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Course, academic year 2024/2025
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Introduction to the Philosophy of Plato - YBAJ214
Title: Introduction to the Philosophy of Plato
Guaranteed by: Programme Liberal Arts and Humanities (24-SHVAJ)
Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
Actual: from 2024
Semester: summer
E-Credits: 4
Examination process: summer s.:
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/2, MC [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (20)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences:  
State of the course: not taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: prof. Burt Crowell Hopkins
Class: Courses available to incoming students
Examination dates   Schedule   Noticeboard   
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.
Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (04.01.2024)
Course completion requirements -

Students will be evaluated based upon the following two distinct parameters:

(1) Participation (which includes, yet is not limited to attendance, in-class active participation). If you

are absent, please ask some of your classmates for any assignments or key discussion materials missed.

(2) A Final Oral Exam (dates and additional info will be provided in due course)

Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (04.01.2024)
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)

Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (04.01.2024)
Learning resources -

Plato, A Plato Reader, ed. C.D.C. Reeve, Hackett

Last update: Kučabová Veronika, Bc. (04.01.2024)
 
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