28017 - History of Ancient Philosophy (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has acquired (1) the in-depth knowledge of a philosophical topic or problem typical of Greek and Roman antiquity and (2) three types of skills: (a) philological – he/she knows how to analyze an ancient text using the advanced philological tools needed for the study of Greek and Roman philosophy; (b) dialectical – he/she is trained to discuss a philosophical problem in a synchronic and diachronic way, through the comparison between ancient and modern philosophers; (c) rhetorical – he/she is capable of arguing exegetical and philosophical theses in oral and written form.

Course contents

SFA 2022/23 (ENG)

Praise of Philosophy

The four courses of History of Ancient Philosophy this year will be devoted to a “praise of philosophy”: from the origins of the concept (BA) to the heart of Platonic ontology (MA), in constant comparison with the main philosophical models of modern and contemporary age. In a historical moment in which philosophy risks being lost in technological and application drifts, the urgency of a reflection on its history and identity is renewed. The lessons will be open to all interested students of all levels.

 

“[…] c’est un bonheur, disait Stendhal, ‘d’avoir pour métier sa passion’ ” (Maurice Merlau-Ponty)

 

SFA (1) (LM) – From Shadows to Ideas: Plato’s (Triadic?) Ontology

The course of History of Ancient Philosophy (1) (LM) will take place in the Second Semester, Third Period: January 30-March 10 2022.

Hours: Monday, 1-3pm, Classroom C (Via Centotrecento); Thursday, 1-3pm, Classroom I (Via Zamboni, 38); Friday, 1-3pm, Classroom I.

Start: Monday, January 30, 1pm, 2023, Classroom C.

*** ATTENTION - The course of History of Ancient Philosophy (1) (LM) is postponed to the second semester, third period.

*There will be no class on Thursday 9 February.

 Course contents

“However, Socrates – Parmenides resumed – if someone, faced with all the difficulties just listed and others similar, will not be willing to admit that there are forms of entities and will not separate a specific form for each single type of reality, he will have nowhere to turn his thought, because he is not willing to concede that there is always an identical idea of each of the beings, and in so doing he will completely destroy the power of the dialectic. It seems to me, however, that you are well acquainted with this”.

“It’s true what you say,” he admitted.

“What are you going to do with philosophy then? Where will you turn your thoughts, if these difficulties are ignored?”

“I don’t seem to see it at all, at least for the moment.” (Plato, Parmenides, 135b-c)

 

The famous allegory of the Cave that opens the seventh book of the Republic is the metaphorical representation of human nature with regard to the education and lack of education of our soul. Plato is a cognitive pessimist: he believes that no man at birth desires to know anything because he is afflicted by a condition of double cognitive illusion (de se and de re). As the prisoners of the Cave have always seen only the shadows cast on the wall of the cave – those of their own bodies and those of the artifacts carried behind them by anonymous puppeteers – and therefore they believe that those shadows are all and only reality, that are the things themselves, so we human beings are deceived from birth about the external world, considering real things that are not, and about our cognitive state, mistakenly believing that we know reality, as if we were living in a daytime dream, a dream that lasts a lifetime. Self deception is the worst evil for the soul because it makes it impervious to education – in fact, no one wants to know something they think they already know –, but nature has in store the antidote that dilutes cognitive pessimism into a paideutic optimism: each of us, “by nature” (physei), can know, has the ability (dýnamis). What is needed is a lucky encounter capable of activating the ability to be educated, transforming it from a power into an act.

What the image represents is then the basic intuition of Platonism: a vision of the world in which the human condition is suspended between copies and originals: on the one hand the deceptive images (natural, such as shadows and dreams, but also artificial , such as cultural, pictorial and poetic images), at the opposite extreme the ideal entities in their immobile perfection. In the middle (metaxý) two things: the mathematical entities, difficult to place in the allegory but well represented in the previous image of the divided line, and the soul, similar to Ideas although not an Idea. The dual objective of the course will therefore be: (1) first, to trace the boundaries of Platonic ontology from shadows to Ideas, from “minor entities” to ideal entities, with particular attention to the nature of “intermediate” entities; (2) secondly, to take seriously the criticisms – internal and external to the Platonic work – aimed at this ideal ontology.

 

Main Topics:

1. Ontology and metaphysics: lexicon and categories between ancient and modern
2. Plato’s minor entities
3. The classical theory of Ideas or For
4. A triadic ontology? The mathematical entities
5. A triadic ontology? The nature of the soul between epistemological pessimism and educational optimism
6. The critique of Plato’s Parmenides: an afterthought?
7. Aristotle’s critique of Platonic Ideas
8. Modern forms of Platonism

 

*The course will be supported by the permanent seminar Il Vento del Logos, this year held by Prof. Walter Cavini and entirely dedicated to the figure of Parmenides. Participation in all the meetings of the seminar will entitle you to a bonus during the examination. Dates and places of the meetings will be reported on the Facebook page  Filosofia Antica a Bologna.

Readings/Bibliography

The attending students will have to know the excerpts from ancient works quoted in the handout of the course. The critical literature useful for writing the paper will be provided during the course.

 

*Optional but recommended readings:

• Capuccino, Carlotta, Omnino suspectum?: Un altro dettaglio trascurato nella caverna di Platone (prima parte), «Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia», 13 (2021) 1, pp. 119-149; Omnino suspectum?: Un altro dettaglio trascurato nella caverna di Platone (seconda parte), «Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia», 13 (2021) 2, pp. 427-459.
• Capuccino, Carlotta, Strane Ombre: Una risposta a Jacques Brunschwig, «Estetica. Studi e Ricerche», early access(2021), pp. 1-32.
• Sedley, David, An Introduction to Plato’s Theory of Forms, «Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement», 78 (2016), pp. 3-22.

Teaching methods

LECTURES COURSE (13 lectures)

Adopted methods:

• Slow reading of the sources in the original language and through a comparison of translations.
• Linguistic analysis and semantic fields.
• Argumentative analysis and short essays (pensum).

 

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING SEMINAR (2 lectures)

• Editingguidelines.
• Reading essay of an ancient work: form and contents.

Assessment methods

EXAM PROGRAMME FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS

The exam (6 credits) includes (1) a paper of 10/15 standard pages, to be drawn up according to the instructions of the writing seminar to be held during the last week of the course (summarized in the guidelines uploaded online), and (2) an oral interview. The paper will be delivered about two weeks before each exam call on the reported date; individual interviews will provide a discussion of the paper and the study of the topics covered in class (a list of 10 questions will be distributed at the end of the lessons). (2*) Students who have never taken an exam into the history of ancient philosophy in their career will have to study in addition the Diagramma cronologico [Chronological diagram] (by heart) and chapters 8 to 12 of the Dispensa di Storia della Filosofia Antica dai Presocratici ad Agostino, uploaded online.

 

PROGRAMME FOR NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students who cannot attend for motivated reasons will have to choose, as an alternative to the 10 questions, one of the following texts:

• Capuccino, Carlotta, Omnino suspectum?: Un altro dettaglio trascurato nella caverna di Platone (prima parte), «Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia», 13 (2021) 1, pp. 119-149; Omnino suspectum?: Un altro dettaglio trascurato nella caverna di Platone (seconda parte), «Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia», 13 (2021) 2, pp. 427-459.
• Capuccino, Carlotta, Strane Ombre: Una risposta a Jacques Brunschwig, «Estetica. Studi e Ricerche», early access(2021), pp. 1-32.
• Sedley, David, An Introduction to Plato’s Theory of Forms, «Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement», 78 (2016), pp. 3-22.

Points (1) and (2*) of the exam programme remain unchanged.

 

EXAM EVALUATION

The exam will be considered overall sufficient only if the two exam tests (written and oral) are both sufficient. The final mark will result from the average of the marks of each single exam test.

Teaching tools

• Handout with excerpts from ancient works.
• Partition diagrams and concept maps.
• Handbooks: (1) Norme di redazione per un saggio breve [Editing guidelines for a short essay]; (2) Seminario di scrittura filosofica[Philosophical writing seminar].

  * All materials will be shared in class and made available to students in pdf files.

• Web pages.
• Databases and bibliographical repertoires.

Office hours

See the website of Carlotta Capuccino