First class meeting 2 September 2021

Simple Index of Course Webpages

2 September 2021 Lecture Outline and Assigned Readings

  1. Introduction to this course and its parts and requirements.
    Final, formal, efficient and material causes.
    Remarks for those beginning graduate level study of philosophy
    A Course in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
    Ancient Philosophy
    Medieval Philosophy
    Course resources; extramural resources
    Explanation of the two phases of the course
    Student course activities
    Student team presentations
    Requirements and grading
    Writing professional philosophy papers
  2. Introduction to the method of the study of Aquinas in this course
    2.1. Traditional approaches to the study of Aquinas and the novelty of the method used in this course: “Source based contextualism” 2015 Dr Nathan Blackerby
    2.2. The Depth of Aquinas’s Use of the Arabic Tradition
    2.3. Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group (AAIWG)
  3. Review & overview of Aristotle’s philosophical works and thought
    Organon
    Categories
    De Interpretatione
    Prior Analytics
    Posterior Analytics
    Topics
    On Sophistical Refutations

The Distinction of Productive, Practical and Theoretical Sciences in major works

Productive Sciences: Poetics, Rhetoric

Practical Sciences: Politics, Eudemian Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics

Theoretical Sciences:
Natural Sciences: Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, History of Animals, Parts of Animals, Generation of Animals, On the Soul, Parva naturalia (On Memory and Reminiscence, On Dreams, On Prophesy by Dreams).
Mathematics
Metaphysics

4.1. Readings assigned in preparation for today’s class: readings
Christopher Shields, Aristotle, in SEP: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/
Christopher Shields, Aristotle’s Psychology, in SEP: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/
4.2. Student Assignment: Read Aristotle on the soul: De Anima (i) 1.4, 408b19-32; (ii) 2.1, 412a3-413a10; (iii) 2.12, 424a17-b19; and (iv) 3.4, 429a10-b10. Use the translations of Christopher Shields or in the Loeb Classical Library, Aristotle, De Anima, tr. Hett: archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.183331/mode/2up.

  1. Alexander of Aphrodisias and the Reforming of Aristotle’s Teaching on the Soul. Two distinctive views in his De Anima and in his De Intellectu. Remarks on the misreading of Alexander’s text. Read Taylor 2016, The Epistemology of Abstraction, pp. 273-275.
  2. Course student teams assignments for submission to me and on the class TEAMS site 24 hours before our 9 September class.
    International Philosophical Bibliography:
    Team 1: Prepare a list of all articles and books on Aristotle’s philosophical psychology 2010-12
    Team 2: Prepare a list of all articles and books on Aristotle’s philosophical psychology 2013-15
    Team 3: Prepare a list of all articles and books on Aristotle’s philosophical psychology 2016-18
    Team 4: Prepare a list of all articles and books on Aristotle’s philosophical psychology 2019-21
    Team 5: Prepare a list of all articles and books on philosophical psychology in Alexander of Aphrodisias 2010-15
    Team 6: Prepare a list of all articles on philosophical psychology in Alexander of Aphrodisias 2016-21