Module CLAS3251: PLATO AND ARISTOTLE ON DEMOCRACY

Department: CLASSICS AND ANCIENT HISTORY

CLAS3251: PLATO AND ARISTOTLE ON DEMOCRACY

Type	Open	Level	3	Credits	20	Availability	Not available in 2006/07	Module Cap	None.	Location	Durham

Prerequisites

• Plato on Love and Desire (CLAS2311) OR Early Greek Philosophy (CLAS1101) or Classical Theories of Soul (CLAS1531) OR Stoicism (CLAS2261) or Classical Metaphysics (CLAS2351) or The common Peace and the Rise of Macedon (CLAS2011) or any Level 2 module offered by the Department of Philosophy.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• Designed as a special third-year module, presupposing some of the generic critical and interpretative skills will have been acquired in the first and second years.
• It will focus on further developing students' critical faculties, and especially their ability to understand and criticise complex texts and arguments, in the context not only of a (partly) distant culture, but of to quite different kinds of author (Plato and Aristotle).
• It may be taken either on its own, or alongside other Philosophical modules in the Department of Philosophy (or the Department of Politics).

Content

• Will consist in the close study, in translation, of parts of Plato's Republic, Statesman, and Laws, and parts of Aristotle's Politics (with reference to other dialogues/treatises where appropriate).
• It will begin from a discussion of modern democratic systems and modern treatments of such systems.
• it will then move through Plato's attacks on democracy, and all other existing forms of government, to Aristotle's (highly qualified) defences of the rule of majority.
• Throughout there will be stress on the different contexts, and genres, within which the philosophers - ancient and modern - advance their arguments.

Learning Outcomes

• A knowledge of the broad cultural background to Plato's main political dialogues (taken as Republic, Statesman, and Laws: to be read in translation only), and of Aristotle’s Politics (a selection of passages to be read in translation); of the main alternative approaches to and interpretations of the target Platonic dialogues and those apparently written before them (especially the so-called ‘Socratic’ dialogues), and of the Politics; of the main lines of the Platonic and Aristotelian arguments in relation to constitutions, democratic or otherwise; and of the philosophical and methodological issues raised by such arguments, their construal and their interpretation.

• An ability to interpret complex texts and enter into philosophical dialogue with them; to combine philosophical with literary and cultural analysis; and to compare and contrast ancient Greek approaches to democracy and political thinking in general with some modern approaches.

• An ability to comprehend and evaluate alien cultural and philosophical starting-points; an ability to compare and assess different interpretative approaches and methodologies; a capacity to sustain at a sophisticated level a clear, well-structured, and well-defended argument in written form.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching will be by means of seminars and tutorials, the seminars being led for the most part by the tutor, but allowing a large element of group discussion (typically the second half of a two-hour session).
• Seminars will be designed first to introduce target material and ideas for discussion, then to allow group discussion of material and ideas so introduced; introduction and discussion will not be mutually exclusive.
• Tutorials will be designed to address individual responses to the material studied and the ideas raised.
• Assessment will be on the basis of two summative essays, to be submitted at the end of the second and in the third terms; assessment will relate to the learning outcomes listed under 15 above.
• These summative essays will be preceded by two formative essays, each followed by tutorials.
• The first summative essay will also be followed by a tutorial.
• The emphasis will be on progression of understanding; accordingly, lesser weight will be given to the first summative essay in relation to the second (in a ratio of 40:60).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity	Number	Frequency	Duration	Total/Hours
Seminars	22	weekly	2 hours	44
Tutorials	3	termly	1 hour	3
Preparation and Reading				153
Total				200

Summative Assessment

Essay 1 40% (summative essay 100%), Essay 2 60% (summative essay 100%).

Formative Assessment:

2 Formative essays. No collections.

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■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University