Course Description

01 (A. Skiles) This course introduces some of the main elements in the thought of Plato and Aristotle—perhaps the two most influential philosophers in the Western tradition—by exploring their differing views on a number of core topics in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind and language, and the philosophy of science. After a short overview of several important 'Presocratic' philosophers that Plato and Aristotle are reacting to, we will be closely reading (i) Plato's Meno, Phaedo, books V-VII of Republic, a selection from Parmenides, and all or most of Theaetetus and The Sophist, and (ii) selections from Aristotle's Categories, Posterior Analytics, Physics, On the Soul, and Metaphysics.