Fall 2007:
The Challenge of Socrates
Greg Watkins and Jeremy Sabol
Time: Tuesday evenings, 7:00 pm – 8:50 pm
Location: Building 200, Room 205
Website: http://sophia.stanford.edu
Email: gwatkins@stanford.edu (Greg); jsabol@stanford.edu (Jeremy)
Overall Course Description
The Examined Life is a three-quarter sequence introducing the philosophical tradition in the West, from its first full articulation by Plato up to trends in contemporary philosophy. Drawing on primary texts from important thinkers in the tradition, we will study the central questions of philosophy as they evolve over time: metaphysics (who are we and where are we?); epistemology (what can we know and how can we know it?); and ethics (how should we live?). Since Socrates, these questions have been deeply interrelated; we will focus particularly on how metaphysical and epistemological concerns provide the framework for theories of how we should live.
Fall Quarter Course Description
Philosophy in the Western tradition does not truly begin with Socrates. However, Socrates’ ideas, the story of his life, and especially the story of his trial and condemnation to death, all impose themselves on the history of philosophy as both a foundation and a challenge: the philosophers to follow Socrates will accept his vision of what it means to “do” philosophy, and they will grapple with the problems that Socratic thought brings to light. Where did a thinker like Socrates come from? What did he truly believe, and why did he feel that his beliefs were worth dying for? This course provides an overview of ancient Greek and Roman philosophical thought from the perspective of the central importance of Socrates. And in so doing, it surveys his framework for philosophical thinking and his bold challenge to apply reason to our experience in this world.
Requirements
We expect that you will come to class having read the material and prepared to discuss it. You are also invited to submit questions about the readings, as well as short reflections on the readings, posted on our website by Monday evening at midnight. If you are taking the course for a letter grade, you will arrange additional work with us individually; such work generally is in the form of a final paper, the topic of which we should decide together.
Readings
The primary text for the course is:
Cahn, Stephen M., Classics of Western Philosophy (Hackett, 2007).
It should be available now in the Stanford Bookstore. We apologize in advance for how big the book is; the advantage is that it is the only text for all three quarters of this sequence.
We will at times supplement this text with handouts. For the most part, these will be handed out in class a week before we discuss them; they will also be posted online here.
Calendar
9/25/07 Session 1 What is philosophy?
Readings: The Presocratics (selections here).
10/2/07 Session 2 The Trial of Socrates
Readings: Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito
10/9/07 Session 3 Socrates, Plato and Love: Symposium
Readings: Plato, Symposium
10/16/07 Session 4 Plato’s Republic
10/23/07 Session 5 Aristotle I: Ethics
10/30/07 Session 6 Aristotle II: Metaphysics
11/6/07 Session 7 Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics
11/13/07 Session 8 Is Jesus a Philosopher?
11/20/07 Thanksgiving holiday break – no class
11/27/07 Session 9 Paul and Plotinus
12/04/07 Session 10 Conclusion: Philosophy in the Ancient World