课程概况
What is philosophy? How does it differ from science, religion, and other modes of human discourse? This course traces the origins of philosophy in the Western tradition in the thinkers of Ancient Greece. We begin with the Presocratic natural philosophers who were active in Ionia in the 6th century BCE and are also credited with being the first scientists. Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximines made bold proposals about the ultimate constituents of reality, while Heraclitus insisted that there is an underlying order to the changing world. Parmenides of Elea formulated a powerful objection to all these proposals, while later Greek theorists (such as Anaxagoras and the atomist Democritus) attempted to answer that objection. In fifth-century Athens, Socrates insisted on the importance of the fundamental ethical question—“How shall I live?”—and his pupil, Plato, and Plato’s pupil, Aristotle, developed elaborate philosophical systems to explain the nature of reality, knowledge, and human happiness. After the death of Aristotle, in the Hellenistic period, Epicureans and Stoics developed and transformed that earlier tradition. We will study the major doctrines of all these thinkers. Part I will cover Plato and his predecessors. Part II will cover Aristotle and his successors.
课程大纲
WEEK 1
Aristotle’s Categories
Subjects and Predicates
测验： Subjects and Predicates
Substances & Subjects
测验： Substances & Subjects
WEEK 2
Aristotle's Natural Philosophy
Change & Nature
测验： Change & Nature
Causes in Nature
测验： Causes in Nature
Aristotelian Souls
测验： Aristotelian Souls
WEEK 3
Aristotle's Ethics
The Unmoved Mover
测验： The Unmoved Mover
Aristotle’s Ethics
测验： Aristotle's Ethics
WEEK 4
Epicureanism
Gods and Death
测验： Gods and Death
Pleasure and Pain
测验： Pleasure and Pain
WEEK 5
Stoicism
Stoic Natural Philosophy and Ethics
测验： Stoic Natural Philosophy and Ethics
Fate and Human Action
测验： Fate and Human Action
Conclusion
