The intended purpose of this Topics Seminar is for the participating student (1) to become familiar with positions taken in the current debates over the specific topic area of the course; (2) to appreciate the arguments for and against the positions; and (3) to develop an independent judgment about the most promising approach in this area.
Specifically the course aims to provide: A firm grasp of the main theories presented: their nature and motivation, their differences and similarities; enhancement of the students’ ability to study and analyse the classical sources within their original context; improvement of skills in handling the scholarly literature and in using the material so as to be able to give an oral presentation and write an academic essay on a subject chosen in consultation with the professor.
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Topic of 2020-2021: Fate and Freedom: The Stoics and their Adversaries
One of the recurrent themes of Hellenistic philosophy is that of fate and freedom: does fate exist, i.e. is everything in the world causally determined? Is there any room for free will, for human responsibility and, if so, in exactly what sense? The great Stoic philosopher Chrysippus (3rd century BCE) developed a powerful ‘compatibilist’ theory reconciling determinism with a particular notion of free will. His theory formed the starting point of a debate between Stoics and their Epicurean, Platonist and Aristotelian opponents that helped shape their respective philosophies well into the Imperial era. In this course we will explore this debate from a variety of angles: logical and causal, cosmological and theological as well as moral and psychological. We are dealing here with a conglomerate of topics including such ethics-orientated notions as ‘what is up to us.’ This also serves to illustrate the fact that the issue was not a purely theoretical one but taken to be directly relevant to the actual conduct of our lives, i.e. the development of an ‘art of living.’ Central to this course are authors such as Chrysippus, Lucretius, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus as well as Plotinus.
This course is for Students History and Philosophy of Science, RMA Philosophy. Students of other MA-programmes, please contact the Course Coordinator.
The entrance requirements for Exchange Students will be checked by International Office and the Programme coördinator. Therefore, you do not have to contact the Programme coördinator yourself.
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