PHL 2310 - Socrates and the Examined Life

Credits: 4

In this course, students will focus on the ethical issues, provocations, and example of the Athenian philosopher Socrates (469-399 BCE). Though Socrates himself wrote nothing (everything we know about him was recorded by others), his inquiries into virtue, justice, and piety, his relentless cross-examination of others, and his insistence that “the unexamined life is not worth living” have posed the questions and shaped the methods of a large part of ethical thinking ever since. Students will encounter Socrates primarily through a series of philosophical dialogues by his pupil Plato. But to develop a fuller and more critical understanding, students will also read a perceptive ancient comic lampoon of Socratic moral instruction along with key later responses to the enigmatic Socrates and his teachings. Area Requirement for Philosophy: Ethics, History

Prerequisite(s): Any 1000 level course in Philosophy
Fulfills: E in LS Core