I designed this ancient (mostly Greek) philosophy course around three units: the Presocratics through Socrates and the sophists, Plato and Aristotle, and Hellenistic thought. In this blog entry, I will focus on sharing the essay topic ideas I developed for units one and two as well as the culminating class activity which is a dramatic reading of Plato’s Symposium.
The first unit of the course, encompassing 1/3 of the duration of the semester, focuses on the emergence of Western thought. Students are assigned to read selections from Homer and Hesiod and then the work of approximately ten Presocratic philosophers before turning to Socrates’ ideas (via some of Plato’s early dialogues) and some short selections from the sophists. Aside from pop quizzes on the readings, students are assessed via an essay response to the following prompt: “What does Thales’ prediction of a solar eclipse on May 28, 585 b.c.e. symbolize in terms of the developments of later philosophers?” What I am looking for in student responses is a recognition of important changes between Homer (c. 8th century b.c.e.) and, say, Parmenides, (early 5th century). For the earlier poetic tradition, I selected passages in which the gods intervene in human affairs and in which the actions of the gods explain natural phenomena. Regarding the Presocratics, I encourage students to find common themes among these distinct individuals and traditions, rather than just focusing on their clear differences. Likewise, I encourage students to think about what Socrates and the sophists (typically presented as diametrically opposed) actually have in common. For instance, the question of human values comes to the fore in the 5th century more so than with the Presocratics, who tended to focus on metaphysical and cosmological issues. One key takeaway I hope this unit gives students is that the study of philosophical ideas can be a way of doing history and of explaining changing social conditions.
In the second unit of the course, students will focus on the systematic philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. In the past, I have assigned the entirety of The Republic, but I will likely cut almost all of that work in the future, in favor of short selections combined with some of Plato’s later dialogues (e.g. Timaeus and Gorgias). The question students are asked to respond to in their essays for this unit is, “Why does Raphael paint Plato as pointing up and Aristotle as pointing down in his fresco School of Athens (c. 1510 c.e.)?” This broad question allows students free reign to select from a wide range of domains we discussed in class for distinguishing Plato and Aristotle (e.g. whether it’s worthwhile to study the physical world, whether investigations should begin with or work up to ideals, accounts of the gods, and the universe, the possibilities of an afterlife). I should note, in developing the essay prompts for both these units, I am indebted to William Lawhead’s Voyage of Discovery (my all-time favorite textbook).
The crown jewel of the course, at least for me, is the final dramatic reading from Plato’s Symposium. At my institution, final exam times are 110 minutes long. Adding in the last regular class session, I devote 160 minutes of class time to this activity, plus two approximately 10-minute lead-up sessions in which I explain the activity and assign parts. That’s right… I assign character parts to each student. The last time I taught the course, there were fifteen enrolled students; we ended up splitting the Apollodorus (narrator) and Aristophanes parts in two and there were three Socrateses and Diotemas. It took approximately 150 minutes to complete the reading; thus, we were able to have a ten-minute break in the middle of the final exam session (I provided some food and sparkling grape juice) during which we had an informal discussion. Discussion continued after the session for those students who were able to stick around.
I find the activity was very much worthwhile, and I believe my students would agree. Rather than analyzing ancient texts, as we had been doing all semester, this culminating activity allowed us to be emersed together within a quintessential ancient Greek philosophical experience: the symposium. I certainly think there is much in Plato’s Symposium worth discussing and debating, but it also works as a stand-alone activity to simply take in (and bring to life!).
As far as prep work, organizing the activity was rather tedious the first time through. The version of the text I assign (see the syllabus) does not indicate speaker changes. I had to provide a sheet indicating the page numbers at which each student’s character speaks (I am happy to share all my materials with other instructors upon request); I made the students responsible for marking the precise terminal points of their lines. I also assigned the students focus sections from the introduction of the text so that they could learn more about the people/characters and themes most relevant to their assignments. One key bit of advice: it is important to choose your Alcibiades wisely because that character’s entrance is the capstone to the whole experience. Pick a strong reader who has done well in the course and has a flare for the dramatic.
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Robert Earle
Robert Earle is a visiting assistant professor in the Philosophy and World Religions Department at the University of Northern Iowa. He regularly teaches ancient philosophy, a variety of ethics courses, and courses within the humanities sequence. Professor Earle received his PhD in 2015 from SUNY Buffalo (Philosophy) with a dissertation on environmental ethics and aesthetics. His areas of specialization are environmental ethics and the history of ethics.
