Greek Core 1: Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle on Poetry and Education

Students will do close readings of Plato's Symposium, Republic 2, 3 and 10, Isocrates' Antidosis, and Aristotle's Poetics and Politics 8. Students will translate and analyze the Greek and gain a solid mastery of these texts in terms of diction, syntax, and style. Students will also read secondary literature on these authors/texts and present oral reports. In this class, we will examine how these philosophers treat the literary, educational, and political aspects of poetry. We will analyze these texts in terms of genre, discourse, and philosophical ideas. We will locate these philosophers in the socio-political context of democratic Athens. How do the different prose genres that they use--a dialogue, an autobiographical speech, and a treatise--address the power and perils of poetry? How do these thinkers valorize the discipline of philosophy as the best mode of education? Greek and Latin material taught in alternate years.