PHIL 233T(F) Deviant Lives

Beginning with Socrates, ancient philosophers advertise philosophy as a practically valuable subject: philosophy is something one does, a way of life; the philosophical life is the best, happiest, life-and everyone wants to be happy...so, become a philosopher! But oddly enough, these same thinkers also hold that most people cannot be philosophers. Plato suggests that few people have the capacity to be philosophers; Aristotle adds that few people can have the means to be philosophers; the Stoics say that a sage appears once every few generations, at most. So what do Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics have to say about everyone else, about the vast world of non-philosophers? Can these people, who deviate from the philosophical ideal, have worthwhile lives? Or are they, as one Stoic puts it, like the drowning person, who drowns whether he's a few inches under water or at the bottom of the ocean? Does approximating a philosophical life make a person any happier or better off, and how much? The practical and moral need to answer these questions pushes ancient philosophers into developing a conception of human nature that accounts for both human perfection-in human flourishing, for example-and imperfect states and deviations from perfection. We will explore ways in which ancient conceptions of nature-and deviations from the natural-differ from our own conceptions. The relationship between ideas of nature, perfection, and imperfection is of interest not only to ancient philosophers, but to us as well, insofar as we seek an ethical theory that conceives of human flourishing as our goal and addresses the question of how to attain it. Ancient discussions of deviant or imperfect types is of interest to us for another reason as well: they afford us a rare opportunity to examine a hierarchical/patriarchal system's view of inferiors/women on its own terms. Readings for the course will include Plato, Phaedo, Republic, Phaedrus, Timaeus, Laws; Aristotle, Physics, Nicomachean Ethics, and some of the biological writings, and Cicero, On Ends III. Requirements: bi-weekly tutorial papers alternating with responses to the paper of the tutorial partner. Prerequisite: Philosophy 101 or 102 or permission of the instructor.

Hour:  KAMTEKAR