Topics in Ancient Philosophy
Module Code: PI3003
Module Name: Plato and Aristotle: Epistemology and Metaphysics
- ECTS Weighting: 10
- Semester/Term Taught: Hilary Term
- Contact Hours: 22 hours of lecture
- Module Personnel: Lecturers – Professor Vasilis Politis
Module Content
There is much to the epistemology and metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle. We shall concentrate on three great works.
1. Plato's Theaetetus. Socrates asks 'What is knoweldge?', and the young mathematician Theaetetus proposes that knowledge is sense–perception. This proposal is then subjected to extended examination, in the course of which the thesis that knowledge is perception is associated with relativism and subjectivism. The thesis is ultimately rejected on two grounds: it makes rational discourse impossible; and it misses the crucial point about knowledge, namely, that it grasps being. The proposal that knowledge is sense–perception, and Plato's argument against it, are as interesting and important today as when this masterpiece came out.
2. Plato's Timaeus. There is much in this dialogue, but we shall concentrate on Plato's cosmology and physics, that is, his science of the physical (spatio–temporal) universe – his science of nature. Plato's science of nature is shot through with metaphysics; in this regard it resembles the more speculative side of current physics. Plato argues, among other things, that nature is an image of super–sensible essences, and that this is the only way to explain the orderliness and intelligibility of nature; and that these essences can be operative in nature, and so provide a foundation for its orderliness, only if we suppose that nature is not only intelligible (i.e., subject to explanation), but also intelligent – it is a huge embodied mind.
3. Aristotle's Metaphysics.
A. In the third book of the Metaphysics Aristotle argues that the starting–point of primary philosophy cannot be anything else but: basic philosophical problems, or aporiai. And he goes on to articulate some fifteen such aporiai. We shall consider this method of philosophy, and some of the aporiai – which are not only questions in metaphysics, but questions about the very nature and possibility of metaphysics.
B. One such question is whether primary philosophy is to be identified with logic (i.e., the science of the principles of reasoning) or ontology (i.e., the science of being). We know that Aristotle will defend the latter view, but how does he do so and what does he think is wrong with thinking that logic is the basis of philosophy and indeed of all science?
C. Finally, what exactly is ontology for Aristotle? Why does he think there is a science of being, over and above the various specialised sciences which treat of some kind of being or other: mathematics of countable and measurable beings; physics of moving beings; biology of living beings, etc. How can there be anything more to study about being, or what there is? Aristotle owes us an answer, if we are not to end up with Quine and the view that metaphysics and the question 'What is there?' is adequately and fully dealt with by the specialised sciences.
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module, students will be able to:
- describe and analyse ancient theories of knowledge and being;
- draw connections between ancient and modern philosophy;
- assess arguments about ancient natural philosophy.