Humanities 11500, section 9

Philosophical Perspectives

University of Chicago, autumn 2004

Course Instructor: Jason Bridges

Office hours: Thursday, 10:00-11:30am, Wieboldt 125

Writing Intern: Daniel Groll

Office hours TBA

Readings

Most of the course readings are drawn from the following books, available for purchase at the Seminary Coop Bookstore (in the basement of 5757 University Ave.):

The Iliad of Homer, translated by Lattimore (University of Chicago Press)

            Sophocles, The Theban Plays, translated by Woodruff and Meineck (Hackett Publishing)

            Sophocles, Sophocles II, edited by David Grene (University of Chicago Press)

            Plato, Five Dialogues, translated by Grube (Hackett Publishing)

            Plato, Protagoras, translated by Lombardo and Bell (Hackett Publishing)

            Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Ross, Akrill and Urmson (Oxford University Press)

All of these books are fairly inexpensive. 

There are numerous translations in print of each of the texts we will discuss.  Make sure you use the translations found in the books listed above.

The remaining course readings are collected in a reading packet, available for purchase at the Humanities Copy Center (on the first floor of the Classics building, which is in the southwest corner of the main quad). 

Course Requirements

First paper:       3 pages         due Oct. 20^th in class                      worth 25% of course grade

Second paper:  5 pages         due Nov. 15^th in class                     worth 30%

Final paper:      7 pages         due Dec. 8^th in Professor Bridges’   worth 35%

                                             teaching box in Classics 17

The remaining 10% of the course grade will be based on class participation.

Further notes:

1. Late papers will be docked a grade per day (e.g., B+ to B) unless you have received approval ahead of time from one of the course instructors.

2. No papers will be accepted after December 8^th.

3. There will be a few additional short writing assignments throughout the course.  Their purpose is to facilitate class discussion, and they will not be graded.

4. Regular attendance in class is required.  Students are also required to attend writing seminars organized by the writing intern.

5. There is no final exam.

Schedule of Topics

Part I: Introduction

Meeting	Topic	Reading
1	Course overview
2	A contemporary perspective: the subversion of moral responsibility	Nagel, “Moral Luck”

Part II: The psychology of the Iliad

3	Homer’s Iliad: background and content	Iliad, books 1-4, 6, 8, 9
4	Did the Homeric Greeks lack the very idea of human agency?	Iliad, books 11, 16, 18, 19, 22 Snell, excerpts from The Discovery of the Mind
5	Did the Homeric Greeks ignore intentions?	Iliad, book 24 Adkins, excerpts from Merit and Responsibility and From the Many to the One

Part III: Responsibility and the tragedies

6	Greek tragedy and Oedipus Tyrannus	Oedipus Tyrannus
7	Responsibility in the absence of fault	Oedipus at Colonus
8	Responsibility and sanity	Ajax
9	Assigning responsibility	Antiphon, Second Tetralogy
10	A contemporary perspective: Is responsibility a factual matter at all?	Korsgaard, “Creating the Kingdom of Ends”

Part IV: Plato on piety and virtue

11	Socrates’ search for the nature of piety	Euthyphro
12	Socrates’ view of himself	Apology, Phaedo 115a-end
13	Virtue as knowledge	Meno
14	Weakness of the will	Protagoras

Part V: Aristotle on motivation

15	A modern perspective: the authority of desire	Hume, excerpt from A Treatise of Human Nature
16	Virtue and practical wisdom	Selections from books 2 and 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics
17	Weakness of the will revisited	Selections from book 7 of the Ethics
18	Taking stock	(no reading)