43655 PHIL-202-01 ANCIENT
GREEK PHILOSOPHY: STOIC ETHICS WINTER
2018 F 2:00 PM-5:00 PM, HUMANITIES 1 400 SYLLABUS
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Professor: Office Hours: |
E-mail: jbowin@ucsc.edu Phone: 459-5676 Office: Cowell
Annex A-111 |
Required Texts: |
The following text is available at The
Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust Street, Santa Cruz: The
Discourses of Epictetus, The Handbook, Fragments, (The Everyman Library), C. Gill (ed.)
R. Hard (tr.), Everyman Paperback: 1995. ISBN:
978-0460873123. Two required course readers with
additional readings are also available at the Bay Tree Bookstore: 1.) Primary Texts (PT) 2.) Secondary Sources (SS) I will
maintain a course web page at http://people.ucsc.edu/~jbowin/Stoics/phil202.html for the purpose of posting
announcements. |
Course Description: |
This course is a survey of
Stoic Ethics in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. We will attend both to the theoretical
efforts of early Stoa such as Zeno and Chrysippus as well as to the therapeutic and protreptic writings of later figures such as Seneca and
Epictetus. We will also discuss some
recent applications of Stoic ethics to the military. |
Requirements: |
1.) One term paper of about
20-25 pages, due on March 21, 2016. 2.) One 20-25 minute
presentation to the class on a topic relevant to this syllabus. The presentation may be on the same topic
as the final paper. |
Evaluation: |
Students will be evaluated
based on their written work, primarily their term papers (75%), and on
assigned presentations to the class (25%). |
Annas, Julia. The Morality of Happiness. New York: Oxford University Press,
1993. Becker,
Lawrence. A New Stoicism.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Long,
A. A. & Sedley, D. N. The Hellenistic Philosophers. vols. 1 &
2 The principal sources in translation with philosophical commentary.
Cambridge University Press, 1987. Nussbaum,
Martha C. The Therapy of Desire.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Sherman,
N. Stoic Warriors. The Ancient
Philosophy behind the Military Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2005. |
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Podcasts on eCommons (Optional): |
There
are 13 optional podcasts on Canvas. |
COURSE OUTLINE I. Following Nature; Virtue (Weeks 1-2) Reading: The
Epitomes of Diogenes Laertius, Arius Didymus, and Cicero, PT, §§1A-C. Other
Sources, PT, §§2A-7G. Annas,
Julia. Chapter 5, "The Stoics: Human Nature and the Point of View of the
Universe," in The Morality of
Happiness, 159-179. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. (SS, pp. 5-25) White,
Nicholas P. "Stoic Values." Monist 73 (1) (January 1990): 42-58. (SS, pp. 27-43) II. Happiness (Week 2-3) Reading: Happiness, PT, §§8A-10C. Irwin,
T. H. "Stoic and Aristotelian Conceptions of Happiness." In The Norms of Nature: Studies in
Hellenistic Ethics, edited by Gisela Striker and Malcolm Schofield,
205-44. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (SS, pp. 46-85) III. The Cynics (Week 3-4) Reading: The
Cynics, PT, §§11A-19B. Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 24; Book
3, Chapter 22. IV. The Passions (Weeks 5-6) Reading: 1
Zeno, Chrysippus, and Posidonius. Zeno, Chrysippus, and Posidonius, PT, §§20A-E. Nussbaum,
M. "The Stoics on the Extirpation of the Passions." Apeiron 20 (2)
(1987):129-177. (SS,
pp. 88-136) Sorabji, R. "Chrysippus
– Posidonius – Seneca: A High-Level Debate on Emotion." In The Emotions in Hellenistic Philosophy, edited by J. Sihvola & T. Engberg- Pedersen, 149-169. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1998. (SS, pp. 138-158) 2
Seneca. Seneca,
On Anger, PT, §21A. Nussbaum,
Martha C. "Seneca on Anger in Public Life" In The Therapy of Desire, 402-438. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1994. (SS, pp. 161-197) Sherman,
N. Chapter 4, "A Warrior's Anger." In Stoic Warriors. The Ancient Philosophy behind the Military Mind,
65-100. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. (SS, pp. 199-240) V. Determinism & Moral Responsibility (Weeks
7-8) Reading: Cicero, PT §22A. Other
Sources, PT, §§23A-K. Epictetus, Discourses, Book 2, Chapter 19, §1. Hankinson,
R. J. "Determinism and Indeterminism." In The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy, edited by Keimpe Algra, Jonathan Barnes, Jaap Mansfeld, and Malcolm
Schofield, 513–41. (SS, pp.
242-270) Bobzien, S., "Stoic Conceptions of Freedom and their
Relation to Ethics." In Aristotle
and After, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Supplement 68,
edited by R. Sorabji, (1997): 71–89. (SS, pp. 272-290) Harry
Frankfurt, “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility.” The Journal of
Philosophy, Vol. 66, No. 23. (Dec. 4, 1969), pp. 829-839. (SS, pp. 292-302) VI. Freedom & Autonomy (Week 9) Reading: 1
Seneca. Seneca,
Letters, PT, §§24A-F. Inwood, Brad. "Seneca on Freedom and Autonomy" In Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient
Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji,
edited by R. Salles, 489-505. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2005. (SS, pp. 305-321) 2
Epictetus. Epictetus,
Discourses, Book 1, Ch. 1-3, 6, 9,
12, 14, 19, 25, 28, Book 2, Ch. 1. Sherman,
N. Chapter 1, "A Brave New Stoicism" in Stoic Warriors. The Ancient Philosophy behind the Military Mind,
1-12. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. (SS, pp. 324-336) Stockdale,
J. "Courage Under Fire - Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory
of Human Behavior" in Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot,
185-201. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1995. (SS, pp. 338-354) VII. Epictetus' Discourses (Week 10) Reading: Epictetus, Discourses, Book 2, Ch. 5, 8, 11, 16, 19, Book 3, Ch. 1,
3, 24, Book 4, Ch. 1, 5, 6, Handbook 5, 19, 31, Fragment 4. |