==> Unit 1 -- Classical PHilosophy

Unit 2 -- Christian Spirituality

Unit 3--Psychology and the Unconscious

Unit 4 -- Evolutionary Psychology and Ethics

Class	1a PowerPoint Slides
Date	9/6
Title	Welcome
Readings	None

Class	1b PowerPoint Slides Slides as PDF Document (Use Acrobat Reader)
Date	9/8 Wednesday
Title	Moral and Pre-Moral Notions of the Good
Readings	Background on Plato online. Gorgias, through 486 (focal: Callicles' speech in 482-486) Riker, Chapter 2
Prior thought questions	What does Callicles mean by the "natural" and "conventional" good? Do these map onto Riker's categories of Fate and Eros? Why might the situation of 5th century Greece have been conducive to the birth of questions about an objective notion of goodness that is not reducible to desire or convention? What kinds of situations might there be in which one Gets what one desired, yet is not made happy by it? Does what is conventionally approved, yet is not a "good person"? Does this suggest that there might be a further notion of "goodness" to be unpacked?

Class	2a PowerPoint Slides Slides as PDF Document (Use Acrobat Reader)
Date	Monday, September 13
Title	The argument for an objective good
Readings	Gorgias, 487-end Focal: Callicles' notion of nature of good life in 492, the reductio of Callicles' position on the basis of pursuit of base pleasures in 494-5, Callicles' admission of better and worse pleasures (and the consequent need for an expert) in 499-501.
Prior thought questions	What is the point of Socrates questions about whether the person with an itch or the catamite is happy in 494-5? What is the significance of the fact that Callicles changes his ground in 499-500 and now admits that there are better and worse pleasures? Why is this a significant concession to Socrates? Try to trace out the overall argument for the existence of an objective good that is not reducible to desire or convention. In what sense is Socrates denying that there is a "subjective" element to the nature of the good life? Has he said anything that implies that everybody needs to behave in exactly the same way in order to live a good life?

Class	2b PowerPoint Slides Slides as PDF Document (Use Acrobat Reader)
Date	Wednesday, September 15
Title	Virtue is Knowledge
Readings	Gorgias, Polus section
Prior thought questions	What does Socrates mean by the distinction between doing what you will and doing what you please (e.g., in 467)? What seems to be the implicit theoretical psychology here? What determines what a person does? What do all of our actions aim at? Try to reconstruct Socrates' case that virtue consists in knowledge of the good as an explict argument.
Class	3a Slides as PDF document (Use Acrobat Reader)
Date	Monday, September 20
Title	Plato's Middle Psychology: The Tripartite Soul
Readings	Republic, Books I-IV, also 588c-592b Focal: 435c-end of book IV, also the "myth of the beast" in 588c-592b
Prior thought questions	What is the stated topic of the discussion that takes place in this dialog? How does political philosophy come to be introduced into the discussion? (368c-369) In Republic IV Plato introduces a more complex psychology than that of the Gorgias. What are not the main faculties or divisions of the soul? (435c-441c) In what does virtue consist, psychologically speaking?aaaa (441c-444e) Plato leaves the general category of the appetites pretty open. Draw up your own list of the human appetites. (Or, if you're artistically inclined, draw your own "beast" of Book IX!)

Class	3b Slide PDFs
Date	Wednesday, September 22
Title	Plato's Middle Moral Therapy
Readings	Republic, V-VII Focal: Analogy of the Sun (507a-509c) Analogy of the Line (509d-511e) Analogy of the Cave (514-517) Education of Philosophical Rulers (535a-540)
Prior thought questions	Draw up a table of the cognitive faculties in the Analogy of the Line, along with what their "objects" are -- i.e., what they allow us to apprehend. Outline the stages of the philosophical education suggested by Socrates 535-540. What might be the purpose of all that study of mathematics and argumentation? Why does Socrates caution against letting people "taste of argumentation" when they are too young? (539a-b)

Class	4a PowerPoint Slides
Date	Monday, September 27
Title	Aristotle on human nature, happiness and virtue
Readings	Nichomachaean Ethics, I-II
Prior thought questions	How does Aristotle come to the view that happiness is the good we seek? Try to turn it into an argument. Does Aristotle agree with Plato that virtue is both the necessary and sufficient condition for happiness? What is the difference between the intellectual and moral virtues? How are the moral virtues formed?

Class	4b PowerPoint Slides
Date	Wednesday, September 29
Title	Aristotle's list of virtues
Readings	Nichomachaean Ethics, III-V
Prior thought questions	Make a list of the virtues Aristotle names. Pick one or two of them and think of examples of what it would be to act in excess or deficiency in regard to the associated feelings. Make your own list of virtues, or look for an alternative list. (For example, Christian Aristotelians in the Middle Ages completely rewrote the list of virtues. Note that things like charity do not appear on Aristotle's list, and humility would actually be a vice for Aristotle!)