Philosophy 25A

This course is an introduction to the doctrines and arguments of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We will consider topics in ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology, including human virtue and the good life, the relation between knowledge and virtue, the possibility of weakness of will, the nature of the soul, the relation between knowledge and belief, the nature of forms and particulars, and the structure and character of scientific explanation. This course serves both as an introduction to Ancient Philosophy and as an introduction to philosophy in general; the course does not presuppose any background in philosophy.