Topics in Aristotle

Description

This course deals with some of Aristotle’s most influential ideas. We will begin with one of his ethical works, the Nicomachean Ethics, and then move on to his metaphysics in the Categories. The rest of the term will be spent looking at Aristotle’s ideas about nature, causation, the infinite, place and self-motion in his Physics. Throughout the course, we will consider questions of interpretation, try to understand how Aristotle’s ideas fit together and engage with his views and arguments critically. Schedule: Week 1: Conceptions of happiness in the Nicomachean Ethics Week 2: Friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics Week 3: Relatives in the Categories Week 4: The four causes in the Physics Week 5: Teleology in the Physics Week 6: Chance in the Physics Week 7: The infinite in the Physics Week 8: Time in the Physics Week 9: Place in the Physics Week 10: Self-motion in the Physics Philosophy Area C