Course Description
The major writings of Aristotle.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be held to higher standards than
undergraduates in their written and oral performances.
Additional requirements might include additional papers,
discussion posts or reading responses, longer papers, papers with
more intensive research requirements, research presentations to
the class, and individual or group consultations with the
instructor.
Athena Title
Aristotle
Prerequisite
PHIL 3000 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The student will become acquainted with the pre-Socratic, Socratic, and Platonic background for Aristotle's writings. The student will read (in translation) and discuss several major writings by Aristotle. The student will become familiar with such terms or concepts as: efficient cause, formal cause, material cause, final cause, substance, syllogistic, square of opposition, happiness, accidental and essential properties. Communicating effectively through writing and speech, relevant use of the computer, and critical thinking are all stressed. During the course the student should be improving in each of these skill areas.
Topical Outline
The outline will include such topics as: I. Pre-Socratic, Socratic, and Platonic influences on Aristotle II. The style and method of Aristotle's writings III. The development of the syllogistic logic IV. The theory of substance in Aristotle V. Aristotle's analysis of causes VI. Aristotle's' criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms VII. Aristotle's teleological ethics VIII. Aristotle's political theory IX. Aristotle's aesthetics X. Importance of Aristotle's work for contemporary philosophy
Syllabus