Overview
Advisory on the composition:
Your paper should contain sufficient evidence of the use of primary texts. Incorporate appropriate quotations into your essay and cite all references. You should observe all rules of intellectual honesty. Follow the conventions of The Chicago Manual of Style.
In writing on a Dialogue of Plato, describe its dialogical structure and the characters’ roles as contextually needed. A paper that merely gives a summary of the content of a Dialogue or gives general opinions on its content would not receive high credit.
In writing about authors other than the Pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Plato and Aristotle such as the Stoics, the Epicureans and the Skeptics, you should cite the primary and secondary sources you reference with specially meticulous care.
Topics
I.COMPARISON OF THE ONTOLOGIES, EPISTEMOLOGIES,
PSYCHOLOGIES, ETHICS, AND POLITICS OF PLATO AND
ARISTOTLE. [For what reasons do they differ on the ontological hierarchy?
Describe, interpret and critically evaluate their respective correlations between
epistemology and psychology on the one hand and ethics and politics on the
other.]
II.COMPARITIVE INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION OF
PLATO’S CENSORIOUS VIEW OF RHETORIC AND ARISTOTLE’S AS
A PRODUCTIVE SCIENCE. [Aristotle’s construction of a productive science
of rhetoric as a modification, even as a fortification, of dialectic in response to
Plato’s moral condemnation of the art of rhetoric and its teaching is a tour de
force. Plato’s Dialogues Protagoras, Gorgias, and Phaedrus should be
discussed.]
III. COMPARATIVE INTERPRETATON AND CRITICAL EVALUATION
OF PLATO’S VIEW THAT POETS SHOULD BE EXPELLED FROM THE
IDEAL STATE AND ARISTOTLE’S CONSTRUCTION OF POETICS
AS A PRODUCTIVE SCIENCE. [Aware no doubt that his view is unpopular,
Plato, in Ion, treats poetic genius as one of the forms of divine madness, along with
erotic madness and mantic madness. A form of madness, a mysterious endowment
as it may be, is irrational. A tragic play has educational and cathartic effect upon
its viewer. Discuss Aristotle’s analysis of an actual play.]
IV. COMPARATIVE DESCRIPTION, INTERPRTATION AND CRITICAL
EVAUATION OF THE THEOLOGIES OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE.
[Plato and Aristotle have different theoretical purposes in constructing their
respective theologies, the cosmogony of a “non-jealous” demiurge fashioning a
world out of preexisting matter after the Forms, eternal archetypes of things,
contrasted with the cosmology of God in whom there is no unactualized potency,
a being that thinks its own thought, unconcerned about the world that exists
eternally along with God, moving things in the world, unmoved, by being desired
by the intelligent starts on the outermost sphere of the universe.]
V.COMPREHENSIVE INTERPRETATION AND CRITIQUE OF
PARMENIDES THE ELEATIC, AND SEARCH AND DISCOVERY OF
HIS INFLUENCE. [Parmenides the Eleatic is one of the most creative and
influential Pre-Socratic thinkers. Plato’s Dialogue Parmenides reveals an
acknowledgement of his influence by the Eleatic. Aristotle’s influence by the
Eleatic legacy is visible also. You may mention and discuss Eleatic influence
beyond the Hellenic period.]
VI. INCOMPLETE DECONSTRUCTION OF ANTHROPOMORHIC THEISM
BY XENOPHANES. [Xenophanes advances a rhetorically effective argument
against anthropomorphic theism. But his deconstruction leaves the task of
reconstructing theism in proper form incomplete. This essay invites descriptions
of options and a reasonable conjecture about his preference. You will need
substantial knowledge of Western philosophy subsequent to the period this course
covers to do justice to the complexity of the topic.]
VII. INTERPRETATION AND CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PLATO’S
DIALOGUE CRATYLUS. [This is the only Dialogue that addresses fundamental
questions about language, including the fitness of language with nature and
its conventional features. If you are a student of cognitive science, linguistics,
psychology, or sociology, you will welcome the opportunity to show your expert
views on language.]
VIII. ETHICS OF BELIEF IN EPICUREANISM, STOICISM AND
SKEPTICISM. [In Theaetetus, Plato takes the position that an epistemic
subject should be responsible to see to it that his/her belief is true and either self-
evident or supported by self-evident truths. Aristotle also has an epistemic ethical
rule to the effect that the epistemic subject should intrinsically value evident
propositions he/she believes. If you choose this topic, focus on the distinct
epistemic ethics each of the three schools of thought promotes. Explain the
motive behind their respective ethical stances.]
IX. NEGATIVE KNOWLEDGE IN SOCRATIC IRONIES; THE NATURE OF
CERTAINTIES OF THE NEGATIVE KNOWLEDGE INCLUDING MORAL
CONVICTIONS; THE REVELATION OF INTELLIGBLE BEINGS AND
APPERCEPTIVE KNOWLEDGE AS A SIMPLE IMMATERIAL RATIONAL
SOUL IN RECOLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE. [Socrates preaches
"Know Thyself!" to himself and all other persons. What self-knowledge he seeks
and how is a de-mytholozising phenomenology of Socrates' spiritual journey.
The interplay of the pedagogy, epistemology, ontology, psychology and ethics is
sure to be a challenging topic.
Requirements: 10 Double-Spaced Typed Pages, Including Notes and a Bibliography Times New Roman Size 10 Pt Font Chicago Style | .doc file
Please be sure to include an introduction paragraph with a clear thesis statement in the last sentence of the introduction paragraph and a conclusion paragraph
Please be sure to carefully follow the instructions
No plagiarism & No Course Hero & No Chegg. The assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool
Please be sure to include at least one footnote in each body paragraph
Please be sure to use sources that are credible or scholarly