Philosophy's Home

In this course, we will look into the Ancient Greek and Roman roots of the discipline we know as philosophy today. Through getting acquainted with the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine, students will be able to describe early philosophical ideas and situate them within their historical context. It is an underlying assumption of this course that exploring such figures and their ideas will establish their relevance for understanding the development of major Western schools of thought in philosophy. Second, we will ask ourselves questions such as: What is philosophy? Who can be called a philosopher? What subjects are philosophers concerned with? Students will thus develop basic skills in both thinking about philosophy and thinking philosophically. Being the first philosophy course out of three in the Liberal Arts Program, Ancient Philosophy is also designed to build a solid foundation for two other Philosophy courses—Making of the Modern Mind and Social and Political Philosophy. Finally, this course complements Approaches to Greco-Roman Heritage and Thinking About Religion, first semester courses that will help contextualize the development of early Western schools of thought.