12362 - History of Ancient Philosophy (1)

Learning outcomes

Three main objectives: (1) philological: to provide the essential tools for the study of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy; (2) dialectical: train to the discussion of a philosophical problem by examining ancient solutions compared to other solutions, particularly in modern and contemporary philosophy; (3) rhetorical: to provide a philosophical writing method aimed at preparing a written exercise on ancient philosophy.

Course contents

The four courses of History of Ancient Philosophy this year are dedicated to two major topics in the epistemological, metaphysical and ethical fields: skepticism (BA) and the logical and causal determinism (MA).

 

The course of History of Ancient Philosophy (1) will take place in the Second Semester, Third Period: February 1-March 12 2021.

Hours: Wednesday, 5-7pm, Classroom III (Via Zamboni, 38); Thursday, 11am-1pm, Classroom V (Via Zamboni, 38); Friday, 11am-1pm, Classroom V.

Start: Wednesday, February 3, 5pm, 2021, Classroom III.

 

Dream and Skepticism: The Dream Argument from Plato to Wittgenstein (and Beyond)

 

«You think you are seeing these words, but could you not be hallucinating or dreaming or having your brain stimulated to give you the experience of seeing these marks on paper although no such thing is before you? More extremely, could you not be floating in a tank while super-psychologists stimulate your brain electrochemically to produce exactly the same experiences as you are now having, or even to produce the whole sequence of experiences you have had in your lifetime thus far? If one of these other things was happening, your experience would be exactly the same as it now is. So how can you know none of them is happening? Yet if you do not know these possibilities don’t hold, how can you know you are reading this book now? If you do not know you haven’t always been floating in the tank at the mercy of the psychologists, how can you know anything—what your name is, who your parents were, where you come from?

The skeptic argues that we do not know what we think we do. Even when he leaves us unconverted, he leaves us confused.» (Nozick 1981)

«Life and dreams are pages of the same book.» (A. Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation [1819], § 5)

We will leaf together through some of these pages in the light of the ancients and the moderns.

Readings/Bibliography

• Cavini, Walter, ΦΑΝΤΑΣΜΑ: L’immagine onirica come apparenza illusoria nel pensiero greco del sogno, «Medicina nei Secoli», 21 (2009) 2, pp. 737-772.
• Diagramma cronologico [Chronological diagram] to know by heart (see Teaching material on IOL)
• Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino 2017/18 (the first part: chapters from 0 to 15 of the index) (see Teaching material on IOL)

* The bibliography can be supplemented during the course.

Teaching methods

LECTURES COURSE (13 lectures)

Adopted methods:

• Slow reading of the sources in the original language and through a comparison of translations.
• Linguistic analysis and semantic fields.
• Argumentative analysis and short essays (pensum).

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING SEMINAR (2 lectures)

• Editing guidelines.
• Reading essay of an ancient work: form and contents.

Assessment methods

EXAM PROGRAMME

The exam (6 cfu) consists in an oral test that requires (1) the study of the Diagramma cronologico [Chronological diagram] (by heart) and the first part of the Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino (chapters from 0 to 15 of the index), available on the teacher’s web page (see Teaching material) or, in hard copy, at the copy center Centotrecento (via Centotrecento 19, Bologna) (among the online teaching materials, a .pdf entitled Linee guida [Guidelines] will also be available); and (2) the study of the topics discussed in class: a list of 10 questions will be distributed at the end of the course.

*** Motivated students may substitute the 10 questions with a paper of 5-7,5 standard pages, following the indications of the writing seminar to be held in the last week of the course. The seminar handbooks will be available online (see Teaching material).

 

PROGRAMME FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

The students who cannot attend for legitimate reasons must substitute the 10 questions entailed by the exam programme with the study of one work of ancient philosophy selected from (1) Platone, La Repubblica, transl. Mario Vegetti, Milano: BUR, 2006; and (2) Aristotele, Etica Nicomachea, transl. Carlo Natali, Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1999. The rest of the exam programme will remain the same.

*** Students who cannot attend are strongly advised to read the guidelines and, if necessary, to email me in order to make an appointment to discuss the details.

Teaching tools

• Handout with excerpts from ancient works.
• Partition diagrams and concept maps.
• Handbooks: (1) Norme di redazione per un saggio breve [Editing guidelines for a short essay]; (2) Seminario di scrittura filosofica [Philosophical writing seminar].

 * All materials will be shared in class and made available to students in pdf files.

• Web pages.
• Databases and bibliographical repertoires.

Office hours

See the website of Walter Cavini