Syllabus -- PHIL 375 Ancient Greek Philosophy Spring Semester 2017
Professor Tom Atchison
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 3:00-5:00 and by appointment
Office: 320 St. John’s Hall (St. Paul Campus)
Phone: 651-793-1493 (seldom answered)
Email: Thomas.Atchison@metrostate.edu
(email is the best way to get in touch with me)
Course Objectives
Competence Statement
Students are acquainted with some of the philosophical views of selected philosophers of the ancient period, are able to analyze and criticize interpretations of those thinkers, and can begin (at least) to assess their views.
Course Materials
Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy, edited by S. Marc Cohen, Patricia Curd, and C.D.C. Reeve
The Dream of Reason, by Anthony Gottlieb
The Therapy of Desire, Martha Nussbaum
Other texts will be made available onlline or passed out in class.
Please make sure your Metro State Email account is working and check regularly for class related emails.
Course Description
The philosophers of the ancient period invented philosophy (as well as most of the other subjects studied in modern universities) and began a conversation that is still going on 2500 years later. (Alfred North Whitehead wrote, in his great work Process and Reality, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”) These thinkers raised issues and formulated questions that have been sharpened and sometimes transformed over the centuries, but have never been completely resolved – nor, despite the efforts of some subsequent philosophers, have those questions been abandoned. How shall we live? What can we know? What is real and what mere appearance? What is the best form of political organization? What happens to us when we die?
Our first job will be simply to (try to) understand the discussions of these questions provided in their works. But I also want students to work on developing their own views about these issues and on articulating reasoned defenses of their opinions.
Conduct of the Course
Class time will be devoted largely to discussion, some in small groups, some all together. I will occasionally lecture, more often I will answer questions as they come up in discussion, and even more often I will try to help you figure out how to answer your questions yourself.
Much of our discussion will focus on understanding and evaluating the texts. This will work well only if you have done the assigned reading carefully -- often twice or three times -- and given it some thought. In philosophy we are interested not in the information that can be extracted from a text, nor simply in the conclusions or opinions that an author expresses; we are primarily interested in understanding and assessing the reasoning that an author uses to try to establish or support those conclusions. This requires a very careful sort of reading.
The point of reading these texts is not only to understand what some great minds have produced. A guided tour through the Museum of Great Ideas is a very good thing, but not the best thing that philosophy has to offer. Better is the opportunity to learn to think for yourself. The readings provide models of careful and/or creative thinking, challenges to our prejudices and assumptions, and starting points for our own reflections. But the only way to learn to philosophize is to enter the conversation yourself. In this way a course in philosophy is more like a course in drawing or sculpture -- a studio art course -- than like a course in art history or art appreciation. You can’t learn to draw by just watching other people draw, and you can’t learn to do philosophy by just listening and reading. You have to express your views and expose them to other people’s critical reactions.
Assignments and Grading
Reading assignments
I expect you to find time (several hours) to do the reading for each class and to come prepared to discuss it. Come to class ready to say what you found interesting, what you found confusing, questionable, or just plain wrong, what seemed to you to be the most important claims made, and what arguments or justifications were offered for those claims. Expect that you will need to read the assignments more than once to understand them adequately, and plan your time accordingly.
Reading response papers
20 % of your grade will be earned by submitting brief (a page or two, typed, double-spaced) responses to the readings for each class. These must be turned in at (or emailed by) the beginning of the class period to be counted. (If you must miss class, send in your response paper by e-mail.) They can contain questions, objections, observations and/or reactions to the reading for that class. I will not grade these, but I will reject any that do not seem to be based on a reasonably conscientious reading of the assignment for that week. You can miss one of these and still earn an ‘A’ for this part of the course work, but missing more will be penalized on the following schedule: 85% completed = A; 70% = B; 60% = C; 50% = D; less than 50% = F. I will also notice and reward particularly perceptive or thoughtful response papers.
Class discussion
20% of your grade will also be determined by my evaluation of the quality of your participation in class discussions. Just showing up and paying attention earns a C for this component; occasionally making helpful contributions earns a B; regularly making helpful contributions earns an A. Helpful contributions include: asking pertinent questions, answering questions asked by the instructor or by other students, expressing your views about the texts or topics we are discussing, responding (relevantly and respectfully) to the views expressed by others.
Position Papers
You will be asked to write 3 short (4-6 page) papers explaining and supporting your position on an interpretive or substantive question arising from one or more of the texts we study. I will provide topics for you to choose from. Each paper will count for 20% of your grade. Please keep copies of all the work you hand in.
Note: I try hard to base my evaluation of your work on your understanding of the reading, the quality of your reasoning and questioning, and the clarity and effectiveness of your expression of your thoughts, not on whether I agree with your philosophical theories, ideas, or opinions.
Needed reading and writing skills
Although there are no prerequisites for this course, it is an upper-division course. This means I assume you have the following reading and writing skills, and assignments are made with this expectation in mind:
Please consider carefully whether your reading and writing skills are at the level needed to succeed in this class, before it is too late to drop it.
Time commitment outside of class
In accordance with Metropolitan State University guidelines, I've designed this course with the expectation that a reasonably well-prepared student will do 2-3 hours of course-related work outside of class for every hour spent in class. In other words, you should expect to spend 6-9 hours a week outside of class working on this course. If your English language fluency or your reading and writing skills are not at the level described above, you may need to put in a lot more time than this. Please consider carefully whether you have enough time available to devote to this class before it is too late to drop it.
Attendance
I do not require attendance per se, but part of your grade is determined by your participation in class discussion. I strongly advise regular attendance because the material in this course is relatively difficult and confusing, and few students are able to do well on the exams and papers without the explanations and practice provided in class.
Late work
Response papers must be turned in at (or before) the beginning of class to receive full credit. Late response papers will receive half credit. In fairness to students who turn their position papers in on time, I will subtract one grade (e.g., B+ to B) for each day that a position paper is late.
Incompletes
I will give incomplete grades only to students who have satisfactorily completed most of the course work and who are unable to finish on time because of circumstances beyond their control.
Plagiarism
All work submitted for this course must be your own. Plagiarism is the academic ‘sin’ of presenting someone else’s work as your own. It is plagiarism if you copy something verbatim (word for word) from a published source, from the Internet, or from another student. It is still plagiarism if you rearrange, paraphrase, condense, or summarize someone else’s work without making clear to your reader what is your contribution and what is taken from your source. If the exact wording comes from your source, then use quotation marks. If the idea comes from someone else, give him or her credit for it. The way to do this is to cite your sources. There is a clear and detailed explanation of various forms of plagiarism and of proper citation practices at http://cmsw.mit.edu/writing-and-communication-center/avoiding-plagiarism. I will give a grade of ‘F’ to any student who submits plagiarized work for this course.
Drop and withdrawal dates:
The last day to drop courses without penalty (you get your money back and nothing appears on your transcript) is Sunday, January 15. Withdrawing from courses after the drop deadline will result in a ‘W’ on your record and no tuition refund. My advice is to determine quickly whether or not this is the right course for you and to drop before that deadline (just a few days away) if it is not.
The last day to withdraw from spring semester classes is April 10. If you wait until after that date to withdraw and you don’t finish the class, you will end up with an ‘F’ on your transcript.