Admission requirements
Admission to one of the following programmes is required:
MA Philosophy 60 EC: specialisation Modern European Philosophy
MA Philosophy 60 EC: specialisation Global and Comparative Philosophy
MA Philosophy 120 EC: specialisation Philosophy of Humanities
MA Philosophy 120 EC: specialisation Philosophy in World Traditions
(Res)MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations: Classics
Basic knowledge of ancient philosophy, esp. Aristotle, is required.
Description
The subject of this year’s course ‘Philosophy in Late Antiquity’ is the concept of time.
“What is time? Provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an enquirer, I do not know.” Thus the late ancient Christian intellectual Augustine in his famous Confessiones. Augustine was not the first ancient thinker to wonder about the nature of time. Time is a fundamental, yet enigmatic aspect of the physical world. For this reason, it had been discussed by Plato in his great cosmological dialogue the Timaeus and by Aristotle in the Physics. As so often, the two disagreed: whereas Plato seems to postulate that time has an independent existence of its own, Aristotle understands time as something that cannot exist independently of things that occur in time. Moreover, Aristotle suggests that time does not only have a cosmic aspect, but also an experimental dimension: can there be time when there is no soul to count it?
The philosophers of late antiquity use the canonical texts of Plato and Aristotle as tools to think with. They develop their own ideas by reading and commenting on these texts and in dialogue with each other. The aim of this seminar is to chart this process of creative exegesis and intellectual exchange in the case of the concept of time. We will first study the relevant passages from Plato and Aristotle that inform the late ancient discussions about time, and, next, discuss such late ancient philosophers as the Peripatetic commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias, the Neoplatonists Plotinus, (his treatise On Eternity and Time), Proclus (Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus), Simplicius (Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics), and of course Augustine (Confessiones X). What do these late ancient philosophers think that time is? How do they deal with the disagreement between Plato and Aristotle? What do they make of the cosmic and experimental dimension of time? What is the relation between time and late ancient religion and spirituality? In our course, we will try to answer these and related question by means of a careful reading of these texts and with the help of the abundant recently scholarly literature. We will pay special attention to Plotinus, who, as the founder of the Neoplatonic movement, shaped late ancient philosophy.
Course objectives
Students who successfully complete the course will have a good understanding of:
the philosophy of time in classical Greek thought and late antiquity;
factors that influence the reception of a philosophical text and thereby the historical development of philosophy.
Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:
research and analyse complex primary texts;
critically analyse and assess modern secondary literature;
independently learn about new areas of ancient philosophy;
present their findings in an oral and written forms of commication.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Class attendance and participation is compulsory.
Assessment method
Assessment
Oral presentation (25%)
Final paper (75%)
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by (i) determination of the weighted average combined with (ii) the requirement that the student has attended and activily participated in class.
Resit
The resit will consist of a revised final paper (75%). The grade for the presentation will remain in place.
Students who have obtained a satisfactory grade for the first examination cannot take the resit.
Inspection and feedback
Feedback on oral presentation by class and teacher; written feedback on final paper, with appointment on request.
Reading list
U. Coope, Time for Aristotle: Physics IV. 10-14, Oxford 2005 [assigned chapters, digitally available via the University Library].
D.J. O’Meara, Plotinus. An Introduction to the Enneads, Oxford 1993 or later [available either in print or digitally via the University Library]
J. Zachhuber, Time and Soul. From Aristotle to St. Augustine, Berlin 2022 [digitally available via the University Library].
Primary texts will be made digitally available.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable.