Syllabus for "The Tradition of Philosophy: Ancient to Medieval"

The Tradition of Philosophy: Ancient to Medieval
Syllabus
Mr. J. Nicholson
Office: ACAD 206
jnicholson@wayland.org

Overview
“The Tradition of Philosophy” is a set of two courses (“Ancient to Medieval” and “Modern to Contemporary”) that comprise two separate semesters. Each course can be taken individually, but the set of courses is designed to work together. “The Tradition of Philosophy” is more than just the history of philosophy; it is an intellectual recasting of intellectual philosophical traditions. By “tradition” is meant the acquisition of not only the content of the philosophical problems and ideas in the history of philosophy, but also the acquisition of the intellectual habit of thinking according to the context of each philosophical tradition.

The fall semester course is an introductory course in the tradition of ancient and medieval philosophy. It covers the major authors of the tradition, their questions and their answers. It is a text-based course, which means that the main emphasis of the course will be devoted to the primary literature each author. Students in the course are introduced to an analytical style of philosophical inquiry, one that approaches texts and arguments from within their own conceptual framework. It is not, however, a course in analytic philosophy. In order to achieve the goal of critical analysis, the primary texts of each author within each respective tradition are used. The goal of the course is to introduce the students to the tradition of ancient and medieval philosophy, its relevance and its essential role in philosophical inquiry.

The requirements of the course consist of two term examinations (30% of the final grade); weekly “written reviews” of the reading material (roughly three pages in length (30% of the final grade), wherein the student will work through one of five critical skills at a time: 1) accurately understanding and recreating a particular argument; 2) locating various theories of criticism of an argument through the use of secondary literature (e.g., JSTOR); 3) expansion of a particular argument into other philosophically interesting areas; 4) contraction of a particular argument down to its essential components; 5) expression of a particular argument into different levels of readership; and, finally, each student is required to choose a philosophical argument from ancient and medieval philosophy, research it, and write a final paper of about 8-12 pages in length. (40% of the final grade)

Required Texts
Greek Philosophy: Thales to Aristotle, ed. by Reginald E. Allen. The Free Press, 1991.
Philosophy in the Middle Ages, ed. By Hyman and Walsh. Hackett Publishing, 1973.

Recommended Texts
Kenny, Anthony, Ancient Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2006.
_____, Medieval Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2007.

On Reserve
On occasion there will be books, articles or reviews put on reserve for research assignments. They are to be used solely in the library. It is recommended, however, that each student makes his or her own copy of the texts for personal use, but this is not required. It is highly recommended that students utilize the JSTOR services for access to scholarly literature. The Internet (“googling”) is not a scholarly tool. Therefore, unless approved by the instructor, no Internet sources other than online articles from reputable journals, such as those found in JSTOR will be accepted.