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Παρουσίαση/Προβολή

Εικόνα επιλογής

Early Greek Philosophy: The Cosmological Debate

(PHS581) -  Stavros Kouloumentas

Περιγραφή Μαθήματος

The course analyses how early Greek philosophers conceptualised the cosmos as an orderly system and debated on  problems pertaining to existence, cause, change, time and space. The following questions will be addressed: Why a vast array of natural phenomena are reduced to a single or a few principles (substances, opposites, personified forces) in most philosophical systems? What sort of laws govern the relationship between these principles? How the large-scale processes form and affect living beings? What sort of argumentative strategies are used in illustrating the structure, development and functioning of the cosmos? How each philosopher criticises his predecessors and attempts to overcome their doctrinal failures? Seminars offer a close examination of the relevant theories of the key figures (Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Democritus) and concentrate on topics to which they contributed significantly.

Ημερομηνία δημιουργίας

Τετάρτη 15 Μαρτίου 2023

Σελίδα Μαθήματος
  • Περίγραμμα

    Bibliography

    Α. Primary Sources:

    1. Diels, H. 1879. Doxographi Graeci. Berlin.
    2. Diels, H. and W. Kranz 1951-2. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Griechisch und deutsch, vols. I-III, sixth edition. Berlin.
    3. Graham, D. W. 2010. The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy. The Complete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics. Cambridge.
    4. Kirk, G. S., J. E. Raven and M. Schofield 1983. The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts, 2nd edition. Cambridge.
    5. Laks, A. and G. W. Most 2016. Early Greek Philosophy, vol. I: Introductory and Reference Materials; vol. II: Beginnings and Early Ionian Thinkers, part 1; vol. III: Early Ionian Thinkers, part 2; vol. IV: Western Greek Thinkers, part 1; vol. V: Western Greek Thinkers, part 2; vol. VI: Later Ionian and Athenian Thinkers, part 1; vol. VII: Later Ionian and Athenian Thinkers, part 2. Cambridge MA.

     

    Β. Secondary Bibliography:

    1. Barnes, J. 1982. The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd edition. London, New York.
    2. Betegh, G. 2016. ‘Archelaus on Cosmogony and the Origins of Social Institutions’, OSAP 51: 1-40.
    3. Buxton, R. (ed.) 1999. From Myth to Reason? Studies in the Development of Greek Thought. Oxford.
    4. Cole, T. 1967. Democritus and the Sources of Greek Anthropology. Cleveland.
    5. Coxon, A. 2009. The Fragments of Parmenides: A Critical Text with Introduction, Translation, the Ancient Testimonia and a Commentary, 2nd edition. Las Vegas, Zurich, Athens.
    6. Curd, P. and D. W. Graham (eds.) 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. Oxford, New York.
    7. Guthrie, W. K. C. 1962-5. A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. I: The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans (1962); vol. II:The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus (1965). Cambridge.
    1. Kahn, C. H. 1960. Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. New York, London.
    2. Kahn, C. H. 1979. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: An Edition of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary. Cambridge.
    3. Kahn, C. H. 2003. ‘Writing Philosophy: Prose and Poetry from Thales to Plato’, in H. Yunis (ed.), Written Texts and the Rise of Literate Culture in Ancient Greece: 139-61. Cambridge.
    4. Kirk, G. S. 1954. Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments. Edited with an Introduction and Commentary. Cambridge.
    5. Laks, A. 2018. The Concept of Presocratic Philosophy: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. Princeton NJ.
    6. Lloyd, G. E. R. 1966. Polarity and Analogy: Two Types of Argumentation in Early Greek Thought. Cambridge.
    7. Long, Α. Α. (ed.) 1999. The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge.
    8. Mansfeld, J. and D. T. Runia 1997-2020. Aëtiana, vols. I-V. Leiden.
    9. Marcovich, M. 2001. Heraclitus: Greek Text with a Short Commentary, 2nd edition. Sankt Augustin.
    10. Mourelatos, A. P. D. (ed.) 1993. The Pre-Socratics: A Collection of Critical Essays, 2nd edition. Princeton NJ.
    11. Mourelatos, A. P. D. 2008. The Route of Parmenides: A Study of Word, Image and Argument in the Fragments, 2nd edition. Las Vegas, Zurich, Athens.
    12. O’Brien, D. 1969. Empedocles’ Cosmic Cycle: A Reconstruction from the Fragments and Secondary Sources. Cambridge.
    13. Owen, G. E. L. 1960. ‘Eleatic Questions’, CQ 10: 84-102.
    14. Sedley, D. N. 2007. Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London.
    15. Steel, C. (ed.) 2012. Aristotle Metaphysics Alpha: Symposium Aristotelicum. With a New Critical Edition of the Greek Text by Oliver Primavesi. Οxford.
    16. Taylor, C. C. W. 1999. The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus. Fragments: A Text and Translation with Commentary. Toronto, Bufallo, London.
    17. Vernant, J.-P. 1962. Les origines de la pensée grecque. Paris.
    18. West, M. L. (ed.) 1966. Hesiod: Theogony. Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary. Oxford.
    19. Wiggins, D. 1982. ‘Heraclitus’ Conceptions of Flux, Fire and Material Persistence’, in M. Schofield and M. Nussbaum (eds.), Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G. E. L. Owen: 1-32. Cambridge.
    20. Wright, M. R. 1995a. Empedocles: The Extant Fragments. Edited with Introduction, Commentary, Concordance and New Bibliography, 2nd edition. Bristol.
    21. Wright. M. R. 1999b. Cosmology in Antiquity. London, New York.

    Resources on the Web:

    1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/
    2. JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org
    3. Perseus Digital Library: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper
    4. Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/

    Course Objectives/Goals

    Upon successful completion of the course, students:

    1. will  close reading and interpretation of philosophical texts;

    2. will be able to understand how key concepts such as being and becoming, accident and design, movement and rest were first formed and debated;

    3. will be familiar with the main philosophical questions raised and the various arguments formulated during sixth and fifth centuries BC;

    4. will comprehend the main features of early Greek philosophy (fruitful exchange of ideas, diversity, interaction with other intellectual fields) that paves the way for the emergence of the philosophical systems of the classical era;

    5. will acquaint themselves with the ideas, terminology and exegetical tools of Peripatetic and Neoplatonic authors who comment on their predecessors