PHIL0186: Advanced Topics in Plato's Philosophy (21/22)

In this course we will take a deep dive into a specific, widely-neglected theme in Plato’s moral philosophy. We will be evaluating his ‘philosophical anthropology’ – the study of earlier human beings, their nature, their political development, and what all this can teach us about contemporary moral and political problems. In a number of places in Plato’s dialogues, we find prominent appeals to earlier periods in human history and speculations about how those periods progressed. Unfortunately, it is not immediately clear what the purpose of those appeals and discussions is. We will try to understand them better. Some questions we will ask are: When making these appeals to earlier time periods, does Plato really think he is describing history as it occurred in the past? If so, is the purpose to gain insight into human nature unspoiled by culture or something else? If not, is the purpose merely rhetorical? And regardless of this, what do these appeals add to the moral and political teaching of the dialogues? The focus throughout the course will be on Plato, but we will also examine some of his predecessors and successors to get a better feel for the general strategy of appealing to earlier times.