Invitation to Philosophical Texts (Fall, 2016)
Invitation to Philosophical Texts (Fall, 2016)
Instructor: Professor, Jun-Hyeok KWAK (Department of Philosophy, Zhuhai)
Teaching Assistant: Mr. Runjie OU (ourunjie@hotmail.com)
Office Hours: Weds. 2-4pm
Email: jhkwak@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Aims and Objectives
Nowadays, by a combination of internet search and mobile surfing, one can find an enormous amount of information about almost everything in the world. But it is still crucial for us to understand from the outset that our opinions about the whole world are inherently limited. Not all of thoughts about the world are reliable, and by the same token there is no opinion on them indisputable. Supposed that philosophy is quest for wisdom about the nature of the whole world, we are thereby subject to reconsider fundamental questions with which philosophy begins: What is truth? What is God? Who am I? What should I do? Why should we live together? Who made the ideas of good and evil? And we are still obliged to investigate conventional wisdom with a way of philosophy through which we can reshape our knowledge on fundamental questions.
With this respect, this course is designed to provide students with basic skills necessary for reading classical texts in the study of philosophy and interpreting their main ideas with critical inquiries. The texts are chosen with care to introduce students to basic concepts about the nature of philosophy and imperative disputes on fundamental questions in the history of philosophy. And study questions on the required readings are given in advance in order to steer the students’ attention to the texts themselves, and they will help students to understand both the diversity of opinion and the imperfection of human reasoning. The first step for this task is to check their readings on the required materials. The two pop quizzes are scheduled to see about whether students are sufficiently prepared for joining a class discussion. The second step is to guide students in an inquiry into knowledge by dissuading them from taking a relativistic view. At this juncture, study questions will facilitate an exchange of opinions without exhausting their inquiry into knowledge.
Having completed the set of reading requirements and the activities, students will be able to: (a) demonstrate a familiarity with main ideas of the philosophers in the West which are discussed in the course, (b) provide an account of the main concepts used by the philosophers covered on the course, (c) equip with appropriate reading and interpreting skills for the study of philosophy.
Materials
In the first week, the required readings will be book-bounded and available for purchase at the copy center. Unless otherwise indicated, other materials will be uploaded at the website of the department or at www.junhyeokkwak.net at least a week in advance.
Requirements
1) Class Participation (10%) + QA Activities with Pop-Quizzes (20%): This class will have question and answer activities. The goal is to check students’ understanding of materials and to develop one's ability to analyze them. Study questions will be given a week in advance.
2) Mid Exam (25%) + Presentation (5%): Take-Home Exam with the themes configured with the text requirements. You will present your essay after the mid examination.
3) Final Exam (40%): The final exam will consist of one comprehensive question and 5-7 definition or summary questions.
* Study questions for the required readings will be uploaded a week in advance at the web-site of the Department of Philosophy. .
Week-By-Week Schedule
I. Introduction
Week 1: Critical Thinking in Philosophy
[Recommended Reading] Martha Nussbaum, “Socratic Self-Examination,” in Cultivating Humanity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 15-49.
Week 2: Quest for Wisdom in Diversity
[Required Reading] Leo Strauss, “What is Liberal Education,” in Liberalism, Ancient and Modern (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 3-8.
Week 3: Reading and Writing in Philosophy
[Required Reading] Simon Rippon, “A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper,” in Writing Center Brief Guide Series (Cambridge: Harvard University Writing Center, 2008).
II. Philosophical Cosmos
Week 4: Philosophical Dispute
[Required Readings] (a) Heraclitus, “Fragment T8 from Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Lacritus,” in The First Philosophers, translated and edited by Robin Waterfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 43; (b) Parmenides, “Fragment F8 from Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics by Simplicius” & “Fragment F18 from On the Senses by Theophrastus”, in The First Philosophers, translated and edited by Robin Waterfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 59-61 & 65-66.
Week 5: Irreconcilable Contention
[Required Reading] Sopochles, Antigone 1-220, 662-733, & 937-943, in Sopochles I, translated by David Grene (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
Week 6: Moral Conflict
[Required Readings] (a) Plato, The Republic 2.357a-360d, in The Republic of Plato, translated by Allan Bloom (New York: Basic Books, 1968), pp.35-38; (b) Plato, Crito 48c-54e, in Five Dialogues, translated by G. M. A. Grube & revised by John Cooper (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2002), pp. 51-57.
[Pop Quiz 1]
II. Philosophy and Politics
Week 7: Engagement in Politics
[Required Reading] Plato, The Seventh Letter, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato, translated by L. A. Post and edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1961), pp. 1574-1598.
Week 8: Philosophy versus Politics
[Required Reading] Xenophon, On Tyranny, translated by Leo Strauss, in Leo Strauss, On Tyranny, edited by Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 2000), 3-21.
Week 9: Good Citizen
[Required Readings] (a) Aristotle, Politics 1276b16-1279b10, translated by C.D.C. Reeve (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1998), pp. 70-78. (b) Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 1140a1-1145a14,in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Robert Bartlett and Susan Collins (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. 119-134
Week 10: Take-Home Exam
III. Faith and Reason
Week 11: Evil under Providence
[Required Reading] Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 4.6, 5.2, 5.5, translated by Joel C. Relihan (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., 2001), pp. 112-120, 128-129, & 141-143.
Week 12: Grace and Reason
[Required Reading] Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican province (Notre Dame, IN: Christian Classics, 1981), pp. 63-79.
Week 13: Subordinated Reason
[Required Reading] Luther, “The Freedom of a Christian,” in Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writing, edited & translated by Timothy F. Lull (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1989), 585-629.
IV. Human Nature
Week 14: Egocentric Individual
[Required Reading] Hobbes, Leviathan Chapters 1-5 & 10, edited by Richard Tuck (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 13-37 & 62-69.
Week 15: Man with Passion
[Required Reading] Hume, “Of Superstition and Enthusiasm,” “Of Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature,” “The Epicurean,” and “The Stoic,” in Selected Essays, edited by Stephen Copley and Andrew Edgar (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 38-49, 77-91.
Week 16: Will to Power
[Required Reading] Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy 12-16, in The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings, trans. Ronald Speirs, edited by Raymond Geuss & Ronald Speirs (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 59-80.
[Pop Quiz 2]
V. Social Justice
Week 17: Egalitarian Liberalism
[Required Reading] Rawls, Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: the Belknap Press, 1999), pp. 102-168.
Week 18: Capability Theory
[Required Reading] Sen, The Idea of Justice (Cambridge, MA: the Belknap Press, 2009), pp. 5-18 & 52-86.
Week 19: Liberal Republicanism
[Required Reading] Pettit, Republicanism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 51-79.
Week 20: In-class Examination
