Course Schedule
Philosophy 300--Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Fall 2017
(revised 05 December 2017)

	I. The Presocratics
Aug. 28	Introduction: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Empedocles. (Bring Osborne’s Presocratic Philosophy [PP] to first class, having read ch.1: “Lost words, forgotten worlds.”)
Aug. 30	Parmenides (PP, ch.2) & Taber’s “Parmenides on Non-Being”
Sept. 1	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. 4	Labor Day
Sept. 6	Xenophanes, Melissus, Anaxagoras, and Democritus (PP, ch.4) Primo Levi’s “The Story of C” (handout) Heraclitus (PP, ch.5)
Sept. 8	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.” And Pythagoras’ “music of the spheres” has this contemporary counterpart.
Sept. 11	In-class review of material so far for the exam.
Sept. 13	The Sophists (PP, ch.7), as well as Rosenzweig’s “Being, Non-Being, and the Void” (handout)
Sept. 15	Exam (short-answer and essay) on the Presocratics; bank of questions will be circulated to you at least one week in advance.
Sept. 17	Sunday: Letter from a Presocratic due e-mailed to me by noon.
	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 & my “The Euthyphro Objection to the Divine Command Theory of Morality”
Sept. 20	Plato’s Crito, death scene from the Phaedo (from 114e to the end), and Stern’s “What They Learn in School” (handout)
Sept. 22	King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Sept. 24	Sunday: paper due emailed to me at noon about Socrates, King, and Malcolm X.
Sept. 25	Symposium through speech of Eryximachus
Sept. 27	Symposium through Socrates’ questioning of Agathon
Sept. 29	Symposium, remainder
Oct. 2	Paper due emailed to me by start of class. No class today, due to tutorials being scheduled.
Oct. 4	Republic II & test yourself here about the Euthyphro objection to the divine command theory of morality
Oct. 6	Republic IV & V
Oct. 9	Fall reading day; no classes.
Oct. 11	Republic VI & VII
Oct. 13	Republic VIII
Oct. 16	Republic IX
Oct. 18	Paper due emailed to me by start of class. No class today, due to tutorials being scheduled.
	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. 20	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. And for ALL of our Aristotle readings, consult as needed Taber’s reading notes.)
Oct. 22	Sunday: First lit review (on Presocratics, Socrates, or Plato) is due e-mailed to me by noon.
Oct. 23	Physics, remainder and Generation and Corruption, and chapters [handout] 51-58 of Armand Marie Leroi’s 2014 book The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science.
Oct. 25	De Anima, Books I & II
Oct. 27	De Anima III & Parts of Animals
Oct. 30	Metaphysics I and IV
Nov. 1	Metaphysics V & 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.)
Nov. 3	Metaphysics VIII-XIII
Nov. 6	Nicomachean Ethics I
Nov. 8	Nicomachean Ethics II
Nov. 10	review session on Aristotle thus far
Nov. 13	Nicomachean Ethics VI. 1-2, and VII-X
Nov. 15	Politics in Irwin & Fine, plus handouts consisting of Politics I.3-6 (on slavery) & VIII.1-2 (on education); a few pages about education from the Rhetoric (handout); Qvortrup’s “Aristotle’s Philosophy of Equality, Peace, and Democracy” (handout from Philosophy Now magazine, 2016); & Poetics (Irwin & Fine)
Nov. 17	Aristotle exam
	IV. Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy
Nov. 20	Diogenes the Cynic, excerpts (handout)
Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 26	Sunday:.
Nov. 27	Epicurus’ letter to Menoeceus (handout)
Nov. 29	Seneca’s letters 2-28, 38, 40, 41
Dec. 1	Seneca’s letters 47, 53, 54, 63, 77, 78, 83; second lit review (on Aristotle) is due e-mailed to me by 6:00 p.m.
Dec. 2-10	Stoic Week 2017!...keeping a Stoic journal
Dec. 4	Seneca’s letters 86, 88, 105, 107, 122, 123
Dec. 6	Plotinus excerpts (handout)
Dec. 8	No new reading; “Encomium Symposium” (see epideictic rhetoric, under “Aristotle”) & discussion of study questions for The Ultimate Celebration of Understanding.
Dec. 10	Sunday: Third lit review (on Hellenistic or Roman philosophy) is due e-mailed to me by noon.
Dec. 14	Thursday, three-hour Ultimate Celebration of Understanding (called by barbarians a “final essay examination,” 9:00-noon; bank of questions will be circulated to you at least one week in advance.

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