Numbering Code	U-LAS00 10031 LE34	Year/Term	2022 ・ Second semester
Number of Credits	2	Course Type	Lecture
Target Year	Mainly 1st & 2nd year students	Target Student	For all majors
Language	English	Day/Period	Mon.2
Instructor name	Campbell, Michael (Graduate School of Letters Assistant Professor)
Outline and Purpose of the Course	Truth, Courage and Justice in Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Socrates Plato and Aristotle are arguably the three most significant philosophers in the Western canon. In this course students will be introduced to the key thoughts of three figures, and will see how their different philosophical and ethical convictions influenced the development of Western thought. We will approach these philosophers by considering how they understood the concepts of truth, courage and justice, and the interrelations between them. Along the way we will examine questions concerning the rationality of justice, whether being virtuous can be justified against skeptical challenge, and how virtue relates to our intellectual responsibilities in the pursuit of truth. Our primary texts will be selections from the early ‘Socratic’ dialogues of Plato, and selections from Plato’s Republic, and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics.
Course Goals	- To familiarise students with some of the central aims, methods, and problems of Western philosophy, especially in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. - To introduce students to certain key texts and thinkers in the history of Western philosophy. - To investigate the nature of courage and justice, and the relation of these notions to our understandings of truth, virtue, and human nature. - To develop students' abilities to reason critically, to interpret philosophical texts, to construct and critique arguments, and to write philosophical essays in English.
Schedule and Contents	Week 1 Introduction: studying Ancient Greek philosophy Weeks 2-4 Socrates - the relation between virtue and knowledge, truth and dialectic, elenchus and aporia. Weeks 5-9 Plato's Republic - the distinction between nomos and phusis; the ring of Gyges; Thrasymachus' challenge Weeks 10-14 Aristotle's Politics and Nicomachean Ethics - nature as telos; varieties of Aristotelian naturalism; reductive vs. non-reductive justifications of virtue Week 15 Feedback class
Evaluation Methods and Policy	Evaluation will be conducted by quiz (40%) and final paper (60%). Students will be given a raw score grade (out of 100).
Course Requirements	A good level of English comprehension (listening, reading and writing) is necessary for this course. No previous knowledge of philosophy is presumed, though familiarity with the background concepts of the discipline will be an advantage.
Study outside of Class (preparation and review)	Students will be expected to read the required text in preparation for the lecture. They will also be expected to complete a series of quizzes throughout the semester to test their comprehension. Secondary literature will be made available for students who want to do extra reading. As the course develops students should also do preparatory work for their final term papers.
Textbooks	Textbooks/References	Primary texts for the course are Plato’s dialogues (especially The Republic and the early Socratic dialogues) and Aristotle’s Politics and Nicomachean Ethics. Both of these are widely available in translation in multiple languages. I recommend that students acquire copies of these texts. However, it is not mandatory, as students will be provided with copies of the requisite primary readings in pdf form at the start of the semester.