PHI 231 Course Outline

Caption: The heading row descibes the categories of information about the course, while the row in the table body holds the course information itself.
Course Prefix	Course Number	Course Title	Lecture/Lab Hours	Credit Hours
PHI	231	History of Philosophy: Ancient and Medieval	3 Lecture/Demonstration Hours	3 Credit Hours

Course description

This course is only offered in the fall term.

Surveys the major figures and schools in Western philosophical tradition from the pre-Socratic Greeks through the 14th century. Emphasis on interpreting philosophical reflection in light of the social, political, religious and cultural context from which it arises. IAI H4 901

Topical outline

I. Introduction

A. Philosophy and Culture: The Role of Philosophy

B. Philosophy as a Historical Process

1. History as the appropriation and transcendence of the past
2. The philosophy of the history of philosophy

C. The Problem of Historical Knowledge

1. Subjective viewpoints and objective truth
2. The role of historical interpretation
3. The limitations of historical knowledge
4. Towards a critical-historical method of interpreting the history of philosophy

D. The Sources of History of Philosophy

1. Primary source of texts
2. Secondary source texts

IV. Early Greek Cosmology -- The Pre-Socratic

A. General characteristicsB. Leibniz
B. Thales of Miletus
C. Anaximander
D. Anaximenes
E. The Pythagorean Brotherhood
F. Heraclitus
G. The Eleatics: Parmenides, Zeno, Xenophanes
H. Empedocles
I. Anaxagoras
J. Democritus
K. The significance of pre-Socratic philosophy

III. Classical Hellenic Philosophy

A. General Characteristics
B. Socrates
C. Plato
D. Aristotle
E. The Contributions of Plato and Aristotle

IV. Hellenistic Philosophy

A. General characteristics of the time
B. Epicureanism
C. Stoicism
D. Skepticism

V. Jewish-Greek Religion and Philosophy

A. General characteristics
B. Gnosticism
C. Philo
D. Plotinus and Neo-Platonism

VI. The Greek-Christian Transition

A. General characteristics
B. The Patristics
C. The Apologists
D. St. Augustine
E. The Significance of the Augustinian Synthesis

VII. The Development of Medieval Scholasticism

A. General Characteristics
B. John Scotus Erigena
C. Anselm of Canterbury
D. Peter Abelard
E. Anti-Scholastic Tendencies of the 12th Century
F. Arabian Philosophy and the Rediscovery of Aristotle's Writings
G. The 13th Century--the Culmination of Medieval Philosophy

1. Albertus Magnus
2. St. Thomas Aquinas
3. Duns Scotus
4. William of Occam

H. Later Scholasticism

VIII. The Development of Medieval Scholasticism

Method of presentation

Other:

1. Lecture/discussion method
2. Films, AV units, visiting lecturer, when appropriate and available
3. Student presentation, when appropriate
4. Debates

Student outcomes

explain the central philosophical issues or questions of the period.
explain the relationship between philosophy and the social, political, religious and cultural
contexts of the period.
analyze the development of philosophy within the period.
evaluate the main arguments or ideas of at least three seminal sources from the period.
support a position with research and argumentation.

Method of evaluation

Typical classroom techniques

Class participation
Objective tests
Final exam
Essays/Term papers
Oral examination

Course content learning outcomes

Additional assessment information (optional)

Written examinations, primarily interpretive and critical essay
Short term papers on approved topics

Textbooks

Optional

Rosen, Stanley. The Examined Life: Readings from Western Philosophy from Plato to Kant
Random House, 2000
Stumpf-Fieser. Socrates to Sartre and Beyond 8th Edition. McGraw Hill, 2007

Supplementary materials

Required

Plato, The Republic

Software

None

Updated: Fall 2020