Ancient Philosophy

elective monographs
general courses

The course covers the history of ancient philosophy. The aim of the course is to present the history of ancient philosophy from the perspective of its key problems (e.g. the ancient concepts of philosophy, being, God, form, will, virtue, freedom, or nature).

Moreover, the development and mutual influences of ancient schools of philosophy will be shown from the systematic perspective.

The course focuses on a topic-oriented presentation of the history of philosophy, which allows the student to look from a new perspective at the way in which key problems of philosophy (ethical, ontological and cosmological problems, the relations of the soul and body, relations between thought, language and reality) and the most important philosophical concepts (such as philosophy, beauty, goodness, being, God, idea, will, intellect, virtue, creativity, nature, time) have been taken up in the period of ancient philosophy. The formation and interactions of philosophical schools in ancient philosophy will also be presented form the perspective of the topic-oriented approach. An important part of the course is to show the specific character of particular eras of ancient philosophy, especially the ones which are relatively less known, such as Hellenistic philosophy and the philosophy of late antiquity.

P. Hadot, Czym jest filozofia starożytna?; H. Arendt, Wola; E. Dodds, Grecy i irracjonalność, D. Dembińska, Człowiek odkrywa człowieka; M. Stróżyński, Filozofia jako terapia w pismach M. Aureliusz, Plotyna i Augustyna; W. Juszczak, Fragmenty. Szkice z teorii i filozofii sztuki; W. Jaeger, Paideia. Formowanie człowieka greckiego; Wczesne chrześcijaństwo i grecka paideia; Teologia wczesnych filozofów greckich; A. Drozdek, Greccy filozofowie jako teolodzy; D. Karłowicz, Arcyparadoks śmierci; J. Domański, Tekst jako uobecnienie; „Scholastyczne” i „humanistyczne” pojęcie filozofii; K. Pomian, Przeszłość jako przedmiot wiary; Przeszłość jako przedmiot wiedzy; J. Assmann, Pamięć kulturowa.

Homer, presokratycy, Platon, Arystoteles, Cyceron, Lukian, Diogenes Laertios, Marek Aureliusz, Nemezjusz z Emezy, Grzegorz z Nyssy, Orygenes, Augustyn, Plotyn, Proklos

Acquired knowledge:

- the student knows and understands the historical character of the formation of philosophical ideas;

- the student knows the general relationship between formation of philosophical ideas and the changes in culture and in society;

- the student knows the methods of interpretation of the philosophical text;

- the student has a comprehensive knowledge and an in-depth understanding of the role of philosophical reflection in development of culture;

- the student knows philosophical terminology in Polish at a advanced level in a selected philosophical subdiscipline;

- the student knows basic philosophical terminology in a selected foreign language;

- the student comprehensively knows and thoroughly understands selected directions of research in the field of the history of ancient philosophy;

- the student has a thorough knowledge of the research methods and argumentation strategies of the selected philosophical subdiscipline and a thorough knowledge of the methods of interpreting a philosophical text;

- the student has in-depth and expanded knowledge of the complex nature of language and the historical variability of its meanings.

Acquired skills:

- the student correctly applies acquired philosophical terminology;

- the student is able to describe the relationship between the formation of philosophical ideas and social and cultural processes;

- the student constructs and reconstructs arguments from the perspective of various philosophical positions, taking into account the types of argumentation proper to each of them and recognizing the convergences and differences between them.

Acquired social competences:

- the student knows the scope of knowledge and skills he possesses, understands the need for continuous education and professional development;

- the student is open to new ideas and ready to change opinions in the light of available data and arguments;

- the student is aware of the importance of the European philosophical heritage for understanding social and cultural processes and is aware of the responsibility for its preservation;

- the student is aware of the importance of humanist reflection for the existence of social connections.

oral final examination

Permissible number of absences: 2