Universität Wien
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180080 VO-L History of Philosophy I (Antiquity) (2015W)

From the Presocratics to Plato

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 18 - Philosophie
Moodle

Details

Language: German

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 14.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 21.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 28.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 04.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 11.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 18.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 25.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 02.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 09.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 16.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 13.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8
  • Wednesday 20.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 50 Hauptgebäude, 2.Stock, Stiege 8

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The aim of these lectures is to review the History of Ancient Philosophy, but we will do so focusing on ancient cosmology and ontology. Ancient Philosophy indeed begins with theories about the world (kosmos). These theories address the questions of how the world has come about, which are the principles accounting for the world, and of what the world consists. These questions were for the first time systematically treated by Plato in his dialogue Timaios. In this dialogue we are presented with the view that the world has been created by God, an intellect, who is portrayed as the creator of the universe. Aristotle disputes that view and he argues instead that nature alone is responsible for the structure and maintainance of the world. The relevant theories of the Hellenistic philosophers, Stoics and the the Epicureans, are strongly influenced by the corresponding views of the Presocratics Heraclitus and Democritus. Cosmology becomes particularly prominent in later ancient philosophy, because for the philosophers of that time, Platonists, Peripatetics, and early Christian philosophers, the topic of the origin and structure of the world bears much on the question of structure of the human being and the soul-body relation and also on ethics. This is because contemporary philosophers consider man both as part of the world and as small world (microkosm).

Assessment and permitted materials

Written Examination

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Familiarity with important ancient philosophical concepts, methods and distinctions.
Gaining knowledge of ancient philosophy from the beginning with the Presocratics to the end with Neoplatonists and Christians.

Examination topics

We will proceed thematically focusing on ancient cosmology. We will aim to analyze the conceptual tools and arguments of ancient philosophers, their interaction and dialogue.

Reading list

Chr. Horn - Chr. Rapp (Hg.), Wörterbuch der antiken Philosophie, Münich 2002
A. Gregory, Ancient Greek Cosmology, London 2007
D. Sedley, Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity, Berkeley 2007
R. Sorabji, Time, Creation, and the Continuum, London 1983
Reader (bei Facultas und auf Moodle)

Association in the course directory

BA M 4.1, EC 4

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:36