Ancient Philosophy

Lecture Notes

These lecture notes have been developed over many years and draw on material presented by Alan Code in his Introduction to Ancient Philosophy course given at UC-Berkeley in the 1980s when I served as his Teaching Assistant. Prof. Code has granted permission for use of the material which is, at this point, integrated throughout the notes.

LEC #	TOPICS	LECTURE NOTES
1	Introduction
2	Socrates and the Sophists	Characteristic Socratic Theses (PDF)
3	Socrates and the Law	Characteristic Socratic Theses (cont.) (PDF)
4	Socratic Method	Euthyphro and the Elenchus (PDF)
5	Knowledge and Learning	Meno on Knowledge and Inquiry (PDF)
6	Prudential Paradox	Meno on Knowledge and Inquiry (cont.) (PDF)
7	Immortality and the Soul	Immortality in the Phaedo (PDF)
8	Introduction of the Forms	Notes on Platonic Forms (PDF)
9	Why Be Moral?	Republic I-II (PDF)
10	Justice in the City	Social Justice and Psychic Justice in the Republic (PDF)
11	Justice in the Soul	Social Justice and Psychic Justice in the Republic (cont.) (PDF)
12	Theory of Forms	Plato’s Sun, Line, and Cave (PDF)
13	Happiness, Liberty, and Social Engineering	Plato on Happiness (PDF)
14	Aristotle on Plato	Third Man Argument (PDF) Aristotle’s Categories and Early Thoughts on Substance (PDF)
15	Matter and Form	Aristotle’s Categories II (PDF)
16	Essence, God	Aristotle’s Four Causes (PDF)
17	On the Soul	Aristotle on Science (PDF)
18	Perception, Understanding	Aristotle on Primary Substance (PDF)
19	Happiness	Aristotle on the Human Good (PDF)
20	Virtue	The Greek Conception of Virtue (PDF)
21	Weakness of Will	Socrates on Weakness of Will (Akrasia) (PDF)
22	Friendship	Aristotle: Voluntary/Involuntary (PDF)
23	Contemplation	Epicurean Empiricism (PDF)
24	Epicurean Atomism	Lucretius on Death (PDF)
25	Epicurean Morality	Lucretius on Death (cont.) (PDF)
26	Death	Lucretius on Death (cont.) (PDF)