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Assignments for Just Plato
Week I
We will begin our discussion of Protagoras.
Please read this dialogue before we meet. Also, please bring a sample
of your academic writing, short essay of some kind.
We will continue our discussion of Protagoras. First writing assignment:
Length: 500-750 words
Due: July 2d (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Protagoras
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the textSuggestions:
Pick a question raised and discussed by Socrates and Protagoras. Show readers what gives the question traction or bite. What motivates the question? What does it presuppose? What difference would one answer make over another?
Please choose a question that you find worth considering. Possibilities: “Can arête (being good, virtue) be taught?” “Is arête, which shows up in many ways, one thing or many things?” “Can one choose to do what one knows to be bad?”
Avoid lapsing into your own opinions about this question. You cannot assume your readers have any interest in what you happen to think about the question. Focus on the text and the arguments that Plato presents to his audience.
A more literary question: “Should a reader distinguish what Socrates argues and concludes from what Plato would have his audience conclude?” If you think so, show by example how this works.
Week II
We will continue our discussion of Protagoras.
Second writing assignment:
Length: 500-750 words
Due: July 9th (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Protagoras and Meno
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the textRecommended topics:
Consider the demonstration of “remembering” with Meno’s slave in Meno. Socrates offers a theory to account for what the slave is able to “remember.”
What is this theory? What gives it any plausibility whatsoever, and why have many found it difficult to accept? Offer a different theory that might compete with Socrates’. What are the advantages of each theory? How will you defend the better theory against the charge of implausibility?
OR
At 80d, Meno raises a problem about inquiry, which Socrates characterizes as "that famour quibbler's argument." What is the problem, and is it a quibble? How does Socrates resolve the difficulty?
We will begin our discussion of Meno.
Week III
We will continue our discussion of Meno.
Please bring to class an example of a proof of the Pythagorean theorem.
The Wikipedia article "Pythagorean
Theorem" is a good resource. So is
this site: "Cut-the-Knot."
Be sure you can explain your proof to someone who hasn't yet learned
it.
Third writing assignment:
Length: 500-750 words
Due: July 16th (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Protagoras and Meno
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the textRecommended topic:
What has changed in Meno's thinking by the end of the dialogue? Is there a critical step in the discussion that brings about this change (if so, identify it)? In what way is this change important or significant?
We will continue our discussion of Meno.
Week IV
We will begin our discussion of Phaedo.
As you read, identify the principal conclusions Socrates and Phaedo come
to agree on. We will review these in seminar.
Fourth writing assignment:
Length: At least 750 words
Due: July 23rd (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Protagoras, Meno and Phaedo
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the textRecommended topics:
(This dialogue covers lots of ground. Focus on one question and specific passages in which it is addressed.)I. What are the strengths and weaknesses of likening the soul to the attunement of a musical instrument? Could such a view be held by someone who thinks that Science provides the measure of what there is in the world and what there isn’t?
OR
Socrates offers various arguments for the immortality of the soul. Which is best, and why?
For these topics, be sure to spell out how you want your reader to understand “soul,” and how this compares with what Socrates, Simmias, or others in the dialogue are talking about.
OR
II. Outline the philosophical work carried out by the Forms. Where do they seem most necessary in accounting for what Socrates hopes to accomplish or explain?
OR
III. Plato frames the narrative of Phaedo in a particularly complex way. Describe this and show how Plato's design affects the reader in ways that a straightforward narrative would not.
We will continue our discussion of Phaedo.
Week V
We will continue our discussion of Phaedo,
but prepare yourself to start on Republic. We will concentrate
out attention on
Books VI and VII , but we'll need to know something about what comes
before. Read the introduction by C.D.C. Reeve and the "Synopsis." These
are in the edition I have assigned. Also, there are a number of study
guides available on the web, e.g. The Classics Pages: Plato. These
in no way replace close reading, but they can give you some sense of
the overall geography of this huge work.
We will begin our discussion of Republic,
Books VI and VII .
Week VI
We will continue our discussion of Republic,
Books VI and VII. Please read, as well, the end of Book V,
474b - 480a, 13. Also bring written notes on examples of things one
encounters in the real world, although not in the way one encounters
material objects in space and time. The point of this exercise is to
explore the notion of existence and Socrates'
(c. 477a) discussion of "complete" existence and what can
be "completely
an object of knowledge."
Note on seminar preparation:
for each seminar, identify one or more passages in the text we're
currently studying that you would like the seminar to discuss. Be
prepared to show the passage to others and to say what you do
and do not understand about it. You should have your best paraphrase
either written out or clearly in mind. (Currently,
this will be the end of Book V and Book
VI of Republic.)
Writing, continuing students: if you have not completed all four essays
and posted your comments on essays of other students, take care of this;
also, by Tuesday, July 31, post an outline for a
longer, expanded, more finished essay -- in particular, post: (1)
what you intend to write about; (2) what your principal thesis is likely
to be; and (3) references to the specific passages you will be working
with. The due date for this essay will be Monday, Aug. 6.
First writing assignment for the second session:
Length: At least 750 words
Due: August 6th (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Republic
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the text
Possible topics:I. What advantages are there to the claim that our “souls” are composite things, that they are made up of parts or elements?
OR
II. Plato restricts knowledge to “what completely is,” and concludes that Knowledge -- what we can be said to really know -- must take the Forms as its object. A more contemporary view is that Science, particularly physics, offers (at least the promise of) what we can be said to really know. How do these theories of knowledge-and-being compare?OR
III. In considering what we can know and how we can know it, what are the principal lessons of the Allegory of the Cave? What should we learn from any of them?
We will continue our discussion of Republic, Books VI
and VII, focusing particularly on the Allegory of the Cave.
Week VII
We will begin Parmenides, concentrating
on everything through 134e. Use Gill's introduction, in the Hackett edition,
as she suggests. After reading each section of the dialogue (as she has
outlined it), read her comments and analysis.
Second writing assignment for
the second session:
Length: At least 750 words
Due: August 13th (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Parmenides (and other works)
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the textPossible topic:
Summarize your understanding of the best reason or reasons for accepting Plato's Theory of Forms, then formulate the most telling objection or objections to such a theory. How could such objections be met? Don't try to be comprehensive: focus specifically on one aspect of the Theory.
We will continue with Parmenides on
Thursday.
On Tuesday, I asked that
you read the article "Zeno's
Paradoxes" found in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (based
on my quick look at it during our lunch break). It's not as useful
as I thought it might be, although it might serve some of you. Rather
than spending class time on this article, however, I'd like to go
back to Phaedo 97c-102 and further discussion of Forms as causes. Please
bring your copy of Phaedo to class on Thursday.
Week VIII
We will return Parmenides, concentrating on everything through
137c and the notes you have written so far. Be prepared to lay out Parmenides's
arguments against the Theory of Forms. Continue
to press ahead through 142a and "Deduction 1." Work with Gill
and we'll see how well we can sort out this complicated discussion. Small
change: we're going to stop our work on Parmenidies at
137c. (I will explain why when we meet.) Get started, then, on Timaeus.
Donald Zeyl's "Introduction" to the Hackett edition is part of
the assigned reading. Please bring a copy of this edition to class, beginning
Thursday.
Third writing assignment for the second session
Due: August 20th (posted on web-x)
Use this week to catch up on any writing assignments you have not completed (essays or comments). If you have not missed assignments, rewrite and expand one of your earlier essays. (This accomplishment will be recognized in your evaluation.)
We will finish with Parmenides on Thursday, but bring along your copy
of Timaeus (Hackett edition). I intend to bring along a short
selection from Aristotle's Metaphysics, so we can compare the
arguments in Part I of Parmenides to Aristotle's criticisms
of the Theory of Forms.
Week IX
We will begin Timaeus, up through 47e. I will hand out an article
from The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Platonism in Metaphysics"
by Mark Balaguer.
Length: At least 750 words
Due: August 27th (posted on web-x)
Audience: readers of Timaeus (and other works)
Objective: help other readers better understand some part of the textPossible topic:
Some (among you, at least seem to) hold that Science and Religion offer distinct "discourses," or "narratives," in that Religion offers teleological explanations for what there is, whereas Science only concerns itself with... (Completing this thought, I Ieave to the essayist.)
Has Timaeus turned away from Science and offered only a "religious" account of the kosmos in Timaeus? Make a case for both a "yes" and a "no" response to this question.
We will continue with Timaeus, up through 69a5. We will also spend
time on the first sections of Balaguer's "Platonism in Metaphysics."
Week X
We will continue with Timaeus, and with Balaguer's "Platonism
in Metaphysics." During the last hour, we'll review all that we've
covered...
...until we're out of time.