pg323sr

PHIL 323/ GOVT 323

Supplementary Reading

This page is very much a work in progress; new entries are added frequently, so please check it at least once per week.

On this page you will find a listing of reading material that does not come from your class texts, and that does not appear in the assignment schedule in the syllabus. Some things on the list are labeled "optional," some "recommended," and some "required." The meanings of these terms are as follows:

Optional: You do not have to read this, but you might find it interesting or useful, especially in writing your papers.
Recommended: You do not have to read this, but it is very likely to be helpful.
Required: You are required to read this.

Plato, Republic

Nails, D. The People of Plato (Hackett, 2002). Optional. Most of the characters in Plato's dialogues are based on real people. This book investigates what is known, historically, about these people. Such information can be illuminating when reading the dialogues - for example, in reading the Republic it might be of interest to know that Thrasymachus was not an Athenian but a citizen of Chalcedon who served as a diplomat sent to Athens after Chalcedon had lost a battle with Athens (i.e. shown itself to be weaker than Athens militarily). These are things that Plato's first readers would have known.

Press, G., ed. Who Speaks for Plato? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000): Part I. Optional. This book addresses the question of how to read a dialogue of Plato. For example, are we justified in assuming that some character in each dialogue states what Plato himself believes and wants the reader to believe? Most of the contributors to this volume argue that we are not justified in making such an assumption, and they present and argue for alternative ways of reading.

Gonzalez, F., ed. The Third Way (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995): Introduction. Optional. Another take on the questions studied in Who Speaks for Plato?

Flaig, E. "Majority Rule: Political Risks and Cultural Dynamics." An interesting essay on voting and political decision-making in ancient and modern societies. The major contrast is between decision by consensus and decision by majority rule. The author is Professor of Ancient History at Universität Greifswald in Germany. Optional.

Supplementary notes on Plato's Republic Books V-VII: the discussion of the nature of knowledge. Recommended.

Aristotle, Politics

Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy. This is a comprehensive web project that explores the nature of the Athenian democracy of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE (the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle). It provides valuable background information on the institutions, laws, and procedures that characterized the Athenian democracy, and so should be very helpful for understanding the specifics of Aristotle's discussions. The site as a whole is recommended, and from time to time sections of it may be assigned in class as required reading.

Smith, N. "Aristotle's Theory of Natural Slavery." Phoenix vol. 37, no. 2 (1983): 109-122. Recommended. Available on-line through JSTOR.

Ambler, W. "Aristotle on Nature and Politics: The Case of Slavery." Political Theory vol. 15 (1987): 390-410. Recommended. Available on-line through JSTOR.

Prof. Cherubin's notes on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: We will not have time to read the Nicomachean Ethics in this course, but there are some things in it that you might find useful: the account of eudaimonia ("happiness") in Book I, the account of arete ("virtue" or "excellence") in Book II, the account of justice in Book V, the account of human goals and the good - and the possibility of pluralism without relativism - in Book X. Naturally, these notes are not a substitute for reading the Nicomachean Ethics, but they will point you to passages of interest, and help explain difficult sections. For more notes, see also Prof. Cherubin's main web page, and scroll down to "Supplementary Notes for PHIL 391, Section 003 (Spring 2001)." Optional.

Cicero, The Republic and The Laws

Zetzel, J. "Natural Law and Poetic Justice: A Carneadean Debate in Cicero and Virgil." Classical Philology vol. 91, no. 4 (1996): 297-319. Optional. Available on-line through JSTOR.

Nicgorski, W. "Cicero's Paradoxes and His Idea of Utility." Political Theory vol. 12, no. 4 (1984): 557-578. Optional. Available on-line through JSTOR.

Inwood, B. and L. Gerson, eds. and trans. Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings, 2d. ed. (Hackett, 1997). Optional. Cicero was well-read in all of the major trends and schools of thought in philosophy of his time. The characters in his dialogues often apply key philosophical ideas and ways of thinking from a variety of schools of thought: they mention Epicureanism and Peripatetic (Aristotelian) thought; Philus in the Republic presents an Academic Skeptic position, and Laelius argues for some Stoic ideas. Many commentators today think that Cicero himself held a position that drew on both Academic Skepticism and Stoicism, though these are not easy to combine. Inwood and Gerson present a highly informative and readable selection of writings from Epicurean, Stoic, and several varieties of Skeptic writers, along with excellent notes and commentary. This book is available in Fenwick Library.

Several characters in Cicero's Republic and Laws mention the Twelve Tables, a fundamental Roman legal document. The Twelve Tables were the first written codification of basic Roman laws, and were adopted in 450 BCE. The laws compiled in the Twelve Tables were apparently already in existence in 450 BCE, but had not yet been presented in an official form available to everyone. This had allowed for abuse of the laws by magistrates. The formal codification and official adoption of the Twelve Tables was supposed to stop the abuse. The Twelve Tables now survive only in fragmentary form; you can get an idea of what they were like here and here (different translations, somewhat different editing of fragments). Some background can be found here. Optional.

A concise overview of Stoicism by Dirk Baltzly, a leading scholar of Hellenistic philosophy, is available here. Optional.

Medieval Philosophy I: Alfarabi and Albo

Your reading selections from these two philosophers are available on-line as a .pdf file; click here to access them. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher (6.0, etc.) to open this file. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free at www.adobe.com (scroll down and click on the link on the left side of the page). With 5.0, you may get a message saying that the file may not open correctly and asking if you want to continue anyway. Go ahead and continue; the file has no graphics, so it does in fact open correctly. Please let me know if you have any trouble with this file.

How to access articles through JSTOR, Project Muse, and other GMU library databases: Go to the GMU Libraries homepage, http://library.gmu.edu .
From there, click on "Databases." From the Databases page, scroll down to the "Alphabetical List" section and click on the first letter of the database you are looking for ('J' for JSTOR, 'P' for Project Muse, etc.). From there, scroll down to find the database you want. If you are at a GMU computer, when you click on the database you will be taken directly to it. If you are not on a GMU computer, you will be asked to enter your ID number (your GMU "G-number"), and then you will arrive at the database. You can then either do a search for the article you want, or browse for the journal in which it appears and then browse for the specific issue of the journal.