Philosophy PL3360W—Fall, 2010
Historical Critical Inquiry in Classical Culture
aka Ancient PhilosophyDr. Robert Boyd Skipper
St. Mary's Skipper's Home Page Curriculum Vitae (not available) Phi Sigma Tau (not available) SAE (Society for Applied Ethics) Philosophy Department St. Mary's University Blume Library online catalog Current Courses PL 2336 Ethics for Engineers PL 2310 Logic Skipperweb Skipperweb Home Page Lonergan-L The Decade Project Texas Regional Ethics Bowl Cool Places Internet Chess Club Internet Movie Database CONTENTS
- Textbook and contact info
- About the course
- Your responsibilities
- Calendar
- Helpful research links (Far from complete!)
- Bulletin Board
The Republic of Plato tr. by R.E. Allen
Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens ed. by Stephen Everson
Office: 508 Chaminade Tower
Teaching Hours:
Spring, 2011
PL 2336 A: 8:20AM-9:35AM (TTh)
PL 2310 A: 9:45AM-11:00AM (TTh)
PL 2336 LA: 12:50PM-1:50PM (T)
PL 2336 LB: 12:40PM-1:40PM(M)Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 10:00AM - 11:00AM
Tuesday and Thursday 11:00AM-Noon
or by appointment (or just drop by when I'm not teaching).Preferred E-mail: rskipper@stmarytx.edu
Alternate e-mail (in case the first one fails): robert@skipperweb.org
Office Phone: (210) 431-6857 (or extension 6857)
Home Phone: (512) 847-7659 (Friday through Sunday)
Cell Phone: (512) 923-0749 (Monday through Thursday)
AIM: DoktorSkipI live 70 miles away in Wimberley, Texas. I drive in Sunday night and drive home on Thursday afternoon. My place in San Antonio does not have a land line or an Internet connection. Your best bet on contacting me, if I'm not in my office, is by e-mail.
Last updated
Monday, 23-Aug-2010 13:39:55 MDTAbout the Course
The purpose of this class is to explore in depth the attempts of some ancient thinkers to understand an important part of the world they lived in. In particular, we will explore the development of the concept of the "state." Philosophers from all periods were interested in how we should live, but one key element to this issue is the question of how we should live together. The Greek answer to this question was different from any previous or subsequent answer, even from the American answer. But the American answer was profoundly influenced by the Greek.
My philosophy of education is that it is learning, not teaching. That is, education is not something that a teacher does, but something the student does. The teacher exemplifies the process, lays out a path, provides materials, and guides students along the way. But the education itself is ultimately nothing but a character-building and character-forming experience belonging entirely to the student. For example, consider learning about Europe. Two approaches might be reading a travel book about Europe and spending six weeks living in Europe. If you read the travel book, you may be able to quote many facts and figures, and you will be knowledgable, for sure, but you won't be a different person. You'll just have more trivia at your fingertips. Also, if you drift through Europe, without curiosity and without interest, you can say you've been there, but afterward you will be the same boring person you were before going. But if you spend those six weeks in Europe eagerly opening yourself to every new cultural and intellectual experience that comes your way, researching what you've seen, and asking incessant questions, you will return a different and far more educated person. But that sort of trip is not one that anyone can give you. It's one you must take.
Think of this class as a trip into the Ancient World. If you struggle with the readings and engage with the authors and share your thinking with others, you'll become educated. Otherwise, you'll spend sixteen weeks and thousands of dollars for nothing.
We will read, analyze, and discuss two extremely important works about how humans can and should live together. As both of these authors knew, to think about the nature and function of government forces us to think seriously about the nature of the human good. So our exploration into these writings are not for the purpose of memorizing what they said, but for working through these issues for ourselves. The first work is Plato's great masterpiece, The Republic. We will not read excerpts from this work, but will read it in its entirety. Although I will deliver some lectures, the course will not focus on these, but will instead be organized around seminar-styled discussions.
After reading Plato, we will read the entirety of Aristotle's Politics. Aristotle was a student of Plato's, but was quite original. He disagreed with Plato on many points and was a profoundly original thinker. He was also more interested in understanding how things actually worked than in reasoning to the best way they could be.
In our discussions, we will quickly see that these writers dealt with universal issues. Their writings were a crucial part of the education of the framers of our own constitution, and remain highly relevant today as we contemplate the spread of democracy through formerly non-democratic countries. I hope that your own thinking about modern political questions will be greatly deepened by the study of these past thinkers.
Goals for the semester
Your grade will be based on the following
- One Final Exam (15%)
- One Mid-Semester Exam (15%)
- Weekly Blogs (40%)
- Two papers (10% each)
- Active, constructuve, and informed participation in class seminars (10%)
These numbers are approximate. They are meant only as guidelines both for me and for you. If it is clear to me by the end of the semester that you are totally clueless, you won't pass, even if you did somehow manage to score technically passing grades. If it is clear to me that you have a much better grasp of what's going on than your grades would indicate, your course grade will reflect that fact. One major indicator of cluelessness is cheating. Anyone who cheats, in any manner, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, automatically fails the course!!! This may seem drastic to you, but cheating in a course like this one is the strongest possible prima facie evidence that you missed something crucial and would benefit from taking the course again. If you still don't understand, rent and watch the movie, The Emperor's Club.
To me, the most important component will be the dialogue that emerges in this class. It has two phases, the blog and the seminar discussion. It is through these that I can see how much you are learning. Grades on objective tests in my classes tend to be very poor. Furthermore, no one understands how to do a philosophy term paper. The grades will probably be quite low. But what I am trying to discover is whether you are learning anything. Weekly entries in your blog will tell me much more accurately what kind of effort you are putting forth to learn. For this reason, you may be able to convince me, through your entries, that you deserve a much better grade than all your other scores would indicate. Blog entries and in-class discussion should be thoughtful and in the spirit of a cooperative learning experience.
Organization of class. Class will be structured along two separate lines. At times I will lecture, and at other times we will have a seminar-style discussion. Lectures will cover supplementary issues, as needed or demanded. Seminars will cover the material in the assigned readings. Particiaption in a seminar discussion is simply impossible if you have not read the assigned material. So the reading assignments are mandatory and due at the beginning of each class. Anyone who has not read the assigned chapters is invited to spend the class period in the library completing the assignment.
Reading blogs. For each chapter, you will need to post a reflective blog entry before the seminar in which the reading is discussed. You will also need to post two replies to the blogs of others within one week of the seminar in which it is discussed. (Of course, you may also post replies before the seminar.) I will not accept late submissions, since the purpose of the journal is for you to reflect on the reading before we discuss it in class. The blog entry is not a book report or summary. It is your own reflection on the issues raised in the chapter. This can include questions, challenges, observations (either supportive or contrary), emotional reactions, or whatever else will reveal your active engagement with the text. I will look for the following six characteristics of your blog entries:
- Basic comprehension (Do you understand the author's main theses?);
- Deep comprehension (Do you understand the reasons the author presents for those theses?);
- Insight (Have you made connections between the author's claims and your own life or with something else, like movies, news, or literature?);
- Curiosity (Do you raise and try to answer puzzles or questions about the claims made by the author?);
- Critical thinking (Have you raised interesting challenges for the author to meet?);
- Truth-seeking (Have you shown an effort to respond, on the author's gehalf, to the objections you raised and then tried to reach a balanced judgment that takes all relevant matters into account?).
Participation. Class participation is extremely important, and therefore will not be optional. Not everyone will get to speak every week, but everyone must be prepared to participate every seminar.
Exams. The mid-term and final will be objective, multiple-choice tests that consist of content questions over the reading.
Term paper. Details in handout.
Your Responsibilities
- READ THE ASSIGNMENTS!!! More than half of the content of this course is in the readings. There will be class discussion about each reading, in which everyone will participate. Tests will always cover at least some points from the reading that we did not touch on in class.
- READ THE ASSIGNMENTS AGAIN!!! I can't fully understand any of these readings from a single reading, so I don't expect you to be able to do so either. Read each one at least twice. The first time, take critical notes (mark up the book with analytic and challenging comments). The second time, look for answers to your first challenges, look for inconsistencies that you didn't notice at first, and write down questions or observations to bring up in class. If you cannot devote six hours per week to studying for this class, you should withdraw. If you can devote six hours per week, you should.
- ATTEND CLASS. The remaining content of this course is in-class lecture and discussion. We will cover a lot of ground in each session. If you miss a single class, you will be almost certain of missing some questions on the exams.
- DO NOT USE TECHNOLOGIES IN CLASS UNLESS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO CLASS ACTIVITIES AT THAT MOMENT. This class requires your full attention and participation. Surfing the Internet, answering emails, messaging friends, tweeting, and other such activities not only remove you from the classroom but distract everyone around you and deliver a direct personal insult to me. I do take great offense to any such acts of rudeness, though I may not mention it aloud.
- TAKE GOOD NOTES. Very few students know how to take good notes before their Junior year. But anyone who does take good notes could simply read them over before a major test and make a 100. Good notes do not simply list the topics or examples mentioned in class. Good notes always consist of complete sentences or paragraphs that summarize what is said or done. You should write down, in full, every major point made during any class. You should also take notes on your reading. Note taking and blogging are not incompatible activities.
- TURN IN ALL WORK ON TIME. I will not always remind you of due dates coming up or past. You must keep track of these things yourself.
- BE HONEST (DON'T CHEAT). It may seem insane to have to say this to responsible adults like you, but I'm saying it. So listen up! Cheating in any form is totally unacceptable. If you cheat, you will fail my course, and I will turn your name in to the Dean. Dishonesty comes in many forms, but one form is called "plagiarism," which means borrowing words or ideas from someone else, and pretending they are yours. Every word that goes into a paper or that goes into a blog entry must be your own. Do not--I repeat DO NOT--take the words of anyone else and copy them into your paper or blog. Borrowing someone else's thinking is not research, it's cheating—even if you list the real author in a bibliography.