Classical Traditions Courses
POLI SCI 101-6: Plato's Road to Resilience (Monoson)
This seminar will guide students in a slow, close reading of a globally significant text from Greek antiquity that has had nearly unparalleled cross-cultural and historical impact on a wide range of areas of human creativity — Plato's Republic. Well-known episodes in this text include the three parts of the soul, ship of state, allegory of the cave and the philosopher-ruler. We will pay special attention to the way its overarching argument about justice unfolds, to the account of links between democracy and tyranny and to the question of whether the discussion of a just soul and city resonates with the contemporary idea of resilience. We will also observe Plato's use of technology (i.e., writing) to conjure for his readers a virtual experience of dialectical inquiry. Requirements include regular, brief written responses and oral reports about the weekly reading and an individual final project on a passage of one’s own choosing. The course requires participation in synchronous seminars and private individual conferences. Recommended summer reading: Edith Hall, Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind. Required edition of the Republic: Cambridge University Press, edited by G R F Ferrari, translated by Tom Griffith.
PHIL 210: History of Ancient Philosophy (Marechal)
This course will introduce you to some of the greatest thinkers and movements of the ancient Greek world. We will focus on these thinkers’ conceptions of the human soul, the capacity for knowledge, the good life, their views on women, and their conceptions of social justice. We will discuss the views of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and examine their answers to enduring questions such as: What are the fundamental constituents of reality? What is knowledge, and how do we come to have it? How can we be happy? What makes for a just society? We will then move to the Hellenistic period and examine Epicurean and Stoic conceptions of how we should live our lives and why philosophy can help us flourish. Our emphasis will be on analyzing these philosophers’ views, and their reasons and arguments for holding these positions.ART HIST 319/HUM 370: Monsters, Art and Civilization (Gunter)
Griffins, sphinxes, demons, and other fabulous creatures appear frequently in the art of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Eastern Mediterranean world. They stand at the intersection of the normal and abnormal, the natural and unnatural. Why did these images become such favorite subjects for artistic representations, and what cultural functions did they serve? Can we connect their invention and dissemination with key moments in human history and cross-cultural interaction? What was the role of figurines and other material representations of the supernatural in preventing and healing disease? This course explores the supernatural subject in ancient art with new perspectives drawn from multiple disciplines, including art history, history, anthropology, and archaeology.
PHIL 420: Knowledge, Persuasion, and Power in Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Social and Critical Epistemology (Marechal)
This seminar will explore the ways in which epistemology and politics are inseparable for Ancient Greek thinkers. We will put in conversation Ancient texts concerning the relationship between knowledge, experience, persuasion, and power with contemporary texts on critical and social epistemology.
Our main ancient authors will be Plato and Aristotle. We will read substantial sections from Plato’s Apology, Meno, Gorgias, and Republic, as well as Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Politics. We will pair the ancient sources with texts by Elizabeth Anderson, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Audre Lorde, José Medina, Amia Srinivasaan, and others.