PHI2113 History of Western Philosophy: Ancient Greek Philosophy
Course Outline
CONTACT INFORMATION
Lecturer: Dr. TAM Ka Hung, Thomas
Office: HSH221
Tel:
26167478
Email: tamkh@ln.edu.hk
Office Hours
Mon. 12:00-12:00
Tues. 12:30-14:00
Wed. 13:30-14:30
Fri.
12:30-15:00
COURSE CONTENT
1
Topics and Readings
The Ionians: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes
Reading:
Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. II
& III.
2
The Pythagoreans
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. IV.
3
Heraclitus
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. V.
4
Parmenides and Zeno
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. VI.
5
Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. VIII, IX, X
& XVI.
6
Socrates and the Sophists
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. XII, XIII &
XIV.
7
Plato’s Metaphysics – the Allegory of the Cave
i. The sensible and the supersensible world
ii. Plato’s conception of truth
iii. Eidos or idea as the meaning of Being
Reading:
Plato, Republic, 514a-517a.
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. XIX.
8
Plato’s Metaphysics (cont.) – the Divided Line
i. The divisions of knowledge: Knowledge and opinion
ii. The image-original structure in Plato’s metaphysics
Reading:
Plato, Republic, 509d-511d.
9
Plato’s Metaphysics (cont.) – the Analogy of the Sun
i. The place of the Good in Plato’s metaphysics
ii. Being, truth and the Good
iii. The Good and the One
Reading:
Plato, Republic, 507b-509a.
10
Plato’s Theory of Knowledge – Knowledge and Recollection
i. Demonstration of recollection in Meno
ii. Theory of recollection in Phaedo
iii. Eros and recollection in Phaedrus
iv. Eros and philosophy in Symposium
Reading:
Plato. Meno, 80d-86c.
Plato. Phaedo, 72e-77a.
Plato. Phaedrus, 245c-257a.
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. XX.
11
Aristotle’s Metaphysics
i. Metaphysics as the science of Being
ii. The meanings of “being” and the categories
iii. Being as substance
iv. First and second substance
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. XXIX.
12
Aristotle’s Physics
i. Change and motion
ii. Kinds of change
iii. The change of substance
iv. Form and matter
v. Potentiality (dunamis) and actuality (energeia)
vi. The meaning of “phusis”
vii. The four causes
Reading:
Copleston, F. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. Ch. XXX.
ASSESSMENT
Attendance, class participation and presentation (30%)
Term paper: 2000-2500 words (30%)
Final examination (40%)
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. explain the basic thoughts and ideas of individual Presocratic philosophers as well
as those of Plato and Aristotle.
2. understand the Greek origin of Western thinking as metaphysics.
3. understand the Greek origin of some of the basic vocabularies of Western
philosophy.
4. read philosophically the texts of Plato and Aristotle.
MEASUREMENT OF LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Students will do oral presentations on individual ancient Greek philosophers
basing on assigned readings. They are expected to understand the texts thoroughly,
to identify the issues and problems involved, to explain the concepts therein and to
reconstruct the arguments that lead to these problems and their solutions. They
should above all grasp the way of thinking of these philosophers.
2. Students will write an academic paper that demonstrates their knowledge of
ancient Greek philosophy learned from the lectures and their readings. They are
expected to argue cogently for their views and interpretations on a specific topic
of ancient Greek philosophy.
3. The final examination will assess students’ general understanding of the thoughts
and ideas of Greek philosophers, their mutual relationships, their historical
heritage and affinities, their similarities and differences. Students should be able to
trace the development of certain philosophical concepts over the period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Required Reading
Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy Vol. 1: Greece and Rome. New York:
Image Books, 1962. (Selected chapters)
References
Ackrill, J. L. Aristotle the Philosopher. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol 1 & 2. Ed. J. Barnes. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1984.
Barnes, Jonathan. Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Cahn, Steven M. ed. Classics of Western Philosophy, 5th edn. Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Company, 1999.
Höffe, Otfried. Aristotle, trans. C Salazar, New York: State University of New York
Press, 2003.
Irwin, Terence. Classical Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. Trans. M. Cowan.
Indiana: Gateway Editions, 1962.
Plato. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Eds. E. Hamilton & H. Cairns. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press,1989.
Sallis, John. Being and Logos: Reading the Platonic Dialogues, 3rd edn. Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1996.
Taylor, C. C. W. ed. Routledge History of Philosophy Vol. 1: From the Beginning to
Plato. London: Routledge, 1997.
Waterfield, Robin ed. & trans. The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
IMPORTANT NOTES
(1) Students are expected to spend a total of 9 hours (i.e. 3 hours of class contact and
6 hours of personal study) per week to achieve the course learning outcomes.
(2) Students shall be aware of the University regulations about dishonest practice in
course work, tests and examinations, and the possible consequences as stipulated
in the Regulations Governing University Examinations. In particular, plagiarism,
being a kind of dishonest practice, is “the presentation of another person’s work
without proper acknowledgement of the source, including exact phrases, or
summarised ideas, or even footnotes/citations, whether protected by copyright or
not, as the student’s own work”. Students are required to strictly follow university
regulations governing academic integrity and honesty.
(3) Students are required to submit writing assignment(s) using Turnitin.
(4) To enhance students’ understanding of plagiarism, a mini-course “Online Tutorial
on Plagiarism Awareness” is available on https://pla.ln.edu.hk/