain how Epicurus avoided the determinism in Democritus’
atomism and the advantage in doing so.
         d. Explain how he used Plato to avoid the subjectivism of
Aristippus and the Sophists.
         e. Identify the three main positions Epicurus took on ethics and
explain the consequences of each.
         f. Explain how the walled garden makes an apposite metaphor for
Epicurus’ ethic.
   E. Stoicism
      1. Early Stoa: Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus
         a. Identify the ideas the Stoics borrowed from other philosophers
and philosophies in their eclectic position.
         b. Describe the Stoic account of reality and change.
         c. Explain how the Stoics responded to the two major problems
with their world view; the existence of evil and determinism.
         d. Explain how these solutions lead to an ethic based on control
of our desires and emotions.
      2. Roman Stoics
         a. Describe the main contribution of Roman stoicism from
Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius.
   F. Neoplatonism
      1. Plotinus
         a. Identify the elements from Plato’s philosophy that Plotinus
combined with monotheism.
         b. Explain how Plotinus’ metaphor of ‘emanation’ accounts
for creation of things in succession and thus the creation of time
itself.
         c. Describe Plotinus’ accounts of the nature of the human soul
and of matter.
         d. Explain how Plotinus accounts for the existence of evil.

Methods of Evaluation of Competencies:

Evaluation of student mastery of course competencies will be accomplished using the following methods:

A minimum of three essay exams which will constitute no less than 60%
of the student’s grade. Additional exams, papers, reports, projects, and
quizzes may be used at the instructors’ discretion to assess mastery of
the competencies and to facilitate achievement of the course
objectives.

Caveats: NONE

Disabilities:

If you are a student with a disability, and if you will be requesting accommodations, it is your responsibility to contact Access Services. Access Services will recommend any appropriate accommodations to your professor and his/her director. The professor and director will identify for you which accommodations will be arranged.

JCCC provides a range of services to allow persons with disabilities to participate in educational programs and activities. If you desire support services, contact the office of Access Services for Students With Disabilities (913) 469-8500, ext. 3521 or TDD (913) 469-3885. The Access Services office is located in the Success Center on the second floor of the Student Center.