PHIL 380 1W. Plato                                                                           Instructor:  Mr. Reed

Prerequisite: Phil 310R or permission

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  This is a course on the development of Plato's dialogues. We will focus on what Plato achieved by writing dialogues rather than lectures or monologues. This is also a course on Plato's doubts about Platonism -- which we can discover only by attending carefully to Plato's use of narrative devices in his dialogues. We will read two "early dialogues" (Euthyphro and Laches), three “transitional dialogues” (Protagoras, Gorgias, and Meno), four "middle dialogues" (Symposium, Phaedo, Republic, and Timaeus), and three "late dialogues" (Parmenides, Theaetetus, and Statesman). Students will write two book reviews, two short papers for seminar presentations on assigned dialogues, and a longer seminar paper for the end of the semester on the dialogue of their choice, including research in the secondary literature on their dialogue. Students will also take mid-term and final exams.  Writing intensive.

Basic question of the course:  Was Plato a Platonist?

In this course you will:

• Read a dozen of Plato's dialogues, some from each period of his written work (or each thematic grouping of his works).
• Make seminar presentations on two dialogues, writing a short paper (4-5pp, or 8-10 min.) for each of your presentations (20%). [The object of the presentation is to present and discuss Plato's thesis in the dialogue.]
• Write a book review of Finitude and Transcendence in the Platonic Dialogues, by Drew Hyland (10%).
• Pick a dialogue or multi-dialogue topic to be the focus of your seminar paper.
• Pick a book that focuses on either your dialogue or the topic in Plato on which your dialogue is an important source.
• Write a book review of that book. (10%)
• Write a "conference paper" (20 minutes reading time; well-researched) about some feature of the dialogue, and deliver it at a symposium in April. (40%)
• Take mid-term and final exams on Platonism and Plato's writing. (10% + 10%)
   
• In each dialogue, look for
  1. dramatic date  (including Socrates' age)
  2. narrative imbedding  (layers of telling/retelling/recollection)
  3. dramatis personae  (historical characters Plato's audience would have recognized vs. not)
  4. character portrayal/development  (what do we learn about each character, and whether they change in the dialogue)
  5. thesis  (What it Plato's POINT?  This is the biggie...requiring your literary as well as philosophical skills.)

The Standard View:

• "early dialogues" (Euthyphro and Laches) -------------------------------- historical Socrates
• “transitional dialogues” (Protagoras, Gorgias, and Meno) -------------- proto-Platonism
• "middle dialogues" (Symposium, Phaedo, Republic, and Timaeus) ---- Platonism
  • Theory of Forms
  • Learning as recollection
  • Immortality of the soul
• "late dialogues" (Parmenides, Theaetetus, and Statesman) ----------- non- or post-Platonist explorations

An Alternative Hypothesis to test during the semester:

• The "middle" Socrates was NOT Plato (not simply a "mouthpiece" for Plato).
• Socrates always fashions his suggestions to the epistemological/ethical condition(s) of his interlocutor(s) and Plato takes no care to have Socrates maintain a consistent position across the dialogues, since Socrates' position is always calibrated to be therapeutically appropriate to the condition(s) of his interlocutor(s).
• We cannot discern what Plato thought from what Socrates said, but only from an analysis of the dialogue(s) as a complex literary/philosophical whole.
• Socrates was always Socratic -- and Plato never simply Platonist.