Syllabus
The course is divided into three parts that reflect the three headings of the foundational ideas composing its content.
* Part 1: Socratic Method
* (Week 1-Week 4)
Apology
Euthyphro
* Part 2: Meno’s Paradox
* (Week 5-Week 8)
Meno
* Part 3: The Philosophical Conversion of the Soul
* (Week 9-Week 12)
Republic (Books VI and VII)
* Recapitulation
* (Week 13)
Annotation
The renowned British mathematician and philosopher A.N Whitehead once commented on Plato’s thought: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them”.
This course will explore a portion of the wealth of ideas in Plato’s writings alluded to by Whitehead that are foundational to European philosophy by focusing on the most basic ones, which the course divides under these three headings: 1. Socratic Method: The Most Blameworthy Ignorance: Thinking You Know What You Don’t
Know. 2. Meno’s Paradox: Is Learning Possible? 3. The Philosophical Conversion of the Soul: The Philosophical Life
Plato presented his philosophy dramatically, in written dialogues that portrayed philosophers in conversation with non-philosophers in the process of examining all aspects of life. Significantly, Plato never speaks in his own voice in any of his dialogues. In light of this, the principial aim of this course will be to facilitate the skills requisite for the student of Plato’s philosophy to read his texts with comprehension and to interpret them in a manner that elicits critically their philosophical content.