2010-2011 Academic Year

Ancient and Medieval Thought (20011)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 1st
Term: 3rd
Number of ECTS credits: 4
Hours of student dedication: 100
Teaching language or languages: Catalan
Teaching Staff: Antoni Malet (group 1) and Anna Serra (group 2).

1. Presentation of the subject

This subject proposes the study of the development of philosophical thought from Ancient Greece to Medieval Europe. The course will deal with fundamental issues of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy such as the evolution of the concept of universe from the Greeks of the 4th century BC to the medieval Christian universe, the development of the theories of knowledge, the conception of the soul and the mind and its political and moral implications, etc.

Day and time of class:

Tuesday: 12.00-14.00h; Thursday: 12.00-14.00h (group 1).

Tuesday: 09.00-11.00h; Thursday: 09.00-11.00h (group 2).

Tutorial:

Group 1: time details will be given at the beginning of the course

Group 2: Thursday, 11.00-12.00h

Professors' e-mail addresses:

Group 1: [email protected]

Group 2: [email protected]

 

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

1.      Use of written and electronic bibliographical resources.

2.      Elaboration of a paper according to the standards of academic rigor.

3.      Group working skills.

4.      Skills in formulating and defending the arguments assumed in front of the classmates in a coherent and scientific fashion.

5.      Skills in developing an analytical mind towards the interpretations made by the professor, the classmates and the analysed texts and materials.

6.      Precise and well-documented analysing skills.

7.      Use of the philosophical, historical and philological terminology in the analysis of philosophical texts in its historical context.

8.      Analytical skills in analysing philosophical texts.  

1.      Selection and organisation of an analytical bibliography about topics on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy.

2.      Writing of an academic paper on Ancient and/or Medieval Philosophy.

3.      Group exposition of an article on Ancient Philosophy.

4.      Analytical study of an ancient philosophical text and its reception in the Middle Ages.

5.      Study of analytical articles on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy.

6.      Knowledge of the fundamental issues in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy.

  

3. Contents

Group 1:

The course is divided into a general part and a seminar. The general part will be developed through master classes. In the seminar, texts from Classic Antiquity (such as De Anima by Aristotle and its reception throughout the Antiquity and the Middle Ages) will be studied. At the same time, some fragments of ancient and medieval commentaries will be analysed: Avicenna, Averroes, Thomas Aquinas, etc. In groups of 2/3 students (depending on the total of students in the course), students will have to prepare and exposition of one of the articles in the book Nussbaum, M.; Oksemberg-Rorty, A. (Eds.). Essays on Aristotle's De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, included in the dossier. Optionally, other texts may be considered, as long as there is a previous agreement with the teaching staff.

 

Unit 1

The historical issue of the beginnings of Philosophy. The interpretations of the Ancients' Philosophy. The historical sources of Greek Philosophy and their interpretations. The transition from spoken culture to the culture of writing.

Unit 2

The pre-Socratic philosophers: the ancient Naturalists, Anaxagoras, Democritus' atomism, the Pythagoreans.

Unit 3

The beginnings of Philosophy as knowledge in 4th century Athens: Socrates; Philosophy as the Art of Discourse: the Sophists.

Unit 4

Plato's dialogues. Knowledge, the soul and the Platonic cosmos.    

Unit 5

Philosophy as an ensemble of disciplines. Aristotle: the Theory of Knowledge, Physics and the Theory of Soul.

Unit 6

The culture of Hellenism: the Sceptics, the Stoics and the Cynics.

Unit 7

The transmission of Greek culture in the Latin world.

Unit 8

The transformation of Platonism into a Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages: Agustine of Hippo.

Unit 9

The transformation of Aristotelianism into a Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages: Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.

Unit 10

Arab culture and its transmission to the Latin West. The systematisation and organisation of knowledge: the development of universities and the formation of the cursus studiorum.

Seminar

Aristotle's De Anima and its reception throughout the Middle Ages.

 

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.