12365 - History of Ancient Philosophy (2)

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

Hours: Tuesday, 3-5pm, Classroom C (Via Zamboni, 34); Thursday, 11am-1pm, Classroom C; Friday, 11am-1pm, Classroom C.

Start: Tuesday, March 23, 3pm, 2021, Classroom C. May 25th and 26th there will be no lesson.

 

A «Strange Image»: Exploring Plato’s Cave

 

«A good simile enlivens the intellect.» (Wittgenstein 1929)

«There is also something true in what we sometimes hear people say: that the philosophy of a man is a matter of temperament. It is the preference for certain similes that could be called a matter of temperament and the contrasts rest on it far greater than it might seem.» (Wittgenstein 1931)

 

In a passage of book VI of the Republic (487e4-6), Socrates declares that he has to answer the question of his interlocutor, Adeimantus, with “a response expressed through an image”. And Adeimantus, in turn, comments with irony: “But you don’t usually speak through images”. The antiphrastic irony of the comment draws the reader’s attention to a particular argumentative model of Plato’s Socrates: the iconic model of analogical argumentation based on the similarity of relationships. It is customary to distinguish two styles of Plato’s philosophical prose: the argumentative one of dialectical or rhetorical logos and the narrative one of eschatological or cosmogonic mythos. In fact, the iconic style of analogical argumentation is no less present, impressing on the reader’s mind memorable images such as those of books VI and VII of the Republic.

Martin Heidegger and Hans Blumenberg spoke of Plato’s cave as an inexhaustible metaphor, which always raises new questions and challenges the exegetical skills of the reader through time. One of the countless readings of this famous image at the opening of book VII of the Republic, perhaps the best known, evokes a skeptical scenario: the prisoners chained in front of the back wall of the cave and forced since childhood to observe nothing but the shadows cast by a fire burning behind them believe mistakenly, but without any doubt, that those shadows are the things themselves, that they are reality. Is this cognitive illusion, emblematic of Platonism, really the symptom of a form of metaphysical skepticism typical of Plato’s philosophy? To answer the skeptical question we will have to transform ourselves into speleologists of thought and explore the Platonic cave down to its last detail, trying to grasp the elusive nature of this “strange” but fertile image and capture its exact philosophical function.

 

Readings/Bibliography

• 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 (see Teaching material on IOL)
• Platone, La Repubblica, transl. Mario Vegetti, Milano: BUR, 2007.

* 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 Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino (for those who have already taken a first exam [SFA (1)], only chapters 16 to 23 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 Carlotta Capuccino