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This part of the course will present texts from the next six hundred years after Plato, beginning with Plato’s pupil Aristotle, whose millennia-long influence can still be detected in the agenda of the natural and social sciences as well as in theology. The latter weeks will compare the two great rival philosophical schools of the Stoics and Epicurus, and contrast the elaborate metaphysical narratives of Plotinus with the Pyrrhonian scepticism of Sextus Empiricus.
Welcome to the next leg of the whistle stop tour through the History of Philosophy. Please find below the texts for the next five sessions (covers 600 years). There are once more far more texts available than we can possibly get through, but I hope that the extra texts will allow you to explore and fill out what we cover in the classes. Each of the two sets of texts (for Aristotle and for the Hellenistic philosophers) is divided into four parts (labelled 'part 1' etc.). We shall be dividing the texts upas follows:
Week One Aristotle Part 1 (Physics)
Week Two Aristotle Parts 2 and 4 (The Soul and God)
Week Three Aristotle Part 3 (Ethics)
Week Four Hellenistic Parts 1 and 2 (Stoics and Epicureans)
Week Five Hellenistic Parts 3 and 4 (Plotinus and the Sceptics)
As before, take time to read the brief introduction to the appropriate section, and the select two or three of the texts that look interesting to you to read carefully. Make a note of what you think the author is saying, make a note of anything that does not seem to make much sense or seems difficult, and make your own preliminary evaluation of the author's position on the topic. Then bring your notes to the class. (This is the general instruction for all the sessions). Have fun!
John Moffatt SJ works at the London Jesuit Centre. His first degree was in Classics. He taught in London secondary schools intermittently between 1985 and 2016 and has worked briefly in University Chaplaincy. He has been involved with teenage and adult faith education in Britain and South Africa and has recently completed a doctorate in medieval Islamic philosophy.
