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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of History, Classics and Archaeology : Postgraduate (History, Classics and Archaeology)

Postgraduate Course: Greek Philosophy (Plato's Republic) (PGHC11022)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of History, Classics and Archaeology CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryAn advanced survey of Plato's Republic. Students will mainly use source materials in translation. When students have the requisite language skills, they may also work from original Greek and Latin sources.
Course description Apart from the introduction in week 1, each week will be devoted to one book of the ten books of the Republic, usually read in order. Emphases may shift from year to year (justice, metaphysics, psychology, epistemology), but the main aim will be to see unity of the work as a defence of justice, but also we will also investigate its numerous other features, especially its status as a literary masterpiece.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  10
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 022, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 100% based on 1 essay of 3500-5000 words on a topic to be arranged between student and course organiser.
If numbers warrant, classes will feature presentations.
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate in seminars and essays a detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge concerning Plato's Republic
  2. Demonstrate in seminars and essays an ability to analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship concerning Plato's Republic and conceptual discussions about ancient epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and literary merit
  3. Demonstrate in seminar participation and the essay an ability to understand and apply specialised research or professional skills, techniques and practices considered in the course
  4. Demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in oral and written form in seminar discussions, presentations, and the essay by independently formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence considered in the course
  5. Demonstrate in seminar discussions, presentations, and the essay originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy
Reading List
Allen, R.E. ed. (1965) Studies in Plato's Metaphysics, London
Benson, H.H. ed. (2006) A Companion to Plato, Wiley-Blackwell [electronic resource]
Cairns, D., F. G. Hermann and T. Penner, eds. (2007) Pursuing the Good. Ethics and Metaphysics in Plato's Republic, Edinburgh
Everson, S. ed., Companions to Ancient Thought 4. Ethics [gives Socratic/Platonic ethical thought within wider history of ancient ethics]
Fine, G. ed. (2008) Oxford Handbook of Plato, Oxford:
- ed. (1999) Plato, 2 vols. (1. Metaphysics and epistemology. 2. Ethics, Politics, religion and the Soul) Oxford
- (2003) Plato on Knowledge and Forms, Selected Essays, Oxford
Kraut, R. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Plato, Cambridge, 1992
Smith, N.D. (1998) Plato. Critical assessments 4 vols., London [comprehensive]
Vlastos, G. ed. Plato. A Collection of Critical essays. 2 vols. (1971)
Woolf, R., (2013) "Plato and the Norms of Thought," Mind 122(485) 171-216.

Individual works (mostly Books and articles not in above)
Crombie, I. M. (1962) An examination of Plato's doctrines. 1: Plato on man and society. London
Frede, M. (1992) "Plato's Arguments and the Dialogue Form." in J. C. Klagge and Smith, N.D.(eds), Methods of Interpreting Plato and his Dialogues (Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Supplementary volume). 201-219.
Gerson, L. (2003) Knowing persons: a study in Plato, Oxford
Irwin, T. (1995) Plato's Ethics. Oxford/New York,
McCabe, M.M. (1994) Plato's Individuals, Princeton
Nails, D. (2002) The people of Plato, Indianapolis [summarizes all that we know of historical aspects of characters in the dialogues]
-(2006) "The Life of Plato of Athens" in Benson, H.H. (ed.)(2006) 1-12
Robinson, R. (1953) Plato's Earlier Dialectic, Oxford
Silverman, A. (2000) The Dialectic of Essence: A Study of Plato's Metaphysics, Princeton U. Press
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsPlato Republic
Contacts
Course organiserDr Simon Trepanier
Tel: (0131 6)50 3589
Email: Simon.Trepanier@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Sara Dennison
Tel: (0131 6)50 2501
Email: Sara.Dennison@ed.ac.uk
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