Introduction to the History of Philosophy
Autumn Term
Course Convenor Anthony Price
Lectures
The lectures for this module will be held in **, on Tuesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. in Terms 1
and 2. The lecturer in Term 1 is Anthony Price, the lecturer in Term 2 Sarah Patterson.
Seminars
The seminars for this module will be held in **, on Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. in Terms 1
and 2. These are led by graduate tutors.
Readings
Every week the first line of ‘essential reading’ forms the focus of the seminar discussion;
it is essential that you read that in advance of the lecture and seminar. In addition, we
offer a selection of ‘additional reading’. Attending to pieces of ‘additional reading’
through the two terms will deepen your understanding and help you to get the most out of
the module.
NB Recent books (and some older ones) published by Oxford University Press (OUP)
are often accessible electronically through Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO). All
articles listed below are accessible electronically through J-store (or similar sites).
You may access all these through Birkbeck eLibrary (http://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/elib/).
Assessment
This module is assessed by a two-hour examination in Term 3. The exam falls into two
parts, one relating to Term 1, the other to Term 2; you will have to answer one question
within each part.
Essays
You should write at least two essays during each term of the course, taken from the titles
below, and receive feedback on them from your seminar leader. This is the best way of
getting into the material yourself (as well as the best way of preparing for examination).
Within each term, you should submit the first essay by the first seminar after reading
week, and the second by one week after the last seminar of term. [Notes: (1) You are
always welcome to submit an essay earlier than these dates; (2) the seminar leader should
not be expected to comment on the same essay more than once.]
Term 1, Weeks 1-5.
In these lectures we shall look at alternative views of the nature of justice, and of
virtue in general, to be found in Plato’s Republic, Books 1-2, Stephanus pages
(usually indicated in the margin) 336b-367e, and his Protagoras.
Week 1, Thrasymachus against Justice
Essential Reading:
• Plato, Republic, Book 1, Stephanus pages (given in the margin of most
translations) 336b-354b (many good translations; the most reader-friendly in
presentation is the Penguin translation, now with additional
matter by Melissa Lane, by Desmond Lee)
Additional Reading:
• T. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics (OUP 1995), 174-80
• J. Annas, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic (OUP 1981), 34-58
• N. Pappas, Plato and the Republic (Routledge, 3rd edn 2013 – but previous edns
are fine), ch. 3, first part
• T.D.J. Chappell, ‘The Virtues of Thrasymachus’, Phronesis 38 (1993), 1-17
• R. Barney, ‘Callicles and Thrasymachus’ (2011), Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/callicles-thrasymachus/), §§ 2-3
Question:
Is Thrasymachus’ position coherent? Does Socrates refute it by sound arguments?
Week 2, Glaucon and Adeimantus on Justice as (at best) a Second Best
Essential Reading:
• Plato, Republic, Book 2, 357a-367e
Additional Reading:
• T. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics, 181-91
• N. Pappas, Plato and the Republic, ch. 3, second part
• C. Kirwan, ‘Glaucon’s Challenge’, Phronesis 10 (1965), 162-73
• R.E. Allen ‘The speech of Glaucon in Plato’s Republic’, Journal of the History of
Philosophy 25 (1987), 3-11
Question:
How successful is the contract theory presented by Glaucon in defining the nature,
and explaining the origin, of our concept of justice?
Week 3, Protagoras on Virtue
Essential Reading:
• Plato, Protagoras, 320d-328d (I recommend the translation by C.C.W Taylor,
published in OUP World’s Classics 1996, or in the Clarendon Plato Series with a
full commentary, 2nd edn 1991)
Additional Reading;
• T. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics, 79-80
• G.B. Kerferd, ‘Protagoras’ Doctrine of Justice and Virtue in the Protagoras of
Plato’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 73 (1953), 42-5
• M.C. Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness (CUP 1986), 100-6
Question:
How successful is Protagoras in offering an aetiology (account of the origin) of
human morality?
Week 4, Socrates on Acting against one’s Judgement
Essential Reading:
• Plato, Protagoras, 352a-357e
Additional Reading:
• T. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics, 83-4
• G. Santas, ‘Plato’s Protagoras and Explanations of Weakness’, Philosophical
Review 75 (1966), 3-33
• G. Vlastos, ‘Socrates on Acrasia’, Phoenix 23 (1969), 71-88
• M.C. Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, 113-17
• A.W. Price, Virtue and Reason in Plato and Aristotle (OUP 2011), pp. 253-69
Question:
Does Socrates succeed in proving that it is impossible for an agent consciously to
act against his own current judgment of how he should best act?
Week 5, Socrates on the Unity of the Virtues
Essential Reading:
• Plato, Protagoras 328d-334c, 358d-360e
Additional Reading:
• T. Irwin, Plato’s Ethics, 80-1, 84-5
• G. Vlastos, ‘The Unity of the Virtues in the Protagoras’, Review of Metaphysics
25 (1971/2), 415-58
• T. Penner, ‘The Unity of Virtue’, Philosophical Review 82 (1973), 35-68
• D. Devereux, ‘The Unity of the Virtues in Plato's Protagoras and Laches’,
Philosophical Review 101 (1992), 765–89
• A.W. Price, Virtue and Reason in Plato and Aristotle, pp. 86-100
Question
How successful is Socrates in grounding a thesis that it is impossible to possess
one virtue without possessing all the others?
Term 1, Weeks 6-10.
In these lectures we shall look at a selection of topics from Aristotle’s Nicomachean
Ethics. (Any translation is fine, but W.D. Ross in the Oxford World’s Classics series,
with an introduction by L. Brown, 2009, is recommended. Ross’s translation is also
available online at e.g. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html [sic])
Week 6, Aristotle on eudaimonia (acting and living well)
Essential Reading:
 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, chs 1-5, 8-12
Additional Reading:
 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics (Blackwell 1988), ch. 1
 M. Pakaluk, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (CUP 2005), ch. 2
 J.L. Ackrill, ‘Aristotle on eudaimonia’, Proceedings of the British Academy 60
(1974), 339-59; repr. in A.O. Rorty ed., Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics (California
1980), 15-33
 A.W. Price, ‘Eudaimonism and Egocentricity’, The Harvard Review of
Philosophy 19 (2013), 84-95 (accessible through my site at academia.edu)
Question
Can Aristotle make out a claim that the agent’s eudaimonia is the final goal of all
his or her actions? If so, are we all self-centred?
Week 7, Aristotle’s Function Argument
Essential Reading:
 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, chs 7, 13
Additional Reading:
 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics, pp. 19-22
 M. Pakaluk, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, pp. 74-82
 K.V. Wilkes, ‘The Good Man and the Good for Man in Aristotle’s Ethics’,
Mind 87 (1978), 553-71; repr. in Rorty ed., Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics, 341-57
 Korsgaard, C., ‘Aristotle’s Function Argument’, in her The Constitution of
Agency (OUP 2008), 129-50
Question
Does man have a function? Supposing that he does, to what extent can it help to
define the human good?
Week 8, Aristotle on virtue of character
Essential Reading:
 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2
Additional Reading:
 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics, ch. 2
 M. Pakaluk, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, ch. 3
 J.O. Urmson, ‘Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean’, American Philosophical
Quarterly 10 (1973), 223-30
 R. Hursthouse, ‘A False Doctrine of the Mean’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian
Society 81 (1980/1), 57-72
Question:
How can we best make sense of Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean?
Week 9, Aristotle on responsibility
Essential Reading:
 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2, chs 1, 5
Additional Reading:
 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics, pp. 42-9, 59-61
 M. Pakaluk, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, pp. 119-29, 143-9
 S.S. Meyer, Aristotle on Moral Responsibility (OUP 2011), chs 4-5
Question
What, in Aristotle’s view, can make agents not responsible for what they do?
Week 10, Aristotle on the Ideal Life
Essential Reading:
 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 10, chs 6-9
Additional Reading:
 J. O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics, ch. 10
 M. Pakaluk, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, ch. 11
 A.W. Price, Virtue and Reason in Plato and Aristotle, pp. 69-80
 G. Lawrence, ‘Aristotle and the Ideal Life’, Philosophical Review 102 (1993),
1-34
Question
Can Aristotle establish that the best human life is intellectual? Where does this
leave the claims of the ethical life?