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 devoted to a reflection on what makes us human: death (BA) and time (MA).

«[P]rendere atto della nostra condizione mortale significa anche prendere atto che siamo esposti alle contingenze del tempo, al potere del tempo che passa indifferente e inarrestabile. È una condizione rischiosa, certo, ma questo siamo: noi siamo i nostri progetti, quello per cui lottiamo e quello che decidiamo di fare. Rinunciando a questo rinunceremmo a noi stessi. Rivendicare l’importanza dei progetti, della nostra condizione di esseri temporalmente determinati, significa naturalmente riconoscere che siamo sempre esposti anche al rischio della sconfitta e del fallimento, al dominio della contingenza. Ma anche questo fa parte di quello che siamo: proprio perché mortali, siamo esseri fragili, esposti. Non ha senso rifiutare la paura della morte: non perché la morte sia un bene, ma perché la morte è costitutiva di ciò che siamo.» (Mauro Bonazzi, Creature di un sol giorno: I Greci e il mistero dell’esistenza, Torino: Einaudi, 2020, p. 149)

 

The course of History of Ancient Philosophy (1) will take place in the Second Semester, Third Period: January 31-March 11 2022.

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 2, 5pm, 2022, Classroom III.

 

NOTICE: Due to the prolonged health emergency, the course will be held online only. We will all be together, side by side on Teams, to think about something of fundamental importance. You are welcome.

 

SFA (1) – Death, etc.: Ancient and Modern Visions of Death

 

“You should accustom yourself to be­lieving that death is nothing to us […].”

Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus, 124

 

“Death is not an event of life.”

Wittgenstein, TLP 6.4311

 

Main topics:

1. Homer and the beautiful death
2. Aristotle: death is a limit (Nicomachean Ethics, III 9)
3. Thanatophobia: the Epicurean tetrapharmakos
4. Lucretius and the Symmetry Argument
5. Thomas Nagel: death as deprivation of the goods of life
6. “Being-for-death” or “biological accident”?

Readings/Bibliography

• Diagramma cronologico [Chronological diagram] to know by heart (see Teaching material on Virtuale)
• Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino 2017/18 (chapters from 0 to 15 of the index) (see teaching material on Virtuale)

* 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 FOR ATTENDING STUDENT

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 Virtuale) 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: it must be read carefully); 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 Virtuale).

 

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.

 

EXAM EVALUATION

The oral exam will be considered overall sufficient only if the historical and the philosophical part will be both sufficient.

The written and oral exam will be considered overall sufficient only if the two exam tests (written and oral) will be both sufficient. The final mark will result from the average of the marks of each single exam test.

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