II. Topics

 

The methods:

The following methods and forms of study are used in the course:

• Lectures (4 academic hours per week)
• Self study with literature
• Internet resources use

The course includes: 30 hours of lectures. At the end of the course students will make an oral presentation, participate in discussion and write an essay in English (5-6 pp.).

 

 

Main texts:

1. Franklin Le Van Baumer, Main Currents of Western Thought (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966). This is a collection of primary sources from which most of the readings will be assigned..

2. Marcia Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition (Yale University Press, 1997).

3. Bryan Magee, The Great Philosophers (Oxford, 1987) Based on BBC interviews with contemporary philosophers.

4. R. R. Palmer, A History of the Modern World (New York, 1965)

5. Lionel Robbins, A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures (Princeton, 1998).

6. Peter Watson, The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century (HarperCollins, 2001).

7. Robert Paul Wolff, About Philosophy (Prentice Hall, 2000). Translated into Russian.

8. Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics. Internet Classics Archives: http://classics.mit.edu

9. Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford, 1992). In Russian translation and on the Internet.

10. 10. Plato, The Apology, The Eutyphro, the Crito and selections from the Republic (The Internet Classics Archives: http://classics.mit.edu

Supplementary Reading:

1. Bryan Magee, The Great Philosophers (Oxford, 1987) Based on BBC interviews with contemporary philosophers.

2. Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World (New York, 1962), 101-125.

3. S. V. Perevezentzev, Practicum (Exercises) in the History of Western European Philosophy (Moscow, 1997). In Russian.

4. Alexander Schememann, The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy (Chicago, 1963).

5. Richard Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind (available in Russian and useful for a general overview).

6. A three volume work in Russian on the History of Philosophy is available in the ICEF library. Published in Moscow by Vlados in 1997.

Internet resources:

1. Ancient Greece. www.ancientgreece.com

2. Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy http://www.utm.edu/research/iep

3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: www.plato.stanford.edu

4. The Internet Classics Archives: http://classics.mit.edu

Grade determination:

• Participation in seminars 20%
• Written assignments (Essays) 80%

Course outline:

1. Ancient Greek Civilization. and The Development of Greek Thought.

a. Emergence of the Polis. Historical and political developments from Minoan and Mycenean civilization to the sixth century.

b. Relativism and materialism in pre-Socratic thought: Heraclitus, Protagoras, and Democritus.

c. The Sophists and Socrates: The Socratic method.

Literature:

• Ancient Greece: www.ancientgreece.com. Interactive site on the evolution of the civilization of ancient Greece.
• William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West (University of Chicago, 1965), 210-237.
• Supplementary: Greece, (History of Ancient Greece): Encyclopedia Britannica.
• The Last Days of Socrates: http://Socrates.clarke.edu Read the Death Scene from the Phaedo (click on PHAEDO).
• The Apology: Go to the Internet Classics Archives. http://classics.mit.edu Click on select from 441 titles. Then go to Plato and select Apology. Read the entire Apology.
• Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Heraclitus: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Go the main site http://www.utm.edu/research/iep where topics are arranged alphabetically.
• Supplementary: The Italian School of Pythagoras: S. V. Perevezentzev, Practicum in the History of Western European Philosophy (in Russian, 1997), 44-50. Parmenides: Perevezentzev, 44-50, Socrates: Perevezentzev, 78-111.

2. Plato.

a. Plato's moral and political thought.

b. The Ideal State.

c. Plato on the improvement of the soul: The theory of the healthy personality.

Literature:

• The Crito and the Eutyphro. The Internet Classic Archives: http://classics.mit.edu Go to 441 titles and select Plato.
• Supplementary: (ICEF Library) Plato: S. V. Perevezentzev, Exercises (Practicum) in the History of West European Philosophy (Moscow, 1997), 112-133.
• Plato's ethics and politics in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-politics

3. Aristotle.

a. The Four Causes: Meaning and Purpose in Nature.

b. Psychology: Theory of the soul as the supreme practical science.

c. Ethics as the search for happiness.

Literature:

• Aristotle, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep
• Lionel Robbins, A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures (Princeton, 1998), 16-25. *Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: Book 5 and 6, in The Internet Classic Archives: http://classics.mit.edu
• Supplementary: Aristotle (in Russian) in S. V. Perevezentzev, Exercises (Practicum) in the History of West European Philosophy (Moscow, 1997), 134-155. Aristotle's Ethics: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aristotle ethics: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/
• Aristotle's Politics: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-politics

4. The Roman Empire and Early Christianity.

a. From Jerusalem to Rome. Geographical expansion and growth of the Church: The causes of success.

b. Church, state and society in the third and fourth century.

c. The conversion of Constantine and the religion of the Empire. Lactantius and the idea of toleration.

d. Theories of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

• Readings: From Jerusalem to Rome: Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin Books, 1971), 9-32. Chadwick: Expansion and Growth, 54-74. Chadwick: Church, State and Society, 116-125.
• Supplementary reading: Justin Martyr, First Apology to the Romans: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-46.htm
• Clement of Alexandria, Who is the Rich Man that shall be Saved? http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-02/anf02-86.htm
• Alexander Schmemann, The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy, chapter 2, Constantine and the triumph of Christianity, (Chicago, 1966).

5. Augustine and the Transformation of Ancient Thought.

a. Augustine as the Christian Plato.

b. Life and spiritual development: A Neoplatonic quest.

c. Psychology and Moral theory: Love and happiness, freedom and obligation.

d. Theory of the state: The two cities. Church, state and society.

Literature:

• Augustine, The Confessions, Books 2, 7 and 8. Available on the internet and in Russian translation. English translation by Henry Chadwick highly recommended, (Oxford, 1992).
• Chadwick, The Development of Latin Christian Thought: The Early Church, 213-236
• Supplementary: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/augustine

 

6. The Christian Civilization of the Middle Ages.

a. From Rome to the Barbarians (300-700).

b. The Papacy and the political order (700-1300).

c. The rise of the universities: Bologna, Paris and Oxford.

d. The rise of nation states.

Literature:

• The Divisions of Time (700-1550): R. W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Penguin Books, 1970), 24-52.
• The Awakening of Western Europe: David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (New York, 1962), 79-92.
• R. W. Southern, The Papacy, 91-131
• Supplementary: The Twelfth Century Awakening: Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World (New York, 1962), 101-125.

7. Moral and political theory of Aquinas.

a. The rediscovery of Aristotle.

b. The scope of reason. The unity of philosophy and faith

c. Aquinas economic theory: The just price, trade and usury.

d. Collapse of the medieval synthesis: The harvest of Medieval Nominalism.

Literature:

• The Legacy of Scholasticism: Marcia L. Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400 (New Haven & London: Yale University, 1997), 319-359.
• Thomas Aquinas, On the Contemplative Life: Baumer, 28-32.
• Of Reason and Faith: Baumer, 51-53.
• On the Governance of Rulers: Baumer, 74-78.
• On Heresy, Baumer: 78-80.
• On the Ethics of Trading, Baumer: 88-91.
• Supplementary: Aquinas, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas

8. The Renaissance.

a. Renaissance humanism from Petrarch to Erasmus.

b. Individualism and the nature of man.

c. The new politics: Machiavelli.

d. The rise of the European nation state.

Literature:

Petrarch, My Secret: Baumer, 112-116; Petrarch, Letter to Classical Authors: Baumer, 123-126; Vasari, The Lives of the Painters: Baumer, 120-123; Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man: Baumer, 126-128; Erasmus, On the Education of Children: Baumer, 128-130; Leonardo da Vinci, On Painting as an Art: Baumer, 138-140; Erasmus, Christian Humanism: Baumer, 149-161.

Supplementary: The Artist is Born: Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence (HarperCollins, 2000), 65-89.

9. The Reformation.

a. Luther's religious thought.

b. Lutheran Ethics and the conception of natural law.

c. Luther's economic theory: On trade and usury.

d. The Calvinist ethic. Calvinism and capitalism. Weber's sociology of Calvinism.

Literature:

• The Transmutation of Europe: Politics, Economics, and Culture: William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West, 632-652.
• Luther: On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church: Baumer, 185-187.
• The Papacy at Rome: Baumer, 187-189.
• Luther, On Trade and Usury: Stackhouse, 171-179.
• Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Baumer, 189-198.
• Calvin, Letter on Usury: Baumer, 231-234.
• Supplementary: E. Troeltsch, Social Teaching of The Christian Church, vol. 2, religious thought, 467-477; Troeltsch: ethics, 523-528; Troeltsch: economic theory: 554-561.