| Course topics: ethics (the human good) and physics (the nature of things).
Course goals: through their reading, students will achieve familiarity with views of important ancient philosophers on the human good and the nature of things; in class discussions, take-homes, papers and exams, students will learn to interpret, analyze, explain, compare and assess those views.
Course texts: all course texts but one are available from the University Bookstore or from online distributors; one reading is linked to the online course outline:
Cohen, Curd and Reeve, editors. Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy: from Thales to Aristotle. Fifth edition. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. (Be sure to use the fifth edition.)
David Ross, translator. Aristotle: The Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nicholas P. White, translator. Epictetus: The Handbook. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Inwood and Gerson, editors. Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings (pp. 164-178). Second edition. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company (reading linked to online course outline)
Course requirements:
Readings as assigned
Participation in class discussions
Class attendance
Two take-homes (two or three pages)
Two papers (five or six pages)
Midterm examination (after we complete our discussion of ethics)
Final examination (Tuesday, December 17, 7:30 – 9:30 a.m.)
Attendance: Much of the important work in this course goes on in class. Students are expected to be in attendance except in cases of illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity, to be in attendance for the whole class session, and not to make appointments that conflict with class sessions. Graded assignments are based, in part, on class discussion and are expected to reflect familiarity with topics discussed. As a result, it is to your disadvantage to miss class.
Attendance is required and will be taken at the beginning of each class session. It is the student’s responsibility to sign the roll sheet in each class. Students may miss three classes without penalty. Five points will be subtracted from the final course grade for the fourth class missed and two points for each class missed after that. Exceptions will be made in the case of illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity. A written excuse or concrete evidence must be provided for exceptions to be made.
Missed classes: If you miss class, contact one of your fellow students to find out what we did in your absence and to get notes on the class you missed. Once you have done that, you are invited to talk to the instructor, either during office hours or before or after class, about the content you missed. Please do not email the instructor to find out what you missed in class or–really!–to tell the instructor that you will not be attending class.
Take-homes: Take-homes will be two- or three-page essays. Due dates for them will be announced. The purpose of take-homes is to aid students in their reading.
Papers: The papers will be essays (not research papers). They will be five or six pages long. You need use no books other than the course texts in order to write the papers. In an essay, you state a thesis, explain it and argue for it. The basic structure of an essay is: an introduction in which you state your thesis, the body of the essay in which you explain and argue for your thesis, the conclusion in which you summarize or highlight what you have done in the essay.
Essay format: Essays will be word-processed or typed, double-spaced, in 10- or 12-point type. They will have a title and a title page. They will be in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation.
All quotations will be accompanied by a reference in parentheses. Pages will be numbered. There will be no extra spaces between paragraphs. Passages that are more than three lines long will be block indented. Block indented passages do not require quotation marks (the block indentation indicates the passage is a quotation) nor do they need to be in italics. In general, a good approach is to put the author’s ideas in your own words, and then cite the passage in which you find those ideas, for example:
Epictetus believes that we are free when we are not concerned about anything that is out of our control: “For if the really good things are up to us, neither envy nor jealousy has a place, and you yourself will want neither to be a general or a magistrate or a consul, but to be free. And there is one road to this: despising what is not up to us” (19).
Generally, there should be very few ellipses in quotations. In addition, quotations should include complete sentences. Here’s an example of what not to do:
Epictetus says, “if the…good things are up to us…want really to be free…one road…despising what is not up to us” (19).
Essays will be evaluated on the following basis:
1. Do you have the parts mentioned above (introduction, body, conclusion)?
2. Do you fulfill the functions mentioned above (state thesis, explain it, argue for it, summarize or highlight)?
3. Is the thesis you are writing about an interesting and important one?
4. Does your explanation of the thesis show that it is an interesting and important one? Does your explanation make the basic concepts and terms in your essay clear to the reader?
5. Are your arguments clear and convincing to the reader?
6. Do you use specific examples from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger? Do you use direct quotations from the text you are writing about to make your arguments stronger?
7. Does your conclusion add something to the essay as a whole?
8. Is the essay typed or word-processed (double-spaced)? Does it include a title and a title page? Is it in finished form and without errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation? Are all quotations accompanied by a reference in parentheses? Are long quotations block indented?
References: Quotations in the text should end with quotation marks followed by a reference in parentheses followed by a period (references to classical texts will be explained in class). For example:
“Courage, for example, when it is not wisdom but like a kind of recklessness: when a man is reckless without understanding, he is harmed, when with understanding he is benefited” (88b).
“Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well” (8).
Examinations: The examinations will have two sections, an informational section and an essay section, each worth 50 points. The midterm examination will be held after we complete our discussion of ethics (around the end of September). The final examination will be Tuesday, December 17, 7:30 – 9:30 a.m.
Evaluation: Grades will be based on the papers, examinations, and take-homes weighted equally (1/3 each). Papers will be submitted on Canvas by midnight on the due date. Papers submitted after that will be considered late. Excellent class participation may raise your grade somewhat over the mathematical average, at the discretion of the instructor.
Late papers or take-homes will lose a letter grade for each class session they are late. There are no make-up examinations or take-homes except in the case of serious illness, emergency, religious holiday or university-sanctioned extracurricular activity. There will be no extra credit work. The student will be held responsible for knowing what goes on in class. Absences will not excuse you from knowing due dates of papers and schedules for take-homes and examinations.
The grading scale is: 94-100, A; 90-93 A-; 87-89 B+; 84-86 B; 80-83 B-; 77-79 C+; 74-76 C; 70-73 C-; 67-69 D+; 64-66 D; 60-63 D-; below 60, F.
It is the instructor’s policy that cheating, plagiarism or submission of written work for this course which was submitted in another course merits a course grade of ‘F’.
Use of the internet: Use of the internet for research purposes is appropriate. However, students should use their own ideas in their papers. In addition, they should be aware that papers plagiarized from internet sources can easily be detected.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offense. You plagiarize when you use someone else’s words or ideas without attribution. When you do this, you are putting forward someone else’s work as if it were your own.
Changing a few words in a phrase or sentence is not enough to avoid plagiarism. Instead, when you utilize someone else’s exact phrases, put them in quotation marks and cite in parentheses the person whose words you have used. It is fine to paraphrase someone, but when you do, you must say so. You can make it clear by saying “As Plato says…” or “According to Heraclitus…”. Finally, do not utilize even short phrases from another person’s work without a citation. If you follow these guidelines, you will find it is easy to use sources in your own writing without being academically dishonest.
Course links: The course outline and class assignments are posted on the world wide web. They can be accessed through my personal academic website: <deborahachtenberg.com/courses/af19co1>. They are also accessible through the Canvas homepage for this course. They will also be distributed in class.
Internet resources:
For original sources and commentaries on ancient Greek philosophy, visit the Perseus site located at Tufts University, click on Collections/Texts and then on Greek and Roman. The two main U.S. associations for the study of ancient Greek philosophy are: the Ancient Philosophy Society and the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy.
Some on-line reference books of use to students (you may need UNR access for some of these sites; visit the UNR library site to learn how to gain access):
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The on-line edition of Routledge’s encyclopedia of philosophy.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Another good on-line encyclopedia of philosophy, this one from Stanford University.
Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper
In addition to suggestions I will make in class, you may find this webpage from Jim Pryor at NYU’s Department of Philosophy helpful.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
The electronic version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Oxford English Dictionary
The electronic version of the OED with the latest new and revised entries.
WordReference.com
An on-line French, Italian and Spanish translation dictionary provided by Michael Kellogg.
German-English Dictionary
An on-line German translation dictionary provided by the Chemnitz Technical University and Frank Richter.
Liddell, Scott, Jones Lexicon
Perseus’s on-line version of the Liddell, Scott, Jones lexicon (dictionary) of ancient Greek. (To look up a transliterated Greek word–such as logos or physis–go to “Dictionary Entry Lookup”, enter the word you wish to look up, click on “search,” and then click either on “LSJ” (for longer, historical set of definitions) or “Middle Liddell” (for shorter set of definitions).
Words
William Whitaker’s on-line translation dictionary of Latin.
Studying: Many students will find that they do better work in this course if they study together with other students.
Class format: The class will be a combination of lecture and discussion. Discussions generally will have a focus rather than being general discussion or debate. Students will be asked to respond to questions asking them to reflect on the texts and the issues raised, to speculate in a thoughtful way when not sure, and in general to participate in discussion. Students are encouraged to aim at making at least one in-class comment in every class session.
Class discussions will refer to the course text. Students will need to bring the course text to class if they are to benefit from the discussions. Hard copies of texts are required.
Web surfing and sending or reading email or text messages during class are not allowed. In addition, please refrain from carrying on extensive side conversations during class discussion, and from eating during class. Please silence cell phones before class.
Time-sensitive communications: In the unusual case of need for a time-sensitive communication, the instructor will contact students by email utilizing student email addresses available on MyNevada.
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Academic success services: If you have difficulty in this course, your first resource is the instructor. After that, in some cases the instructor may suggest that you utilize the services of the Writing Center or the Tutoring Center for additional help (cost covered by student fees): Tutoring Center: 784-6801 <www.unr.edu/tutoring-center>; Writing Center: 784-6030 <www.unr.edu/writing-center>. In general, students who seek help either from the instructor or at the centers make substantial improvement in their work.
Required statement on disability policy: “Any student with a disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with the Disability Resource Center (Pennington Student Achievement Center, Suite 230) as soon as possible to arrange for appropriate accommodations.”
Required statement on audio and video recording: “Surreptitious or covert video-taping of class or unauthorized audio recording of class is prohibited by law and by Board of Regents policy. This class may be videotaped or audio recorded only with the written permission of the instructor. In order to accommodate students with disabilities, some students may be given permission to record class lectures and discussions. Therefore, students should understand that their comments during class may be recorded.”
Required Equal Opportunity and Title IX statement: “The University of Nevada, Reno is committed to providing a safe learning and work environment for all. If you believe you have experienced discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic/dating violence, or stalking, whether on or off campus, or need information related to immigration concerns, please contact the University’s Equal Opportunity & Title IX office at 775-784-1547. Resources and interim measures are available to assist you. For more information, please visit: https://www.unr.edu/equal-opportunity-title-ix.”
Required Student Learning Outcomes:
“Upon completion of this course:
1. Students will be able to state a thesis about a problem in ancient philosophy, and provide evidence and philosophical argument (including replies to counter-arguments) in its defense.
2. Students will be able to interpret at an introductory level the ideas associated with major ancient philosophers and theories.
3. Students will be able to distinguish better and worse reasoning, and recognize relevant logical relationships and patterns of inference.
4. Students will be able to show what is at stake in an abstract philosophical debate in ancient philosophy, and indicate how different philosophical positions have different practical theoretical implications.”
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My office hours are Tuesday and Thursday, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. (new) or by appointment (Jones 101A). You are invited to come by to discuss the course topics, your progress in the course or your progress at UNR. I look forward to meeting with you for such discussions. Please contact me as much as possible in person or by phone so that I can get to know you better!
Please note that I do advising in person, not by email. Please try to meet with me during my scheduled office hours, if possible. If you cannot, and wish to make an appointment to see me at another time, call 784-6742 (my office), see me before or after class, or drop by my office and see if I am there, to make an appointment.
Please use email sparingly, primarily in unusual or emergency circumstances: <achten@unr.edu>. I want to get to know you, and the best way for that to happen in the short time we have together is for us to meet in person.
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