PHI 223Topics In Ancient Philosophy

Stephen Makin

Autumn Semester 2010-2011

Course InformationandRecommendedReading

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Plagiarism

It is plagiarism to present the written work of an author or of another student as your own. (You are, however, encouraged to discuss your work with others on the course.) In any essay or exam answer submitted for assessment, all passages taken from other people’s work, either word for word, or with small changes, must be placed within quotation marks, with specific reference to author, title and page. There is advice on referencing at §29 of the Information For Second-Year Students booklet. You should have a paper copy of this Information booklet, but you can also download a copy from

http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/currentstudents/currentugs.html

No excuse can be accepted for any failure adequately to reference your sources. Merely including the source in a bibliography will be not considered an adequate acknowledgement. Likewise, whenever material is paraphrased, this must be indicated by specific reference and acknowledgement. Credit should also be given for the use of someone else’s ideas.The minimum penalty for plagiarism is ordinarily a mark of zero for the essay. Serious cases and repeat offences will be referred to the University Disciplinary Committee, which has the power to expel students from the University Students in the past have lost their degrees because of plagiarism. Any case of plagiarism will be recorded in the student’s permanent record.

Use of handouts vs plagiarism from handoutsThere has in the past been some scope for confusion on this issue, since many staff offer the advice that ideas deriving from the lecturer do not need to be cited when used. But the department has recently agreed that a distinction needs to be drawn between use of ideas or arguments expounded in lectures, on the one hand (which is legitimate without citation), and verbatim or near-verbatim reproduction of material from lecture handouts or lecture notes/transcripts, on the other hand (which is not).

Plagiarism can easily be detectedThe University subscribes to an electronic plagiarism detection service. This means that we can send any piece of writing to a machine that checks it against a database of millions of web pages, essays available for purchase over the internet, and essays previously submitted by students worldwide. The machine generates a report showing which sections of the text match something in the database, and shows exactly where the matching items are found (e.g. it gives a web address if the text matches something on the web). This makes it fairly easy to detect plagiarism, as well as providing hard evidence to back up the claim that a student has cheated. It has resulted in numerous convictions in the past. So do not be tempted!

If you are in any doubt about what counts as fair and unfair use of other people's work, ask your tutor or lecturer for advice.

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Timetable

There will be two lectures each week at the following times. Tuesday 12.10-1.00 Arts Tower LT8Wednesday 12.10-1.00 Arts Tower LT8 From week 3 onwards there will also be a weekly discussion class. There are two alternate hours booked for discussion. Details of discussion classes, and whether there will be one or two discussion class for this module, will be given once registration for the module has stabilized. The two alternate discussion slots areWednesday 3.00-4.00 Jessop Building SR 117 Thursdays 11.00-12.00 Hicks Building LT 11

Writing week: Week 7 of the Autumn Semester (8-12 November 2010) is a writing week. There will be no lectures or discussion seminars in the department that week.

Course Outline Socrates has come to represent the ideal of a life devoted to philosophy. He engaged in searching discussion with his contemporaries. He was prosecuted for impiety, condemned to death, and accepted his sentence willingly. The main (but not the only) source for our knowledge of Socrates is Plato. This module examines the picture of Socrates that Plato presents in some of his early dialogues.

We start with three short non-Platonic works, intended to provide a background against which we can view Plato’s presentation of Socrates. These works areGorgias Encomium Of HelenGorgias On What Is NotAnonymous Dissoi Logoi

We will then read five early Platonic works. Three of these are dialogues representing Socrates in philosophical discussionPlato LachesPlato CharmidesPlato EuthyphroThe fourth is a speech, which Socrates is represented as offering at his trialPlato ApologyThe final piece is a dialogue set shortly before Socrates’ execution, concerning his attitude to the verdict passed on him. Plato Crito

Finally we look at another of Plato’s dialogues, in which he considers (among other things) the difference between philosophy as pursued by Socrates and the activity pursued by (such as) Gorgias (which Plato calls oratory)Plato Gorgias

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With this dialogue we have an explicit and reflective Platonic presentation of Socratic enquiry as philosophical. The material studied earlier in the module should help you to think critically about this presentation.

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Library Resources

The Library has considerable electronic resources. I intend in this module to make as much use as possible of material which is electronically available. My reasons for doing so are to reduce pressure on a limited number of print copies of books; to reduce paper consumption as much as possible; and to give you valuable experience in using and searching electronic sources.

For a general overview of the Library’s eResources seehttp://www.shef.ac.uk/library/intro/

For a summary of the Philosophy resources available via the Library and online seehttp://www.shef.ac.uk/library/subjects/subphil.html

You will find the following particularly useful

The PastMasters eCollection (including the Complete Works of Aristotle)http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/cdfiles/pastmasters.html

The alphabetical list of Philosophy eBooks held by the Libraryhttp://www.shef.ac.uk/library/ebooks/ebphil.html

The FindIt@Sheffield system which gives you access to the Library’s ejournalshttp://librarylinks.shef.ac.uk:3210/sfxlcl3/az

The Philosophy Department website also has a resources page http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/resources/additional_links.htmlThis gives a link detailing philosophers who have posted online papers, which includes a section on ancient philosophyhttp://consc.net/people.html

Of course the Library also holds a wide range of printed material. If you are wanting to borrow books for this module, please note that the Library runs a variable loan status system. The loan period for a book becomes shorter whenever an item has multiple reservations, but revert back to standard loan when the level of demand falls. So, if there are books relevant to this module which you want to borrow from the library, make sure to reserve them if they are on loan. The Library will continue to provide reference only copies of key texts as appropriate

For full details of the Library’s borrowing arrangements seehttp://www.shef.ac.uk/library/services/lending.html

You may find it helpful, for easy and repeated access, to collect all these links in a bookmark folder in your web browser.

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Reading (topic by topic)

There is an electronic version of this topic-by-topic reading list, with direct links to electronic resources, on the Library’s myResource List for this module. Go tohttp://p8080-library.shef.ac.uk.eresources.shef.ac.uk/talislist/index.jspDisplay all the Philosophy modules, and then click on PHI 223 (Topics in Ancient Philosophy)

I have provided reading information under six headings. Different parts of the module are best approached in different ways, and your reading strategies should probably be different depending on which primary texts you are reading.

1. Primary Texts2. Background Reading E-Offprints3. Reading on Encomium of Helen, On What is Not and Dissoi Logoi4. Socrates: Background Reading5. The Early Platonic Dialogues6. Plato’s Gorgias

1. Primary Texts

The Platonic texts

You will be reading six Platonic dialogues (Laches, Euthyphro, Charmides, Apology, Crito, Gorgias). They are contained in the set texts for the module (details below). There are some print copies of these books in the Library. But you would be well advised to purchase your own copies. It will not be possible to follow the module without easy access to these texts, and the Hackett editions listed below are fairly cheap

Plato Laches and Charmides translated Rosamond Kent Sprague (Hackett, Indianapolis, 1992: ISBN 0-87220-134-1); current price £5.45

Plato and others The Trials Of Socrates: Six Classic Texts translated C.D.C.Reeve

(Hackett, Indianapolis, 2002: ISBN 0-87220-589-4); current price £7.95This volume contains three works by Plato (Euthyphro, The Apology, Crito). In addition it includes an extract from a fourth Platonic work (Phaedo 115b-118a); a play by Aristophanes (Clouds); and a work by Xenophon (Socrates’ Defense To The Jury).

Plato Gorgias translated Donald J. Zeyl (Hackett, Indianapolis, 1987: ISBN 0-87220-016-7); current price £5.45

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The non-Platonic texts

These are all accessible electronically.

Gorgias Encomium of HelenFor the translation by George Kennedy go to http://www.phil.vt.edu/MGifford/phil2115/Helen.htm

Gorgias On What Is Not (On the Non-Existent)This work has not survived in its original form. Instead we have two ancient summaries. One is due to Sextus Empiricus (from Adv Math 7 §§ 65-87). Go to the Texts and Articles folder on the module MOLE site and click on ‘Gorgias: On What Is Not (Sextus)’Another is in the pseudo-Aristotelian On Melissus, Xenophanes and Gorgias (MXG). Go to the Library’s Past Masters eCollection (see link above). For the MXG go to volume II of the Complete Works of Aristotle. The material you need (on Gorgias) starts at 979a12 and continues to the end of the treatise at 980b22

Anonymous Dissoi LogoiThere is a translation by Rosamund Kent Sprague ‘Dissoi Logoi or Dialexeis’ in Mind 77 (1968) pp. 155-167 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

2. Background Reading E-offprints

Kerferd G.B. The Sophistic Movement (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981) Chapter 5

Barnes J. The Presocratic Philosophers (Routledge, London, 1982) pp.516-530

Wardy R. The Birth Of Rhetoric (Routledge, London, 1996) Chapter 2

Burnyeat M. ‘Virtues In Action’ in G.Vlastos (ed) The Philosophy Of Socrates

Geach P.T. ‘Plato’s Euthyphro’ Logic Matters (Blackwell, Oxford, 1972) 31-44; originally in Monist 50 (1966) 383-402

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Burnyeat M.F. ‘The Impiety of Socrates’ in T.C.Brickhouse and N.D.Smith (eds) The Trial and Execution of Socrates (OUP 2002) pp.133-145; originally in Ancient Philosophy 17 (1997) 1-12

Santas G.X. Socrates (Routledge And Kegan Paul, London, 1979) Chapter 2 ‘Socrates and the Laws of Athens’

Mourelatos A.‘Gorgias On The Function Of Language’ Philosophical Topics 15 (1987) 135-170

3. Reading on Encomium of Helen, On What is Not and Dissoi Logoi

These texts are less approachable than the early Platonic dialogues. It is difficult to find helpful and accessible (ie Greekless) secondary reading.

BackgroundFor background start with Kerferd ‘The Sophistic Movement’ chapter 5 in the Background Reading E-offprints. Then look at the excellent overview of both the Sophists and Socrates in

Broadie S ‘The Sophists and Socrates’ in D.Sedley (ed) Cambridge Companion To Greek And Roman Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003) pp.73-97online via http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/cdfiles/cco.html

Encomium of HelenSee the extracts from Barnes (‘Conduct Unbecoming’) and Wardy (‘In Praise of Fallen Women’) in the Background Reading E-offprints. There is an article on Gorgias (by Charles Khan) in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: enter ‘Gorgias’ athttp://www.rep.routledge.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/

On What Is NotIn order to appreciate this text you will need some background knowledge of Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus. There are three convenient and reliable sources:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://plato.stanford.edu/Search for the articles on Parmenides (by John Palmer) and Zeno of Elea (by John Palmer)

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://www.rep.routledge.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/

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Search for the articles on Parmenides (by David Sedley), Zeno of Elea (by Stephen Makin) and Melissus (by David Sedley)

MOLE siteI have posted a pre-publication version of my ‘Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus’, forthcoming in the Routledge Companion to Ancient Philosophy. See the ‘Texts and Articles’ folder on the MOLE site.

Three items of more specialised (but difficult) reading on On What Is Not are

Caston V. ‘Gorgias On Thought And Its Objects’ in V.Caston, D.W.Graham (eds) Presocratic Philosophy: Essays In Honour Of Alexander Mourelatos (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2002) 205-232

Mansfeld J. ‘Historical And Philosophical Aspects Of Gorgias’ “What Is Not”’ in J.Mansfeld Studies In The Historiography Of Greek Philosophy (Van Gorcum, Assen, 1990) 97-125

Mourelatos A. ‘Gorgias On The Function Of Language’ Philosophical Topics 15 (1987) 135-170 [available from background reading E-offprints]

Dissoi LogoiThere is relevant material in the extract from Barnes (‘Conduct Unbecoming’) in the background reading E-offprints

Search in in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://www.rep.routledge.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/for the article on Dissoi Logoi (by Myles Burnyeat)

See also

Levi A. ‘On “Twofold Statements”’ The American Journal Of Philology 61 (1940) 292-306 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Bailey D. ‘Excavating Dissoi Logoi 4’ Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 35 (2008) 249-264.There is an online pdf version accessible via Dominic Bailey’s University of Colorado homepagehttp://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/fac_bailey.shtml

4. Socrates: General Reading

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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://plato.stanford.edu/Search for the articles on Socrates (by Deborah Nails) and on Plato’s Shorter Ethical Works (by Paul Woodruff)

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://www.rep.routledge.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/Search for articles on Socrates (by John Cooper); Socratic Dialogues (by Charles Kahn); Plato (by Malcolm Schofield: only sections 1-9 are relevant to this module)

For an overview of Plato’s life and works see

Rowe C ‘Plato’in D.Sedley (ed) Cambridge Companion To Greek And Roman Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003) pp.98-124online via http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/cdfiles/cco.html

For a selection of further general background reading there are the following

Beversluis J Cross-examining Socrates : A Defense Of The Interlocutors In Plato's Early Dialogues (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000)

Brickhouse T.CSmith N.D. Socrates On Trial (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989).

Commentary on Plato's Apology of Socrates

Brickhouse, T.C. Smith N.D. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook To Plato And The Trial Of

Socrates (Routledge, London, 2004)

Cooper J ‘Socrates and Philosophy as a Way of Life’ in Maieusis ed Dominic Scott (OUP 2007) pp.20-43 [available via Library eResources]

Dillon J The Heirs of Plato (OUP 2003) chapter 1 [available via Library eResources]

Frede M ‘Plato’s Arguments and the Dialogue Form’ in Methods of Interpreting Plato and his Dialogues eds J.C.Klagge, N.D.Smith (Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Supplementary Volume Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992) 201-219.

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Gulley N The Philosophy Of Socrates (Macmillan, London, 1968 )

Guthrie, W. K. C Socrates (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971)

Irwin T Plato’s Ethics (OUP 1995) Chapters 1-2 [available via Library eResources]

Irwin T ‘The Virtues: theory and Common Sense in Greek Philosophy’ in Essays on the Virtues ed R.Crisp (OUP 1998) pp.37-51 [available via Library eResources]

Kahn C.K. Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996)

Santas, G.X. Socrates: Philosophy In Plato's Early Dialogues (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979)

Taylor C.C.W. ‘Socratic Ethics’ in Pleasure, Mind and Soul (OUP 2008) pp.134-149 [available via Library eResources]

Vlastos G (ed) The Philosophy Of Socrates : A Collection Of Critical Essays (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN, 1980, c1971: reprint of the ed. published by Anchor Books, Garden City, N.Y., in series, Modern studies in philosophy)

Vlastos, G. Socrates: Ironist And Moral Philosopher (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991)

Waerdt van der P The Socratic Movement (Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1994)

West T.G. Plato's 'Apology of Socrates': An Interpretation, With A New Translation (Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1979)

5. The Early Platonic Dialogues Laches, Euthyphro, Charmides, Apology, Crito

Your best advice in reading and writing about these dialogues is to concentrate as much as possible on the dialogues themselves. I have given additional reading on each dialogue below. But the dialogues themselves are written in a plain and accessible style, and presuppose no knowledge of philosophical technicality. If the material they contain was supposed to be accessible to Socrates’ interlocutors then it should be accessible also to you.

Laches

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Burnyeat M.F ‘Virtues In Action’ in G.Vlastos (ed) The Philosophy Of Socrates [available from background reading E-offprints]

Devereux D ‘Courage and Wisdom in Plato’s Laches’ Journal of the History of Philosophy 15 (1977) 129-141 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Devereux D ‘The Unity of the Virtues in Plato’s Protagoras and Laches’ Philosophical Review 101 (1992) 765-789 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Irwin T Plato’s Ethics (OUP 1995) Chapter 3 [available via Library eResources]

Rabbas O ‘Definitions and Paradigms: Laches’ First Definition’ Phronesis 49 (2004) 143-168 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Santas G.X. ‘Socrates At Work On Virtue And Knowledge in Plato’s Laches’ Review Of Metaphysics 22 (1969) 433-460 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Euthyphro

Anderson A. ‘Socratic Reasoning in the Euthyphro’, Review of Metaphysics 22 (1969) 461-481 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Cohen S.M ‘Socrates On The Definition Of Piety’ Journal Of The History Of Philosophy 9 (1971) 1-13 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Geach P.T. ‘Plato’s Euthyphro’ Logic Matters (Blackwell, Oxford, 1972) 31-44; originally in Monist 50 (1966) 383-402 [available from background reading E-offprints]

Holland ‘Euthyphro’ Proceedings Of The Aristotelian Society 82 (1981-82) 1-15 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

McPherran M ‘Socratic Piety in the Euthyphro’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 23 (1985), 283-309 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Santas G.X. ‘The Socratic Fallacy’, Journal of the History of Philosophy 10 (1972), 127-141 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Taylor C.C.W.‘The End of the Euthyphro’ in Pleasure, Mind and Soul (OUP 2008) pp.62-72 [available via Library eResources]

Charmides

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Burnyeat M.F ‘Virtues In Action’ in G.Vlastos (ed) The Philosophy Of Socrates [available from background reading E-offprints]

McCabe M ‘Looking Inside Charmides’ Cloak: Seeing Others and Oneself in Plato’s Charmides’ in Maieusis ed D. Scott (OUP 2007) pp.1-19 [available via Library eResources]

McKim R. ‘Socratic Self-Knowledge and “Knowledge Of Knowledge” in Plato’s Charmides’ Transactions Of The American Philological Association 115 (1985) 59-77 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Santas G. ‘Socrates At Work On Virtue And Knowledge In Plato’s Charmides’ in E.N.Lee et al (eds) Exegesis and Argument (Van Gorcum, Assen, 1973) [available as E-Offprint via Library myResource list]

Apology

Brickhouse T.CSmith N.D. Socrates On Trial (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989). Commentary on

Plato's Apology of Socrates

Burnyeat M.F. ‘The Impiety of Socrates’ in T.C.Brickhouse and N.D.Smith (eds) The Trial and Execution of Socrates (OUP 2002) pp.133-145; originally in Ancient Philosophy 17 (1997) 1-12 [available from background reading E-offprints]

Danzig G. ‘Apologizing For Socrates: Plato and Xenophon on Socrates’ Behaviour In Court’ Transactions Of The American Philological Association 133 (2003) 281-321 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Gray V.J. ‘Xenophon’s Defence Of Socrates: The Rhetorical Background To The Socratic Problem’ Classical Quarterly 39 (1989) 136-140 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Prior W.J. ‘The Historicity Of Plato’s Apology’ Polis 18 (2001) 41-57 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Santas G Socrates (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979) Chapter 2 [available from background reading E-offprints]

Crito

The following books concentrate on the issues raised in the Crito

Allen R.E. Socrates And Legal Obligation (Minneapolis, 1980)

Kraut R. Socrates And The State (Princeton, 1983)

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Weiss R. Socrates Dissatisfied (New York, 1998) [available via Library eResources]

Woozley A.D. Law And Obedience (London, 1979)

There are also the following articles

Allen R.E. ‘Law And Justice In Plato’s Crito’ Journal of Philosophy 69 (1972) 557-567 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Congleton A. ‘Two Types Of Lawlessness: Plato’s Crito’ Polis 2 (1974) 432-446 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Danzig G. ‘Crito And The Socratic Controversy’ Polis 23 (2006) 21-45 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Euben J.P. ‘Philosophy And Politics In Plato’s Crito’ Political Theory 6 (1978) 149-172 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Farrell D.M. ‘Illegal Actions, Universal Maxims And The Duty To Obey The Law: The Case For Civil Authority In The Crito’ Political Theory 6 (1978) 173-189 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Greenberg N. ‘Socrates’ Choice In The Crito’ Harvard Studies In Classical Philology 70 (1965) 45-82 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Miller M. ‘”The Arguments I Seem To Hear” Argument And Irony In The Crito’ Phronesis 41 (1996) 121-137 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyhttp://plato.stanford.edu/Search for the article on Civil Disobedience (by Kimberley Brownlee)While it is not clear how relevant the issue of civil disobedience is to the Crito-Socrates debate, this article should be of interest in its own right.

6. Plato’s Gorgias

There is a translation with full commentary (and bibliography) by Terence Irwin in the Clarendon Plato Series

Irwin T Plato: Gorgias (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979) [available via Library eResources]

The Library has multiple print copies, and an electronic edition, of this book. You would be wise to consult Irwin’s comments on any parts of the Gorgias on which you plan to write in detail

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There are also the following articles

Archie J. ‘Callicles’ Redoubtable Critique of the Polus Argument in Plato’s ‘Gorgias’’ Hermes 112 (1984) 167-176 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Doyle J ‘Socrates and Gorgias’ Phronesis 55 (2010) 1-25 [available as E-offprint via Library PHI 223 myResource list]

Irwin T Plato’s Ethics (OUP 1995) Chapters 7-8 [available via Library eResources]

Johnson C.N. ‘Socrates’ Encounter With Polus in Plato’s Gorgias’ Phoenix 43 (1989) 196-216 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Kahn C.H. ‘Drama and Dialectic in Plato’s Gorgias’ Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1 (1983) 75-121

Klosko G. ‘The Refutation of Callicles In Plato’s Gorgias’ Greece And Rome 31 (1984) 126-130 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

MacKenzie M.‘A Pyrrhic Victory: Gorgias 474b-477a’ Classical Quarterly 32 (1982) 84-88 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Race W.H. ‘Shame In Plato’s Gorgias’ Classical Journal 74 (1979) 197-202 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Rudebusch G Socrates, Pleasure and Value (OUP 2002) chapters 4-5 [available via Library eResources]

Russell D Plato on Pleasure and the Good Life (OUP 2005) chapter 2 [available via Library eResources]

Sharples R.W ‘Plato on Democracy and Expertise’ Greece and Rome 41 (1984) 49-56 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]

Warman M.S ‘Plato and Persuasion’ Greece and Rome 30 (1983) 48-54 [electronic access via FindIt@Sheffield]