Sylabus
* Compulsory reading: ARISTOTLE. The Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. PLATO. The Republic of Plato. New York: Basic Books, 2016. * Recommended reading: BALOT, R. K. (ed.) A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought. Chichester: Blackwell, 2009. SALKEVER, S. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Political Thought. Cambridge: CUP, 2009.
RAAFLAUB, K. Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Anotace
This course will be held online via MS Teams, according to the schedule. All working texts will be uploaded in SIS. What is Europe? What is specifically European? What do we owe to ancient Greeks? What is the difference between ancient and contemporary political and ethical values and attitudes? In the seminar, we shall read and discuss ancient texts illustrating values and ideas which centuries ago distinguished the ancient Greeks from other nations and which are nowadays widely shared in Euro-American cultures. Special attention will be given to the concepts of freedom, democracy, civic society, and also to the agonistic spirit of early Greek philosophy, which paved the way for modern sciences. Sessions:
1. Introduction
2. Ancient Greek society: oikos, polis, kosmos
3. Concepts of democracy, early Greek cosmology
4. Early critics of democracy
5. The case of Socrates
6. Ideal polis in Plato’s Republic
7. Aristotle, Politics I – man as social animal
8. Types of political constitutions
9. From political freedom to libertarian values
10. Freedom of speech and its limitations
11. Early medicine and philosophy of nature
12. Scientific methods and academic freedom
13. Conclusions