Plato and Aristotle
Course Description: An introduction to Plato and Aristotle, with an eye toward their
place within the Greek tradition and their influence on the development of
Western philosophy. We will examine their respective methods of inquiry and
their approach to the issues of ethics, politics, metaphysics, epistemology,
and aesthetics.
Week
Topic and
1 Introduction: Mythology,
rhetoric, and the impulse for philosophy among the Greeks
Ethics and Politics
Plato, Euthyphro
2 Apology;
Republic I
3 Selections from Republic
II – IV, VIII
4-5 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I – V, selections from VI and
VII
6 Selections from Politics
I and VI
7 Metaphysics
Plato, Phaedo; selections from Cratylus
8 Selections from Symposium
and Republic VI – VII
9 Selections from Timaeus
10-11 Aristotle, Categories
IV – V, Physics I – II, selections
from III and VIII and Metaphysics XII
12 Selections from Parts
of Animals, Generation of Animals,
and Physics II
13 Epistemology
Plato, Meno, selections from Theaetetus
14 Aristotle, selections
from Posterior Analytics
15 Aesthetics
Plato, Symposium
16 Aristotle, selections from Poetics