History of Philosophy Course

Lesson 1 • The Sophists and Rhetoric

Analyze the Sophists' relativism and their role in shifting philosophy toward human affairs. This transition directly precedes Socratic ethics.

Lesson 2 • What Philosophy Is and Does

Define philosophy as a discipline distinct from religion and science. This grounds all subsequent historical analysis in a shared conceptual vocabulary.

Lesson 3 • Pre-Socratic Cosmologists and Nature

Examine the earliest Greek thinkers who sought natural principles behind reality. Their materialist approaches set the stage for later metaphysical debate.

Lesson 1 • Plato's Political Philosophy

Evaluate the ideal state outlined in the Republic and its philosophical justification. Students assess Plato's critique of democracy and his philosopher-king ideal.

Lesson 2 • The Theory of Forms and Reality

Explain Plato's two-world metaphysics distinguishing sensible from intelligible reality. This doctrine underpins his epistemology and ethics.

Lesson 3 • Ethics and the Soul in Plato

Analyze the tripartite soul and its connection to virtue and justice. This section bridges Platonic metaphysics and political philosophy.

Lesson 4 • Plato's Dialogues as Philosophical Method

Introduce the dialogue form as a pedagogical and philosophical tool. Understanding this structure is essential for reading Platonic texts accurately.

Lesson 1 • Aristotle's Legacy in Later Thought

Trace how Aristotelian ideas shaped medieval, Islamic, and early modern philosophy. Students recognize the long arc of Aristotle's intellectual influence.

Lesson 2 • Aristotle's Logic and Categories

Introduce Aristotle's formal logic as the first systematic treatment of valid inference. This analytical toolkit supports all subsequent philosophical reasoning.

Lesson 3 • Aristotle's Political and Social Philosophy

Assess Aristotle's view of humans as political animals and his analysis of constitutions. This section connects ethics to community and governance.

Lesson 4 • Aristotelian Metaphysics and Causation

Examine the four causes and the concept of substance as Aristotle's answer to Platonic Forms. Students contrast hylomorphism with Platonic dualism.

Lesson 1 • Neoplatonism and the One

Introduce Plotinus's emanationist metaphysics as a synthesis of Platonic and mystical thought. This section bridges ancient and medieval philosophy.

Lesson 2 • Stoicism: Logic, Nature, and Virtue

Analyze Stoic physics, logic, and ethics as an integrated system. Students apply Stoic concepts of control and duty to practical reasoning.

Lesson 3 • Ancient Skepticism and Suspension of Judgment

Examine Pyrrhonian and Academic Skepticism as responses to dogmatic philosophy. Students evaluate the practical and epistemic implications of suspending judgment.

Lesson 1 • Augustine and Christian Platonism

Analyze Augustine's adaptation of Neoplatonism to Christian theology and his theory of evil. His work defines the intellectual framework of early medieval thought.

Lesson 2 • Islamic and Jewish Medieval Philosophy

Survey Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimonides as transmitters and critics of Aristotle. Students recognize the multicultural roots of medieval scholasticism.

Lesson 3 • Anselm and the Ontological Argument

Examine Anselm's a priori proof for God's existence and its logical structure. Students practice evaluating deductive theological arguments.

Lesson 4 • Late Medieval Challenges to Scholasticism

Examine Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and the via moderna as critiques of Thomism. This section prepares students for the Renaissance break with medieval thought.

Lesson 1 • Locke and the Empiricist Program

Examine Locke's rejection of innate ideas and his account of knowledge from experience. Students connect Lockean epistemology to his political philosophy.

Lesson 2 • Berkeley's Idealism and Hume's Skepticism

Trace Berkeley's immaterialism and Hume's radical empiricism as escalating challenges to knowledge. Students evaluate the problem of induction and causation.

Lesson 3 • Spinoza and Leibniz: Rationalist Alternatives

Compare Spinoza's monism and Leibniz's monadology as responses to Cartesian problems. Students evaluate how each system handles substance, God, and freedom.

Lesson 4 • Descartes and the Cartesian Revolution

Analyze Descartes's method of doubt and the cogito as the foundation of modern epistemology. Students evaluate mind-body dualism and its philosophical consequences.

Lesson 1 • Kant's Aesthetics and Teleology

Examine the Critique of Judgment and Kant's account of beauty, sublimity, and purposiveness. This section completes the critical system and bridges to Idealism.

Lesson 2 • Hegel's Dialectic and Absolute Spirit

Analyze Hegel's dialectical method, the Phenomenology of Spirit, and the philosophy of history. Students evaluate the master-slave dialectic and its legacy.

Lesson 3 • Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Explain Kant's Copernican revolution in epistemology and the structure of human cognition. Students distinguish phenomena from noumena and analyze the categories.

Lesson 4 • Fichte, Schelling, and the Idealist Turn

Trace how Fichte's Science of Knowledge and Schelling's nature philosophy extend Kantian idealism. Students identify the move toward absolute idealism.

Lesson 1 • Contemporary Philosophy and Open Questions

Survey post-analytic, postmodern, and feminist philosophy as responses to 20th-century crises. Students identify unresolved problems that define current philosophical inquiry.

Lesson 2 • Phenomenology and Existentialism

Analyze Husserl's phenomenological method and its development by Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. Students apply existentialist concepts to questions of freedom and authenticity.

Lesson 3 • Analytic Philosophy and Logical Analysis

Trace the analytic tradition from Frege and Russell through Wittgenstein and logical positivism. Students evaluate the linguistic turn and its philosophical consequences.

Lesson 4 • Marx, Nietzsche, and the Critique of Tradition

Examine Marx's historical materialism and Nietzsche's genealogical critique as radical breaks with prior philosophy. Students evaluate their lasting cultural impact.