History of Ancient Philosophy [LPHIB001]

Learning outcomes

This course is designed to provide the student with an attitude towards the understanding of ancient thought, and more particularly of philosophical thought as it developed in the ancient period. This work of understanding will be acquired by the student through the manipulation of several tools. • First of all, the student will be confronted with a lecture on a given subject. The student will have to follow the lecture and work on the material according to the teacher's instructions. The content of the lecture changes every year. The teacher will provide a support for the course and a bibliography. At the end of the course, the student must demonstrate mastery of the subject and knowledge of at least one title from the bibliography. • Secondly, the student will have to choose, from the bibliography indicated, a history of ancient philosophy and study it. A list of questions concerning the same history of philosophy will be provided to the student as a guide for the study. At the end of the course, the student will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of the history of philosophy in antiquity in its general features and with regard to the fundamental authors. At the end of the course, the student should be able to : • to have a thorough knowledge of the part of the subject developed in the lecture and to be able to provide, at least orally, a personal and critical view of it • master in its fundamental lines and more precisely for the most important authors, the history of philosophy of the ancient period.

Objectives

The main objective of the teaching unit is to introduce the student to the authors who are at the origin of philosophy and its history, in order to make him/her discover its actuality. Its secondary objective is to familiarise the student with a tradition of thought which is at the root of philosophy, but also of our Western culture, and to make him/her appreciate its richness and specific characteristics.

Content

Ancient philosophy was born as a knowledge that wanted to find a 'logical' explanation for the order of the world. It is intended as a 'rational' knowledge that distances itself from myth and seeks the reasons for things, their causes and the effects they can produce. It is progressively constructed as a discourse and it elaborates a logic from which our western science, among others, will be born. A part of the course will seek to explore the foundations of this rationality, by highlighting the relationship of the first philosophers to "truth" and "reason". But philosophy in antiquity has always been understood also as a "way of life". The ethical - or "practical" - dimension of philosophical discourse was one of the essential characteristics of ancient philosophy, one of the most original. It seems to fascinate contemporaries who find in it the proposal of a moral theory capable of articulating theoretical knowledge and practical experience, of taking into account the "situation of the agent, without giving up an objective reference of the latter to a common good. In particular, the course will explore this ethical dimension of ancient philosophy, trying to show how it can dialogue with contemporary ethical theories such as those of Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Martha Nussbaum, A. McItntyre and also Judith Butler on the theory of the good and the ethics of virtues.