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Tutorial Greek: Protagoras of Abdera: Sources, Echoes, Interactions

Vak
2017-2018

Admission requirements

This tutorial can be taken as an optional course in the MA and the Research MA program in Classics and Ancient Civilizations (track Classics).
Admission requirements for other students: a BA degree in Classics obtained from a university in the Netherlands, or a comparable qualification obtained from a university outside the Netherlands. Moreover, students with an international degree have to contact the coordinator of studies to check admissibility.

Description

In this tutorial students participate in preparing a digital edition, translation and commentary laying out in a comparatively dynamic manner the sources for the sophist Protagoras of Abdera and (potential) echoes of his thought. This involves selecting, presenting and connecting information on an major political thinker who is known almost entirely from secondary sources.
These digital possibilities will be evaluated against the background of the recent new Loeb edition (Early Greek Philosophy. Sophists, Part 1. Cambridge, Mass./London 2016, edited and translated by André Laks and Glenn W. Most).
The material to be included bears upon such questions as the Man-Measure statement, his statement about the gods, the myth ascribed to him in Plato’s Protagoras, his views on rhetoric, politics, and the correct use of language. It comprises passages from (e.g.) Plutarch, Aelius Aristides, Sextus Empiricus, as well as scholia, and ancient commentaries on Plato and Aristotle.
The research in this tutorial is subsumed within the International Protagoras Network, centering in Leiden and the university of Aix-Marseille.

Course objectives

  • The competence to read and interpret ancient Greek (and Latin) texts providing information on, or reflections of a major political thinker;

  • The competence to reflect on the nature of a source-text and to reflect on different modes of presenting and linking information in a digital environment;

  • Research skills: advanced use of the scholarly apparatus of the discipline; formulating and evaluating arguments for different ways of presenting and connecting complex material in a digital environment;

  • Oral communication and cooperation, also in the context of an international research network;

  • Written presentation of the material selected for research.

Research MA-students will be expected to work on a more complex question that requires a more independent scholarly attitude. It is, however, open to MA-students to work on Research MA-standards, in consultation with the teacher.

Timetable

Please consult the Classics and Ancient Civilizations website.

Mode of instruction

  • Seminar (tutorial)

Course Load

  • Tutoring: 7x2 = 14 hours

  • Preparation tutorials: 28 hours

  • Assignment: 98 hours

Assessment method

  • Written (digital) presentation of research material

Resit

Not applicable

Blackboard

Blackboard may be used for communication.

Reading list

  • Early Greek Philosophy. Sophists, Part 1, edoted by André Laks and Glenn W. Most. Cambridge, Mass./London 2016

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in [English])http://hum.leiden.edu/students/study-administration/usis-english.html) and Dutch

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

Mw. dr Tazuko van Berkel

Mw. dr Marlein van Raalte

Remarks

Not applicable.