PHL 401 Ancient Philosophy (3 credits)

What is the nature of ultimate reality? What standards must our beliefs meet if they are to qualify as knowledge? Is the soul distinct from the body, and what sort of trait is virtue? These are among the most basic questions of philosophy, and they took shape originally in the ancient world of Greece and Rome. This class provides a critical survey of the questions and possible answers provided by the founders of the western philosophical tradition. Philosophers discussed include the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics.