Admission requirements
Admission to this course is restricted to:
BA students in Philosophy: Global and Comparative Perspectives, who have successfully completed at least 70 ECTS credits of the mandatory components of the first and second year of their bachelor’s programme, including Philosophical Skills and one of the following courses: Logic OR World Philsophies: Greek and Roman Antiquity.
BA students in Filosofie, who have successfully completed at least 70 ECTS credits of the mandatory components of the first and second year of their bachelor’s programme, including Filosofische vaardigheden and one of the following courses: Logica OR Griekse en Romeinse filosofie.
Description
In this seminar we study one of Aristotle’s most influential works, the De anima (On the soul), which for Aristotle served as the preface to his study of biology. We read the most important sections of this work with occasional excursions to related works in the Aristotelian corpus, and we discuss a limited selection of modern publications in Aristotelian studies alongside later ancient and medieval commentators on De anima. In this way we shall get a good impression how grappling with the interpretation of Aristotle’s work has exercised the greatest minds in the history of philosophy, and how the same text has been able to spawn widely diverging ideas about the inner workings of the human soul and body. We focus on issues in what we nowadays call philosophy of mind (perception, imagination, thought, mind/body relationship), and moral psychology (desire, action, habituation). How can Aristotle help us grapple with the classical questions of human life today?
Course objectives
Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
the origins of issues in philosophy of mind and moral psychology found in Aristotle’s De anima
a range of possible interpretations of Aristotle’s De anima that have been defended in the history of philosophy
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
analyse the argument of a crucial Aristotelian text and its interpreters
assess differences and agreements between philosophical positions and arguments
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar (mix of lectures, short student presentations, and discussions)
Assessment method
Assessment
Short presentation of the argument in a portion of Aristotle’s text or in a piece of relevant secondary literature (20%)
Written examination (3-hours) with essay questions (80%)
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
Resit
The resit consists of a written examination with essay questions which replaces all earlier assessments.
Students who have obtained a satisfactory grade for the first examination cannot take the resit.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
- C.D.C. Reeve, Aristotle. De Anima. Translated with Introduction and Notes. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company 2017.
Additional reading material will be offered through Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable.