Instructor: Dr. Jason K. Swedene
Office location and phone number: Arts Center 223 (phone: 635-2122)
e-mail: jswedene@lssu.edu
Website: http://www.lssu.edu/faculty/jswedene
Office Hours: see website
 

Much of what we experience, think, and create we owe to the ancients’ ideas about ethics, nature, knowledge, politics, and religion. This course is at once a probing analysis of ancient western philosophy and an exploration of its influence on our contemporary experience.

Required Text:
Baird, Forrest E., and Walter Kaufmann, eds. Ancient Philosophy, 4^th edition. (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003).

Required Course Website:

http://www.lssu.edu/faculty/jswedene

Course Requirements:

1) You must attend class regularly and participate in class activities. A one-half letter grade reduction will follow the 5th unexcused absence and each unexcused absence thereafter. Please e-mail me if you plan to miss a class.

2)There will be two full-period exams and one semi-cumulative final exam. Exams are in short answer. Make-up tests are given only as warranted by circumstance (e.g., documented illness or documented family emergency) and as granted by instructor.

3) There will be one 7-10 page argumentative essay. I will offer guidelines on how to write an appropriate argumentative essay, and I expect the papers to illustrate a degree of insight consistent with the intellectual maturity of an upper-level student. Help for the final essay: COMPOSING AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY


-Grading Guidelines for the argumentative essay

Students will give a short (15-25 minute) presentation of a topic / reading noted on the syllabus.  Within the first 5 classes, students must sign up to present on the topic/ reading.  Students must answer certain relevant questions during their presentation, Click here for those questions.  Students may choose to present with another student.  That is acceptable, but each student will grade each other's work and that grade will influence the presentation grade.  

4) Participation is not optional. Learning philosophy is an exercise in evaluating others’ ideas as well as formulating one’s own ideas. Both are essential. Keeping up-to-date with both the readings and course handouts are considered important aspects of class participation. 

5) "In compliance with Lake Superior State University policy and equal access laws, disability-related accommodations or services are available to students with disabilities.  Students who desire such services should meet with professors in a timely manner, preferably 
during this first week of class, to discuss disability-related needs. Students receive services after they are registered with Disability 
Services.  Proper registration allows Disability Services to verify the disability and determine individual reasonable academic accommodations.  Disability Service is located in the KJS Library Room 147, 906-635-2355."  

Calculating the final grade:

TEST 1- 20%

TEST 2- 20 %

TEST 3- 20 %

7-10 PAGE ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY- 20 %

PRESENTATION OF COURSE TOPIC/ READING-20%

I use the LSSU grading criteria: 97 is A+, 93 is A, 90 is A-, 87 is B+, etc.

Cheating Policy:

Any form of cheating or plagiarism will result in certain disciplinary action, which might include failure of specific project and/or failure of the complete course. Cheating includes (but is not limited to) the use of any unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes, tests, or examinations; dependence upon the aid of sources beyond those authorized by the instructor in writing papers, preparing reports, solving problems, or carrying out other assignments; or, the acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of college faculty or staff. Quotations must be used when the words are not your own and citations must accompany the use of others’ ideas, even if you paraphrase their wording. Failure to do so is plagiarism.

Course Topics:

  When?                                                                What?                        Chronology of Readings
 

Weeks 1, 2, 3	The poets and the Pre-Socratics links to supplemental readings for first week- The Early Poets         -Hesiod: 1) Theogony (excerpt)        - Who were the titans?        -Homer: 1) A page on the Homeric gods Document File of Introductory Session html version click here A Later Poet        -Sophocles: 1) Antigone	Hesiod Homer Sophocles Thales Anaximander Anaximenes Pythagoras Xenophanes Heraclitus- pres.-Rosenmund, McAllister Parmenides Zeno of Elea- pres.-Karl Robbins Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus-pres.-Burch, Anderson 1) Protagoras 2) Critias- pres.-Melanin, Spencer Gorgias
Weeks 4, 5, 6	Plato	Apology (+ Theatetus selection alluded to in class) Euthyphro Crito-pres.-Zibbel, Edison Phaedo-pres.-Carley Symposium Republic (abridged selections in Kauffman and Baird)
Weeks 7, 8, 9	Aristotle	Metaphysics Categories Nichomachean Ethics-pres.-Bk. I-Smolinske, Woltze N. Ethics-remainder readings Politics--pres. Adamek
Weeks 10, 11, 12	Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy	Epicurus (all three readings)-pres.-Pancheri Lucretius -pres.-Roth, Evans Zeno of Citium and Cleanthes Epictetus-pres.-Hopp and Spencer Marcus Aurelius-pres.-Leese Pyrrho and Sextus Empiricus
Week 13, 14	Early Christian Philosophy	Plotinus, p. 540- 552 (up to and including '5.') Augustine (handouts)

 

Testing dates: First Exam (Sept ), Second Exam (Nov ), Final Exam (Dec )

Paper due date: Dec 2 (by 9:00 am to avoid late penalties of 5% per day):