PHIL 301: SPRING 2008 -- ASSIGNMENTS

For 1/30: Philosophy and Arguments, contned

For 2/4: QUIZ ON LOGIC AND ARGUMENTS + Introduction to Ancient Philosophy

NO CLASS ON 2/6

For 2/11 Topics and Readings to be announced

For 2/13 LIBRARY INSTRUCTION

For 2/18 Socrates' definition of philosophy

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Symposium (p.282) + Introduction to Plato by Cohen (p.89)
  2. Platon, Theatetus, excerpt
• Study questions:
  1. How do we know what we know about Socrates? Did Socrates ever write anything?
  2. Look closely at Alcibiades' portrait of Socrates: to what does he compare Socrates? Why?
  3. Explain why Socrates rejected Alcibiades.
  4. Explain why Socrates compares himself to a midwife.
  5. Explain in what sense the philosopher cannot be wise while still being the wisest of all men.

For 2/20 Socrates' method of definition

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Euthyphro (p.97)
• Study questions:
  1. What are the characteristics of a good definition according to Socrates?
  2. What are the three definitions of piety that Euthyphro proposes?
  3. What is the structure of the refutation of Euthyphro's definition in 9e (the pious is what all the gods love)?
  4. What is Socrates' view on piety (12d)? Does he fully articulate this view?

For 2/25 Socrates' ethics

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Apology (p.115)
• Study questions:
  1. What are the charges against Socrates?
  2. What are the rules of discourse that Socrates wants to follow? How does it differ from the usual speeches in a court room?
  3. What is his strategy of defense? Do you think his way of defending himself are likely to be successful? Why? Why not?
  4. What are the main ideals that Socrates defends in his speech?

For 2/27 Plato: Introduction

• Readings:
  1. Plato, The Seventh Letter
• Study questions:
  1. What sort of carrier had Plato planned on doing at first? Why did he changed his mind? Did he retire entirely from politics?
  2. Explain how Plato's plans to make Syracuse a better place failed
  3. What does Plato think about writing philosophy? Why?
  4. What does Plato's ideas about writing philosophy imply about the dialogues?

3/3 PEER REVIEW: come in class with a full draft of your paper. You must also send your draft to me by email. Failure to come and participate to the peer review will result in your final grade being lowered by one letter grade.

For 3/5 Plato: Challenge to Justice

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Republic I-II (stop at 368d in the official numbering, that is middle of the p. 369 in RAGP)
• Study questions:
  1. What are the definitions of justice that Cephalus and Polemarchus give? Why aren't they satisfactory accroding to Socrates?
  2. Why does Thrasimachus think that the tyrant is the happiest of all men? What does Socrates answer to him?
  3. Glaucon gives a long speech about the origin and the nature of justice? What are his main points?
  4. Adeimantus adds to Glaucon's speech: what are his main points?

For 3/10 Plato: Challenge to Justice -- continued

PAPER DUE

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Republic I-II (stop at 368d in the official numbering, that is middle of the p. 369 in RAGP)
• Study questions:
  1. Glaucon gives a long speech about the origin and the nature of justice? What are his main points?
  2. Adeimantus adds to Glaucon's speech: what are his main points?
  3. Do you think that moral values are conventional?

For 3/12 Plato: Ethics

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Republic IV
  2. Summary of Book II and III
• Study questions:
  1. Socrates claims that in the ideals city, private property should be forbidden to the guardians (the rulers and warriors). What is his argument for this?
  2. What is Socrates' argument in favor of the thesis that the appetitive principle and the rational principle are separated?
  3. What are wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice in the city?
  4. What are wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice in the individual soul?

For 3/24 Plato: Forms, Introduction

• Readings:
  1. Article "Universals" on the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. Not mandatory, but an excellent reference for the remaining of the course on Plato: Article "Plato's Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology" on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Study questions:
  1. With what kind of beings are universals generally contrasted?
  2. What problem is supposed to be solved by postulating the existence of universals?
  3. What new problems arise from the postulation of the existence of universals?
  4. What are the possible alternatives?

For 3/26 Plato: The Doctrine of Recollection

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Meno 80a - 86c (pp. 211-216 in RAPG)
• Study questions:
  1. Explain the paradox of inquiry that Meno formulates in 80 d. Do you think it is a fair concern about Socrates' method of inquiry?
  2. Explain the doctrine that knowledge is mere recollection. Does it answer the paradox of inquiry?
  3. Explain what experiment Socrates does with the slave boy. What is the experiment supposed to show? Does it achieve its goal?
  4. Draw the figures on which Socrates and the slave boy are working on. Put the sheet in my mailbox (Siegel Hall 218) on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning before 8am.

PROSPECTUS FOR SECOND PAPER DUE ON SATURDAY, MARCH 29 BEFORE MIDNIGHT (BY EMAIL)

For 3/31 Plato: Phaedo, Argument from imperfection

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Phaedo until 77a (pp. 229-247 in RAPG)
• Study questions:
  1. Why does the true philosopher gladly accept upcoming death? Explain the argument in 63e-68b
  2. Give an outline of the argument for immortality in 74-77. Explain how this argument can be said to be "hypothetical".
  3. The argument in 74-76 for the immortality of the soul contains an argument for the existence of the forms in 74b-e. Try to reconstruct the argument. Is there any move(s)in the argument of 74-77 to which you could object?
  4. In 65c, Plato claims that the senses are an obstacle to our good reasoning. In 74b, however, he claims that we learn about the forms from sensible experience. How do you think these two seemingly contradictory claims stand together in Plato's view?

For 4/2 Plato: Argument from knowledge

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Republic, Book V, 473d-end (pp. 469-476 in RAPG) and Phaedo, 77a-84c, (pp. 247-254 in RAPG) and 95e-102a (264-268 RAPG)
• Study questions:
  1. Republic: Explain how Plato argues that there can be no knowledge unless the non-sensible forms exist.
  2. Republic: Why can't we gain knowledge of the sensible things?
  3. Phaedo: Gives the characteristics that Plato attributes to the sensible things and to the forms, respectively.
  4. Phaedo: Explain why Socrate does not find the Presocratics' account of the world satisfactory? What does he call a "true cause"?

For 4/7 CLASS CANCELLED

4/9 PEER REVIEW -- To come to the peer review with a full draft of your paper is mandatory

For 4/14 Plato: Sun, Line and Cave

• Readings:
  1. Plato, Republic, Book VI and VII
• Study questions:
  1. Why is it crucial for the guardians to learn about the form of the good?
  2. Draw a table with the different elements of correspondence in the analogy between the sun and the good.
  3. Draw the line with, in each section, the proper kind of object and the corresponding condition of the soul.
  4. What are the two characteristics of thought (third section of the line: 510b-511a)
  5. What are the four stages in the cave? How do they correspond to the sections of the divided line?

For 4/16 Aristotle: Introduction

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Metaphysics Book I, chap. 1-4, 6, and excerpts of 9, pp 758-771 in RAPG
• Study questions:
  1. What are the steps from sensations to knowledge according to Aristotle?
  2. Explain why philosophy is the least necessary and the most excellent science according to Aristotle?
  3. What is unsatisfying about the accounts of the world by the Pre-socratics? What dialogue by Plato does this idea remind you of?
  4. What is unsatisfying about the accounts of motion and change by the Presocratics?
  5. What is Aristotle's view on Plato's forms? What are his arguments?

For 4/21 Aristotle: Introduction

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Metaphysics Book I, chap. 1-4, 6, and excerpts of 9, pp 758-771 in RAPG
• Study questions:
  1. What are the steps from sensations to knowledge according to Aristotle?
  2. Explain why philosophy is the least necessary and the most excellent science according to Aristotle?
  3. What is unsatisfying about the accounts of the world by the Pre-socratics? What dialogue by Plato does this idea remind you of?
  4. What is unsatisfying about the accounts of motion and change by the Presocratics?
  5. What is Aristotle's view on Plato's forms? What are his arguments?

For 4/23 Aristotle: Predication, Ontology and Change

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Categories Book I, chap.2 and 5 until 2b6, pp 657 and 658-659 in RAPG
  2. Aristotle, Physics Book I, pp. 694-702
• Study questions:
  1. What is a subject? what is a predicate?
  2. Give examples of a predicate P which can "be said of" a subject S
  3. Give examples of a predicate P which can "be present in" in subject S
  4. How does Aristotle define "substances" in chap. 5 of Book I of the Categories? How does he define a substance in the Physics 190b?
  5. Explain, with Aritotle's example in the Physics, the thesis that change occurs between contraries
  6. Explain Aristotle's thesis that:"In every case there must be some subject that comes to be something" (190a15) with the example of the musical/unmusical man
  7. To what does Aristotle identify the "primary subject" remaining the same under change around 192a30?

For 4/28 Aristotle: Change

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Physics Book I, pp. 694-702
• Study questions:
  1. Explain, with Aritotle's example in the Physics, the thesis that change occurs between contraries
  2. Explain Aristotle's thesis that:"In every case there must be some subject that comes to be something" (190a15) with the example of the musical/unmusical man
  3. To what does Aristotle identify the "primary subject" remaining the same under change around 192a30?

For 4/30 Aristotle: Nature and Causes

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Physics Book II, 1-3 pp. 702-709
• Study questions:
  1. How does Aristotle define a natural object? Contrast with an artifact.
  2. Explain in what sense a statue made of stone falling down on the ground is and/or is not a natural movement (until 193a)
  3. Explain the argument in favor of the thesis that ``the nature and substance of a natural thing" is the matter (1.193a10-30).
  4. Explain the argument in favor of the thesis that form is the nature and substance of natural thing (1.193a30-193b6)
  5. How does a mathematician study an apple? How would the ancient materialists study an apple? How should the natural scientist study the apple, according to Aristotle? (book 2)
  6. What are the four kind of causes that Aristotle distinguishes in book 3?

For 5/5 Aristotle: The function argument and Happiness

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics Book I, pp. 832-845
• Study questions:
  1. Among the ends of our decision and action, why is the more important according to Aristotle:
     1. the product of an activity
     2. the activity leading to a product
     3. the one which is looked for itself
     4. the one that has the best consequences
     5. the one that obey the rules of virtuous action
  2. Who can learn about ethical values and actions?
     1. a kid who was not yet perverted by the bad custom of the corrupted society of men
     2. a young who has gone through his education in mathematics and natural sciences
     3. a person who wants to act rationally because he finds that following his feelings is not satisfactory
     4. a person who already knows what it is to be virtuous
  3. Which is/are true?
     1. Being healthy, wealthy and honored makes you happy.
     2. You can still be happy, being sick, poor and dishonored.
     3. happiness is not what counts the most, virtue is.
     4. happiness is always looked for itself.
     5. virtue is always looked for itself.
  4. The highest good for humans is:
     1. to act virtuously
     2. to act rationally with virtue
     3. to act virtuously with reason
     4. to act rationally
  5. What is the proper method in ethical or political science according to Aristotle?
     1. Once we have decided to act according to our reason, we should investigate ethical matters without trying to found knowledge on pure reasoning.
     2. In experiencing what actions generally have the best consequences, we can determine what is the best to do, according to the circumstances
     3. Searching and learning about the true nature and origin of the good, we can deduce what is a good life
     4. Follow the lessons of the great actions of our greatest ancestors

For 5/7 Aristotle: Virtue: The Theory of the Mean

• Readings:
  1. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics Book II, pp. 845-852
• Study questions:
  1. appetites and desires:
     (a) correspond to the irrational part of the soul
     (b) correspond to the rational part of the soul
     (c) correspond to the rational part of the soul that has not reason within itself
     (d) correspond to the irrational part of the soul that interacts with the rational part of the soul

  2. For Aristotle, human beings are:
     (a) virtuous or vicious according to the habits they took from their education
     (b) vicious naturally, but constrained by authoritative education according to human education
     (c) virtuous naturally, but perverted by their interacting with other human beings
     (d) neither vicious nor virtuous naturally, but have the disposition to become virtuous

  3. Virtuous action:
     (a) is an action that arises from the true knowledge of the good
     (b) can be vicious in other circumstances
     (c) cannot be defined in general at all
     (d) is the right mean between two types of vicious actions

  4. Pleasure and feelings:
     (a) comes naturally with virtuous action in the virtuous person
     (b) cannot be avoided and are a necessary part of virtuous actions
     (c) should be restrained in every circumstances by the virtuous person
     (d) are always an obstacle to the practice of true virtue

  5. What do you think is or are true for Aristotle?
     (a) Being angry is always bad
     (b) Being envious is always bad
     (c) Bad and good generally depends on the circumstances