BASC70193 - Plato’s Early Dialogues

Course Description

We'll read and discuss six of Plato’s early dialogues, at a pace of about 15-20 Stephanus pages per meeting. These texts portray conversations about fundamental topics in ethics – courage, temperance, piety and the kalon (the beautiful, admirable or fine), the relationship between virtue and knowledge, how virtue is acquired, whether it’s worse to do wrong voluntarily or involuntarily, whether the person who knows better can still do wrong, and so forth. Although they demand careful study, these dialogues are more grounded and less speculative than Plato’s more famous works, making little to no reference to the Forms, the immortality of the soul, the theory of recollection or the ideal political community. In them Socrates speaks with prominent sophists, statesmen and generals, a priest, and several promising young men, generally about matters of immediate practical concern. We’ll try to appreciate these dialogues for the philosophically rich works of historical fiction that they are, tracking the arguments and their points of contact, testing objections, exploring our own views about the topics discussed, considering literary questions about character, structure and plot, and generally trying to determine what Plato might be up to.

Course Outline

Course Syllabus

Notes

Online registration closes June 8 at 5 pm CT.