73081 - History of Ancient Philosophy (2) (LM)

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 (2) (LM) will take place in the Second Semester, Forth Period: March 22-May 7 2021.

Hours: Monday, 3-5pm, Classroom D (Via Centotrecento); Wednesday, 3-5pm, Classroom C (Via Zamboni, 34); Friday, 3-5pm, Classroom A (Via Zamboni, 32).

Start: Monday, March 29 2021, 3pm, 2021, Classroom D. May 24th and 26th there will be no lesson.

 

A Sea-Battle Never Fought: Aristotle, De Interpretatione, 9

 

“When the account given by the Tenians was credited by the Greeks, they prepared for an engagement. Day dawned, and when they had mustered the marines, Themistocles, above all the others, harangued them most eloquently. His speech was entirely taken up in contrasting better things with worse, exhorting them to choose the best of all those things which depended on the nature and condition of man. Having finished his speech, he ordered them to go on board their ships.” (Hdt. 83.1-2)

 

Among the logical laws established by Aristotle there is the principle according to which, of a pair of contradictories, necessarily one is true and the other false, a principle that C. W. A. Whitaker (1996) defined as “Rule of Contradictory Pairs” (RCP). In the famous chapter 9 of the De Interpretatione, Aristotle has to cope with an uncomfortable consequence of this principle: if applied to future singular assertions, for example the pair of contradictories ‘Tomorrow there will be a sea-battle’ / ‘Tomorrow there will be no sea-battle’, it would prove the validity of logical determinism and the consequent fatalism, denying freedom of will and undermining human actions.

On the other hand, to deny the validity of the principle would undermine the Aristotelian classical logic itself, because the RCP presupposes three fundamental principles: it is indeed a corollary, that is an immediate consequence, of the conjunction of the semantic versions of the Principle of Non-Contradiction (PNC), according to which the contradictories cannot be true together, and of the Principle of the Excluded Middle (PEM), according to which the contradictories cannot be false together; and obviously presupposes the validity of the Principle of Bivalence (PB), in so far as the Aristotelian contradiction applies only to the affirmation and negation, that is, to true or false assertions. The aim of the seminar will be to discover the Aristotelian solution of this aporia through a slow reading of the chapter in its original language.

Readings/Bibliography

Text

• Aristotele, Dell’interpretazione, transl. Marcello Zanatta, Milano: BUR, 1992.

Studies

• Cavini, Walter, Principia Contradictionis: I principi aristotelici della contraddizione (§§ 1-3), «Antiqvorvm Philosophia», 1 (2007), pp. 123-169.
• Whitaker, C. W. A., Aristotle’s De Interpretatione: Contradiction and Dialectic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

* The bibliography can be supplemented during the course.

Teaching methods

SLOW READING SEMINAR (15 sessions, each of 2 hours)

Adopted methods:

• Slow reading of the sources in the original language.
• Group work.
• Drafting of a handout.
• Oral presentations.
• Group discussion.

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING SEMINAR

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

Assessment methods

EXAM PROGRAMME

The exam includes a written and an oral test.

(1) The written test consists of a paper concerning the ancient work read and discussed during the seminar. The paper must be at least 10 maximum 15 standard Word pages, plus the bibliography and three appendices. During the seminar the details will be clarified, and a summary will be available in the guidelines uploaded among the online teaching materials. 

(2) The oral exam consists of: (a) a discussion of the paper (form and content); (b) the study of one of the two essays reported in the course bibliography (Cavini or Whitaker, see above), chosen by the student. (b*) Students who cannot demonstrate they have taken at least one exam into the history of ancient philosophy in their career will have to study in addition the Diagramma cronologico [Chronological diagram] (by heart) and the Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino, uploaded online.

 

PROGRAMME FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students who cannot attend for motivated reasons will also have to take both a written and an oral test.

(1) The written test consists of a paper concerning the following ancient work (you need to schedule an interview with the teacher for clarification and follow the guidelines uploaded online): Aristotele, Etica Nicomachea, transl. Carlo Natali, Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1999.

(2)The oral exam consists of: (a) a discussion of the paper (form and content); (b) the study of the following monograph: Vegetti, Mario and Ademollo, Francesco, Incontro con Aristotele, Torino: Einaudi, 2016. (b*) Students who cannot demonstrate they have taken at least one exam into the history of ancient philosophy in their career will have to study in addition the Diagramma cronologico [Chronological diagram] (by heart) and the Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino, uploaded online.

 

EXAM EVALUATION

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

Teaching tools

• Handouts.
• 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].
• TLG, databases and bibliographical repertoires.

Office hours

See the website of Carlotta Capuccino