Greek Philosophy (PHIL20040)

Is justice the guiding ideal of human action? Or a weapon the powerful use against the weak? Does democracy work, or should we leave government to experts? What is change: is the seed the same as the tree that grows from it? Is our world made up of objects and properties, or of processes and motions? These questions, and others, were subject to intense and profound investigation in the ancient Greek world. In PHIL20040, we join in this investigation alongside thinkers like Heraclitus and Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle. We will learn to interpret their works using philosophical analysis, and understand the context of their philosophy using historical and sociological analysis.

The subject is divided into three units. In Weeks 1–3, we look at the emergence of Greek philosophy in the sixth century BCE. We’ll compare intellectual professionals in the Aegean to those in other regions of Afroeurasia, and study the thought of some important Presocratic figures. In Weeks 4–7, we will undertake a study of Plato’s metaphysics, epistemology, and moral philosophy, through a careful and comprehensive reading of his Republic. In Weeks 8–12, we’ll turn to Aristotle, looking especially at his natural philosophy and theory of human behaviour in the Physics and Nicomachean Ethics.