Online Study Group for
Ancient Philosophy

This course will acquaint the student with some of the ancient Greek contributions to the Western philosophical and scientific tradition. We will examine a broad range of central philosophical themes concerning: nature, law, justice, knowledge, virtue, happiness, and death.

All work will be done independently, and will be submitted and shared with the online class. No official credit will be given. Homeschool students will be able to add this class to their transcripts. A certificate of completion will be provided at the end of the course.

The syllabus, calendar, readings, lecture notes, assignments, study materials, and related resources can be found here.

Weekly reading assignments will range from about 30-100 pages per week. It is essential that students read these assignments.

There will be three 5-7 page papers due. Paper topics will be distributed in advance. Students will participate in a "text analysis presentation" [TAP]. In a TAP, students are assigned a paragraph of text and are responsible for presenting an interpretation of the passage to the study group, together with several follow-up discussion questions.

Required Readings

Cohen, S. Marc, Patricia Curd, and C. D. C. Reeve., eds. Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy from Thales to Aristotle. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1995. ISBN: 0872203131. [RAGP]

Carus, Titus Lucretius. On the Nature of the Universe. Translated by Ronald Latham. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1951. [ONU]

Recommended Readings
Shields, Christopher., ed. The Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ISBN: 0631222146.