12362 - History of Ancient Philosophy (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has acquired (1) an essential knowledge of the history of ancient philosophy from its origins up to the 4th century BC and (2) three types of skills: (a) philological – he/she knows how to analyze an ancient text using the basic philological tools needed for the study of Greek philosophy; (b) dialectical – he/she is trained to discuss a philosophical problem in a synchronic way; (c) rhetorical – he/she is capable of arguing exegetical theses in oral and / or written form.

Course contents

SFA 2022/23 (ENG)

Praise of Philosophy

The four courses of History of Ancient Philosophy this year will be devoted to a “praise of philosophy”: from the origins of the concept (BA) to the heart of Platonic ontology (MA), in constant comparison with the main philosophical models of modern and contemporary age. In a historical moment in which philosophy risks being lost in technological and application drifts, the urgency of a reflection on its history and identity is renewed. The lessons will be open to all interested students of all levels.

 

“[…] c’est un bonheur, disait Stendhal, ‘d’avoir pour métier sa passion’ ” (Maurice Merlau-Ponty)

 

SFA (1) – Philósophos: Archeology of a Word

The course of History of Ancient Philosophy (1) will take place in the Second Semester, Third Period: January 30-March 10 2023.

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 1, 5pm, 2023, Classroom III.

*There will be no class on Thursday 9 February.

 Course contents

“Wir fragen: Was ist das-die Philosophie? Wir haben das Wort ‘Philosophie’ schon oft genug ausgesprochen. Wenn wir aber das Wort ‘Philosophie’ jetzt nicht mehr wie einen abgebrauchten Titel verwenden, wenn wir statt dessen das Wort ‘Philosophie’ aus seinem Ursprung hören, dann lautet es: φιλοσοφία. Das Wort ‘Philosophie’ spricht jetzt griechische.” (Martin Heidegger)

 

In the Platonic Symposium, Socrates proposes a “naive definition” of praise: “I, out of naivety, thought that the truth had to be toldabout each object praised, and that this constituted the basis; and that then, drawing the most beautiful arguments from this truth, they should be expounded in the most appropriate way possible. And indeed I was very proud of the fact that I would speak well because I knew the truth about praising any object” (198d). According to Socrates’ laudatory style, we must first ask ourselves what philosophy was – or rather what ‘being a philosopher’ and ‘doing philosophy’ meant – in its origins, conducting a semantic investigation of the first occurrences of Greek adjective philósophos and its derivatives. The aim of the course will therefore be to answer the question about the birth of philosophy, which is both a question about its nature (what it is) and its value (why it was born).

 

Main topics:

1. Greek compounds in philo- (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, IV, 10) and the etymological fallacy
2. Heraclitus, fr. 22B35 DK
3. Thucydides, Histories, II, 40
4. Herodotus, Histories, I, 30
5. Lysias, Oration of the invalid
6. Plato (selected passages from Apology of Socrates, Gorgias, Symposium, Republic, Theaetetus)

 

*The course will be supported by the Rodolfo Mondolfo Seminars cycle, this year devoted to What is Philosophy? Participation in all the meetings of the cycle will entitle you to a bonus during the examination. Dates and places of the meetings will be reported on the Facebook page  Filosofia Antica a Bologna.

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)
• Handout with the texts read and commented on during the course (available at the end of the lessons on Virtuale)
  

 

*Optional but recommended readings:

• Moore, Christopher, Calling Philosophers Names: On the Origin of a Discipline, Princeton: Princeton U.P., 2020.
• Rossetti, Livio, ‘L’invenzione della filosofia’, Bollettino della Società Filosofica Italiana, N.S. 200, 2010, pp. 5-18.
• Rossetti, Livio, ‘Quando gli Ionici (e altri) sono stati promossi filosofi’, Anais de Filosofia Clássica, 5/8, 2010, pp. 41-59.
• Rossetti, Livio, ‘Storia e preistoria della filosofia: Alcune date cruciali’, Archai, 15, 2015, pp. 11-20.

*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)

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

Assessment methods

EXAM PROGRAMME FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS

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) (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 Carlotta Capuccino