In this course I’m going to try to give you an x-ray of the conceptual structure of Platonic-Aristotelian metaphysics. 10 weeks is not much time for this, but we’ll do our best by focusing in the most stripped-down way on what I take to be the most fundamental concepts. (By the way, the popular antithesis that is made between Plato and Aristotle is false; Aristotle inherited and refined Plato’s thought, revising it where necessary, but always working forward on the Platonic basis.) We will spend roughly the first half of the course on Plato, focusing on four works: Ion, Phaedo, Phaedrus, and Republic, then the second half on Aristotle, focusing on Poetics but bringing in bits from various other works (mainly Physics, Metaphysics, and Nichomachaean Ethics) to provide background for the concepts with which Aristotle works in Poetics. Since we are working in the framework of literature departments, we will pay particular attention to the way Plato and Aristotle think about art in general and literature in particular; but, as you will see, this emphasis follows naturally from the fundamental structure of their concepts, within which the notion of techne plays a central role. Techne, which means art, craft, or, in general, the practical knowledge by which any organized activity, particularly those that produce a made object, is carried on. An amazingly sophisticated structure of concepts is developed by Plato and Aristotle from it.

Texts:

• Bamborough, Ranford. Ed. The Philosophy of Aristotle. Mentor Books, 1963.
• Cooper, John M. Ed. Plato: Complete Works. Hackett Publishing, 1997.