Plato
>> Readings


Sculpture by Grendel's Mother.

Readings

Required Textbooks:

  • John Cooper (ed.), Plato: Complete Works (Hackett)
    • Further readings will be available on-line and on reserve. (Log in, using your uNID and CIS password.)

Weekly Readings:

  1. Aug. 22:
    • Introduction. Optional background reading: Bernard Williams, "Plato: The Invention of Philosophy" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department, and in Marriott).

    • How Would Plato Want Us to Approach His Texts? Prereading: Ion. (If you haven't gotten the book yet, you can find the dialogue here.)

      Further optional reading: Gregory Vlastos, "Socratic Irony" (on reserve online, and in the Philosophy Department).

    • The Missing Explanation Argument and the Euthyphro Trap. Prereading: Euthyphro.

      Further optional reading: Nehamas, The Art of Living, pp. 34-45 (on reserve online, and in the Philosophy Department); Johnston, Are manifest qualities response-dependent? Monist, 1998 81 (1) (on reserve in the Philosophy Department; The Monist is also available online via the Marriott catalog); Johnston, "Explanation, Response-Dependence and Judgement-Dependence" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

  2. Aug. 29:
    • The Socratic Elenchus. Reading: Laches, Charmides. (If you haven't already read Ion and Euthyphro, now's the time to catch up.) Hugh Benson, "The Priority of Definition and the Socratic Elenchus" (online reserve).

      Optional reading: Vlastos, "The Socratic Elenchus" (online reserve). John Beversluis, "Does Socrates Commit the Socratic Fallacy?" (online reserve).

    • Portraits of Socrates. Reading: Apology.

      Optional reading: Aristophanes, "The Clouds", in Four Plays. Xenophon, Conversations of Socrates (both on reserve in Marriott). Nietzsche, The Gay Science, sec. 340; Glenn Most, "A Cock for Asclepius".

    • Ologyology: What Philosophy Isn't. Reading: Review Charmides.

  3. Sept. 5.
    • Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, but Arguments Can Confuse You. Reading: Phaedo. Pp. 72-74 of Bostock's Plato's Phaedo; Alexander Nehamas, "Plato on the Imperfection of the Sensible World" (on e-reserve at Marriott and on paper reserve in the Philosophy Department). Terry Penner, Ascent from Nominalism, pp. 69-86. (Further followup reading: AFN 181-205.) [AFN is on reserve in Marriott; the first part of it is also on reserve in the Philosophy Department reserve folder.]

      On Forming the Forms. Optional reading, Gregory Vlastos, "Reasons and Causes in the Phaedo" (on e-reserve at Marriott; JSTOR).

      The Tablet of Demaratus. Reading: Meno.

      Optional reading: Dominic Scott, Recollection and Experience, pp. 15-85 (on reserve in Marriott).

  4. Sept. 12.
    • Philosophy as a Response to Tragedy. Reading: Protagoras

      Optional reading: Martha Nussbaum, "The Protagoras: A Science of Practical Reasoning" (online reserve). Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, ch. 6 ("The Speech of Alcibiades"; online reserve). Vlastos, "The Individual as Object of Love in Plato" (in Vlastos, Platonic Studies, on reserve in Marriott). Hampshire, "Logic and Appreciation".

      Further followon reading: Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, is on reserve in Marriott; FG, through Part II, is relevant to the class. Terence Irwin, "Review of The Fragility of Goodness" (JSTOR), is a contrary opinion. Richard Stern, "My Ex, the Moral Philosopher" (e-reserve) is a highly critical portrait of Nussbaum herself.

    • Is F-ness F? What's Love Got to Do With It? Reading: Symposium, Protagoras.

      Optional reading: Nehamas, "Self Predication and Plato's Theory of Forms"; John Malcolm, Plato on the Self-Predication of Forms, ch. 5 (both on e-reserve and on reserve in the Philosophy Department; the latter is a challenging piece).

  5. Sept. 19.
    • The Weasel Problem. Reading: Gorgias, Republic, Book I.

      Optional reading: Alcibiades; Robert Nozick, "Coercive Philosophy" (Philosophical Explanations, pp.4-8; e-reserve, and on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • Anthropic Arguments for the Elenchus (or, Peeling an Empty Banana). Reading: Gorgias, Republic, Book I.

      Optional reading: Christine Korsgaard, "Self-Constitution in the Ethics of Plato and Kant" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department, and on e-reserve).

    • What Is Expertise? Reading: David Levy, "Techne and the Problem of Socratic Philosophy in the Gorgias" (required; on reserve in the Philosophy Department, and on e-reserve).

  6. Sept. 26.
    • Plato's Dubious Politics. Reading: Republic, Books 2-3.

      Optional reading: Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, vol. I. (On reserve in Marriott.) Taylor, "Plato's Totalitarianism" (e-reserve).

    • What Are Universals For? Reading: David Lewis, "New Work for a Theory of Universals" (on e-reserve).

      Optional reading: Guy Rohrbaugh, "Artworks as Historical Individuals" (on e-reserve).

    • Art and Imitation in the Republic. Reading: Republic Books 2-3.

    A model undergraduate paper by Brent Huff is now on reserve in the Philosophy Department.

  7. Oct. 3.
    • Are Organized People Always Nice to Others? Reading: Republic, Book 4.

      David Sachs, "A Fallacy in Plato's Republic" (JSTOR). Eric Brown, "Minding the Gap in Plato's Republic" (e-reserve).

    • Is the Republic Incoherent? Reading: Bernard Williams, "The Analogy of City and Soul in Plato's Republic" (e-reserve).

      Optional reading: Millgram, Four Biblical Heroines (selections; e-reserve). Further reading: Christopher Bobonich, Plato's Utopia Recast, pp. 1-88 (on reserve in Marriott).

  8. Oct. 17.
    • Does Plato Really Think You Cannot Know What Is Right in Front of You? Reading: Republic, Book 5; selections from Cross and Woozley, The Republic: A Philosophical Commentary (on e-reserve and on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

      Optional reading: Mitzi (Mi-Kyoung) Lee, Epistemology After Protagoras, chs. 4-5 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • What Happens When Everything Changes? Reading: Theatetus; Irwin, "Plato's Heracleiteanism" (JSTOR).

      Optional reading: Mitzi (Mi-Kyoung) Lee, "Protagoras' Alethia" (e-reserve).

    • What Is Plato's Epistemology For? Reading: Theatetus.

      Optional reading: G.E.M. Anscombe, "The Early Theory of Forms".

      Further reading: Vlastos, "Was Plato a Feminist?" (available on e-reserve).

  9. Oct. 24.
    • How to Be a Cave Man. Reading: Republic, Books 6-7.

      Optional reading: Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, excerpts (pp. 484-485 in The Portable Nietzsche).

    • Three Blurry Images. Reading (required): Nicholas Smith, "Plato's Divided Line".

    • Is Platonism Still Possible? Optional reading: Iris Murdoch, "The Sovereignty of Good over Other Concepts" (e-reserve; also appears in Sovereignty of the Good).

    Friday Oct. 26: Eric Brown will be speaking on Plato in the Department Colloquium, on "Socrates and Coherent Desire (Gorgias 466b-468e)". Tanner Library, OSH 334, 4:00-6:00 p.m.

    Brown will also be speaking at 12:00-1:00 p.m. Friday Oct. 26 (the same day) at the UMFA auditorium, on "Philosophers Rule: Plato's Aims in the Republic".

  10. Oct. 31.
    • Plato Does Scarface: Another Shot at Bridging the Gap. Reading: Republic, Books 8-9. Jonathan Lear, "Inside and Outside the Republic".

      Optional reading: Plato, "Seventh Letter". Norbert Bloessner, "The City-Soul Analogy".

    • Being and Pleasure. Reading: Review Rep. 476a-480a, 585b-586e.

    • Particularist and Nonparticularist Cognitive States. Reading: Review Tht..

      Optional reading: Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote".

      Further reading: For a contemporary rendition of particularism about moral evaluation, see Jonathan Dancy, Moral Reasons (on reserve in Marriott).

  11. Nov. 2: Don't Have a Korsgaardian Personality? Whatever. Slacker will screen in Marriott 1715; 10:50 a.m.; running time: 100 min.

  12. Nov 7.
    • A Quick Retrospective: The Investigation of a Universal. Reading: Republic, Book 10.

      Optional reading: Nehamas, "Plato and the Mass Media" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • Plato Has Made His Bed. Now Let Him Sleep In It. Reading: Phaedrus, up through 257b. Vlastos, "A Metaphysical Paradox".

      Very optional further reading: For a full-length representative contemporary attempt on the problem of universals, see D. M. Armstrong, Universals and Scientific Realism. Comparison to Plato's treatment is highly instructive.

    • The Form of the Good. Reading: R. M. Hare, "Plato and the Mathematicians" (e-reserve).

      Optional reading: Vlastos, "Self-Predication in Plato" (sec. iv of "The Unity of the Virtues in the Protagoras"; on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

  13. Nov. 14.
    • What Is Participation? Reading: Timaeus.

      Optional reading: Steven Strange, "The Double Explanation in the Timaeus" (e-reserve); Gregory Vlastos, "The Disorderly Motion in the 'Timaeus'" and "Creation in the Timaeus: Is It a Fiction?" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • Plato's Just-So Story. Reading: Kipling, "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin". Nozick, Philosophical Explanations, pp. 8-18 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

      Optional reading: Gabriel Richardson Lear, "Acting for the Sake of an Object of Love" (excerpts; e-reserve); Philip K. Dick, Ubik, ch. 10 (e-reserve).

    • What Is a Model? Reading: David Keyt, "The Mad Craftsman of the Timaeus" (JSTOR).

      Optional reading: Ron Giere, "The Cognitive Structure of Scientific Theories" (e-reserve).

  14. Nov. 21.
    • The Third Man Argument. Reading: Parmenides 126a-135c. Gregory Vlastos. "The Third Man Argument in the Parmenides" (JSTOR). Read through this one quickly and don't get too bogged down in the details.

      Optional reading: Armstrong, Universals and Scientific Realism, pp. 18-21, 41-42, 53-56, 71-75 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • Don't Believe Everything You Read. Reading: Phaedrus, 257c-end.

      Optional reading: Nehamas, "The Phaedrus", pp. 340-354 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department); Stanley Fish, Self-Consuming Artifacts, pp.8-21 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • One Heck of a Problem. Reading: Parmenides 135c-145b, 166c; Samuel Rickless. "How Parmenides Saved the Theory of Forms" (JSTOR), pp. 501-525, 536-545; of course, you're encouraged to read the other parts of this paper as well.

      Optional reading: Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, "Parmenides of Elea" (e-reserve).

  15. Nov. 28.
    • Is there something wrong? NOT! Reading: Sophist.

      Optional reading: "The Subject Nothing" (excerpt for G.E.L. Owen, "Plato on Not-Being"; e-reserve). Further reading: Rudolph Carnap, "The Overcoming of Metaphysics through Logical Analysis of Language" (e-reserve).

    • Mix-and-Match Forms.

      Optional reading: J.L. Ackrill, "Symploke Eidon" (e-reserve). Further reading: J. Moravcsik, "Plato's Method of Division" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

    • Twenty Questions as a Methodology.

      Optional reading: J.L. Ackrill, "In Defence of Platonic Division" (e-reserve).

  16. Dec. 5.
    • Finding the Philosopher Through Collection and Division. Reading: Statesman.

      Optional reading: Stephen Menn, "Collecting the Letters". Very optional further reading: Martin Amis, Time's Arrow; Brian Aldiss, Cryptozoic!

    • How Many Ways Can We Divide Up Collection and Division? Reading: Philebus.

      Optional reading: Review Prot. 351-358, Rep. 581c-586, Tim. 64a-65b. Donald Davidson, "Plato's Philosopher". Further reading: Gosling, Pleasure and Desire.

    • Plato's Reinventions of Philosophy.

      Followon reading: Samuel Rickless, Plato's Forms in Transition; G. R. F. Ferrari, City and Soul in Plato's Republic; Allan Silverman, The Dialectic of Essence.