Philosophy 160

Philosophy 160 is an opportunity to study and discuss some of the greatest works by the one of the greatest philosophers in the Western tradition. As taught this term, the class will focus especially on Plato’s epistemology—his account of what knowledge (as opposed to mere opinion) is, how it might be acquired, and why it is valuable. But the systematic character of Plato’s thought, and the fact that one of his central epistemic concerns is with ethical knowledge, means that, along the way, we will discuss a wide range of other philosophical topics, including: the structure of the soul (psychē); what justice requires of us; the value and meaning of love (erōs); how virtue is acquired; the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric; and what it means to live a philosophical life. We will also pay particular attention to the literary and dramatic qualities of his work, in order to consider the relationship between the Platonic dialogue as literature and as philosophy.

Our goal will be both to gain an overview of Plato’s philosophical thought and to study his writing with the care and closeness it deserves. To that end, in the first half of the course, we’ll read several of Plato’s dialogues that touch on questions about knowledge, including the Meno, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic (excerpts from IV, V-VII), and Phaedrus (excerpts). But, in the second half, we will undertake a much closer reading of one of Plato’s most exciting and philosophically sophisticated works, the Theaetetus—a dialogue which, although less widely read than works like the Symposium or Republic, has been an important source of inspiration to later philosophers, from Aristotle to Leibniz to Wittgenstein.