A seminar course devoted to three of Plato’s most important dialogues on ethics: the Protagoras, Meno, and Philebus. The Protagoras and Meno both explore the nature of virtue, but in different and complementary ways. The Protagoras investigates, for example, whether virtue as a whole is something simple or complex, while the Meno investigates the relation between virtue and knowledge. The Philebus, one of Plato’s last dialogues, is concerned with the respective contributions of hedonism and rationality to happiness.
Course requirements: The number and type of assignments will depend on enrolment, but ideally students will give two seminars each.
Required text: Plato, Complete Works (edited by John Cooper). Hackett, ISBN 0-87220-349-2.
Course Outline [1]
