Augustine Tutorial
3
pages
English
Documents
Le téléchargement nécessite un accès à la bibliothèque YouScribe Tout savoir sur nos offres
3
pages
English
Documents
Le téléchargement nécessite un accès à la bibliothèque YouScribe Tout savoir sur nos offres
Publié par
Langue
English
99 – Tutorial on Augustine Fall 2005 Syllabus Important Information: Lecture: Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 – 12:00, Emerson 104 Professor: Jeffrey McDonough Office Hours: 314 Emerson Hall, Friday 10:30 – 11:30 E-mail: jkmcdon@fas.harvard.edu Required Texts (available at the Coop): Henry Chadwick, ed. and trans., Saint Augustine: Confesssions (New York: Oxford University Press). Peter King, ed. and trans., Augustine: Against the Academicians and The Teacher (Indianapolis: Hackett). Thomas Williams, ed. and trans., Augustine: On Free Choice of the Will Reserved Texts (available at Robbins Library): Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Abbreviated below as CCA. Gareth Matthews, ed., The Augustinian Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press). Abbreviated below as AT. Course Description: St. Augustine, born in North Africa in 354 A.D., and made Bishop of Hippo in 396 A.D., is widely recognized as one of the most important fathers of the Christian Church. His influence on the development of philosophy in the Western tradition, however, is also immense – perhaps unsurpassed. For nearly a thousand years – from roughly the time of the fall of Rome to the reemergence of Latin translations of Aristotle’s principal works – the amalgam of Platonism and Christianity that Augustine defended dominated Western thinking. Even ...
Voir
Publié par
Langue
English
99 – Tutorial on Augustine
Fall 2005
Syllabus
Important Information:
Lecture:
Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 – 12:00, Emerson 104
Professor: Jeffrey McDonough
Office Hours:
314 Emerson Hall, Friday 10:30 – 11:30
E-mail: jkmcdon@fas.harvard.edu
Required Texts
(available at the Coop)
:
Henry Chadwick, ed. and trans.,
Saint Augustine: Confesssions
(New York:
Oxford University Press).
Peter King, ed. and trans.,
Augustine: Against the Academicians and The Teacher
(Indianapolis:
Hackett).
Thomas Williams, ed. and trans.,
Augustine:
On Free Choice of the Will
(Indianapolis:
Hackett).
Reserved Texts
(available at Robbins Library):
Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, eds.,
The Cambridge Companion to
Augustine
(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press).
Abbreviated below as
CCA.
Gareth Matthews, ed.,
The Augustinian Tradition
(Berkeley:
University of
California Press).
Abbreviated below as AT.
Course Description:
St. Augustine, born in North Africa in 354 A.D., and made Bishop of Hippo in 396 A.D.,
is widely recognized as one of the most important fathers of the Christian Church.
His
influence on the development of philosophy in the Western tradition, however, is also
immense – perhaps unsurpassed.
For nearly a thousand years – from roughly the time of
the fall of Rome to the reemergence of Latin translations of Aristotle’s principal works –
the amalgam of Platonism and Christianity that Augustine defended dominated Western
thinking.
Even after the synthesis that he helped to forge came under attack in the high
middle ages, Augustine’s works and views continued to exert a profound influence, first
as a challenge to the emerging blend of Christianity and Aristotelian metaphysics
defended most famously by Aquinas, and then as an inspiration to the more Platonically
minded mechanical philosophers of the early modern period.
We will work through
some of Augustine’s most philosophically influential works including
The Confessions
,
On Free Choice of the Will
,
Against the Academicians
, and
The Teacher
.
Likely topics
of discussion will include the metaphysics of evil, free will, skepticism, knowledge,
language, memory and time.
Requirements and Grading:
1.
Attendance
Given the nature of tutorials, regular attendance is absolutely essential, and students will
be expected to arrive promptly at every meeting.
If you cannot attend a particular
meeting please let the professor know ahead of time.
All absences will require proper
documentation as described in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Handbook.
Any student
with more than one absence unexcused by the standards of the Handbook should expect
to receive an F for the course.
2.
Reading
It is absolutely essential to the success of this course that students read the assigned texts
before tutorial meetings.
The assigned readings are short, but difficult, and it is expected
that students will have read through them at least twice carefully and thoughtfully.
Fortunately, for us Augustine, whose training was in rhetoric, is a masterful writer and
his dialogues are amazingly sophisticated, elegant, and often witty.
For each week, a
secondary reading has also been assigned.
These readings are recommended but are not
required.
Students may find them helpful in stimulating their own thoughts either for
discussion or writing.
3.
Discussion and Writing
One of the principal aims of this course is to give students a chance to engage in
philosophical discussion in a small group setting.
For this reason, informed, considered
participation in tutorial meetings is crucial.
In order to facilitate discussion, and give students an opportunity to reflect on their own
views before discussion, a short writing assignment is due each week.
A carefully
written essay of 1-3 pages should be e-mailed to all members of the tutorial, including the
professor, by midnight before the next meeting.
Students are required to also bring a
hard copy of their essays to be turned in at tutorial meetings.
Essays should be explicitly related to the week’s readings, but otherwise their topics are
up to students.
You might, for example, explore a theme you find especially interesting,
raise a question and suggest an answer, or relate something in the reading to points raised
in the previous week’s discussion.
You may also engage with the supplementary
readings listed in the tentative schedule.
Each student may decide not to submit a writing assignment for any two weeks over the
course of the semester without penalty.
If on a given week, you decide use one of your
“passes,” you should inform the professor by e-mail.
Note, students not writing are still
responsible for participation during the tutorial meeting.
4.
Grading
Students’ grades will be based on their participation in tutorial meetings, and the quality
of their weekly essays.
After approximately our fourth and eighth meetings, the
professor will send out e-mails informing students of the grades they may expect given
their current level of performance.
Unless circumstances require, there will be no exams
or term papers.
Tentative Schedule by Meetings
(1) Required:
Confessions
, Books I-IX
Supplemental:
“Structure and Meaning in St. Augustine’s Confessions,” by Frederick J.
Crosson in AT
(2) Required:
On Free Choice of Will
, Book I
Supplemental:
“Augustine on Free Will” by Eleonore Stump in CCA
(3) Required:
On Free Choice of Will
, Book II
Supplemental:
“Do We Have a Will?” by Simon Harrison in AT
(4) Required:
On Free Choice of Will
, Book III, Chapters 1-4, and
Retractions
, pp. 124-
129.
Supplemental:
“Predestination, Pelagianism, and Foreknowledge,” by James Wetzel
(5) Required:
On Free Choice of Will
, Book III, Chapters 5-24
Supplemental:
“Avoiding Sin:
Augustine against Consequentialism” by Christopher
Kirwan in AT
(6) Required:
Anselm’s
On Freedom of Choice
(7) Required: Anselm’s
On the Fall of the Devil
, Chapters 1-11
(8) Required:
Anselm’s
On the Fall of the Devil
, Chapters 12-28
(9)
Required:
Against the Academicians
, Book I
Supplemental:
“Faith and Reason,” by John Rist in CCA
The Teacher
, Division II, pp.
123-146
(10) Required:
Against the Academicians
, Book II
Supplemental:
“The Response to Skepticism and the Mechanisms of Cognition,” by
Gerard O’Daly in CCA
Confessions
, Book X
(11)
Required:
Against the Academicians
, Book III
Supplemental:
“Knowledge and Illumination,” by Gareth B. Matthews in CCA
