Course Schedule
Philosophy 300--Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Fall 2015
(revised 20 November 2015)

	I. The Presocratics
Aug. 31	Introduction: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Empedocles. (Bring Osborne’s Presocratic Philosophy [PP] to first class, having read ch.1: “Lost words, forgotten worlds.”)
Sept. 2	Parmenides (PP, ch.2) & Taber’s “Parmenides on Non-Being”
Sept. 4	Zeno of Elea (PP, ch.3) & Taber’s “On Overtaking Zeno’s Dichotomy and Achilles Paradoxes” & related handouts; if you want more details about him and his paradoxes, see the SEP entry on Zeno of Elea.
Sept. 7	Labor Day
Sept. 9	Xenophanes, Melissus, Anaxagoras, and Democritus (PP, ch.4) Primo Levi’s “The Story of C” (handout) Heraclitus (PP, ch.5)
Sept. 11	Pythagoras (PP, ch.6) Also: Sacks’s “The Twins”; Johnson’s “From Here to Infinity: Obsessing with the Magic of Primes”; Suplee’s “Team’s Model Demonstrates How Evolution Obeys Mathematical Laws”; more on the three-quarters power law (= Kleiber’s law) Skim this enough to see some other ways biologists uncover mathematical relationships. Even the sizes of cities get in on the Pythagorean fun: Strogatz’s guest blog “Math and the City”;
Sept. 14	The Sophists (PP, ch.7) more on Parmenides: Rosenzweig’s “Being, Non-Being, and the Void” (handout)
Sept. 16	Exam (short-answer and essay) on the Presocratics; study questions will be circulated to you at least one week in advance.
	II. Socrates & Plato (These are linked to excellent sources, but they exceed in detail what is needed for this course.)
Sept. 18	Plato’s Apology and Stern’s “What They Learn in School” (handout)
Sept. 19	Saturday: Letter from a Presocratic due e-mailed to me by noon.
Sept. 21	Plato’s Crito and death scene from the Phaedo (from 114e to the end) Q&A for Socrates due e-mailed to me by start of class.
Sept. 23	Plato’s Meno to 86c & Wordsworth’s “Ode on Intimations of Immortality”
Sept. 25	remainder of Meno
Sept. 28	Paper due at noon; no class today, due to tutorials being held.
Sept. 30	Plato’s Republic I
Oct. 2	Republic II & III
Oct. 5	Republic IV & V
Oct. 7	Republic VI & VII
Oct. 9	Republic VIII-X, Symposium 210a-212b, & Phaedrus 253c-257a
Oct. 12	Fall reading day; no classes.
Oct. 14	Second paper due at noon; no class scheduled, due to tutorials being held.
	III. Aristotle (Again, an excellent overview, but reading all of it carefully is more than is required for this course. Sparknotes has overviews of Aristotle; they are too brief to be of sustained help, but might help you orient yourself to the flow of some of his discussions.)
Oct. 16	No new reading. Bring Plato and Aristotle books. Refresh yourself on the two pages of Plato’s Symposium from above.
Oct. 18	Sunday: First lit review (on Presocratics, Socrates, or Plato) is due e-mailed to me by noon.
Oct. 19	Physics I & II.1-2 (so pp. 36-47) (In conjunction with Physics II, you might look over University of Houston’s Professor Cynthia Freeland’s outline.)
Oct. 21	Physics, remainder and Generation and Corruption [27 pp.]
Oct. 23	De Anima, Books I & II [19 pp.]; consult as needed Taber’s “Reading Notes on Aristotle’s De Anima.”
Oct. 26	De Anima III & Parts of Animals [18 pp.]
Oct. 28	Metaphysics I [14 pp.]; work through Categories 1-5 in class.
Oct. 30	Metaphysics IV and V [22 pp.]
Nov. 2	Metaphysics VII (Book VII, also called Z, or Zeta, is generally considered the most difficult of the work. University of Washington’s Professor S. Marc Cohen has an outline that might help.) [25 pp.]
Nov. 4	Metaphysics VIII-XIII [21 pp.]
Nov. 6	Nicomachean Ethics I & II [32 pp.]
Nov. 9	Nicomachean Ethics VI. 1-2, and VII-X [34 pp.]
Nov. 11	Politics & Poetics [38 pp.] Plus handout consisting of Politics VIII.1-2.
Nov. 13	No new reading for today. Bring your Aristotle book.
Nov. 16	Aristotle exam
	IV. Hellenistic Philosophy
Nov. 18	Cynics’ excerpts and Epicurus’ “Letter to Menoeceus” (handouts)
Nov. 20	Seneca’s letters 2-28, 38, 40, 41
Nov. 23	Seneca’s letters 47, 53, 54, 63, 77, 78, 83, 86, 88, 105, 107, 122, 123
Nov. 25	Wednesday of Thanksgiving break: Letter from Seneca is due e-mailed to me by 5:00 p.m.
Thanksgiving Break
	V. Medieval Philosophy
Nov. 30	Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will, Book I (Dr. Tobias Hoffmann of Catholic University of America has an outline of Book I.) Second lit review (on Aristotle) is due e-mailed to me by class time.
Dec. 2	Book II (Fordham’s Professor Gyula Klima has an outline of Book II.) Letter to Seneca is due e-mailed to me by start of class.
Dec. 4	Book III
Dec. 7	Aquinas’ Five Ways (handout)
Dec. 9	Catherine of Siena (handout)
Dec. 11	No new reading; “Encomium Symposium” (see epideictic rhetoric, under “Aristotle”) & discussion of study questions for final examination.
Dec. 14	Monday, three-hour final examination, 9:00-noon; study questions will be circulated to you at least one week in advance.
Dec. 16	Third lit review (on a medieval thinker) is due e-mailed to me by noon.

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