ST.

PAUL’S CATHOLIC SEMINARY

FIRST SEMESTER 2019/2020
PHIB 315: ANCIENT CLASSICS (PLATO’S REPUBLIC & SYMPOSIUM)
3 CREDIT HOURS
LECTURER: PROF. EMMANUEL DEBRAH
Email: edebrah2001@yahoo.co.uk
Lecture: Monday 11.30-1.30pm

COURSE OVERVIEW

Plato’s Republic centers on a simple question: is it always better to be just than unjust? The
puzzles in Book One prepare for this question, and Glaucon and Adeimantus make it explicit at
the beginning of Book Two. To answer the question, Socrates takes a long way around,
sketching an account of a good city on the grounds that a good city would be just and that
defining justice as a virtue of a city would help to define justice as a virtue of a human being.
Socrates is finally close to answering the question after he characterizes justice as a personal
virtue at the end of Book Four, but he is interrupted and challenged to defend some of the more
controversial features of the good city he has sketched. In Books Five through Seven, he
addresses this challenge, arguing (in effect) that the just city and the just human being as he has
sketched them are in fact good and are in principle possible. After this long digression, Socrates
in Books Eight and Nine finally delivers three “proofs” that it is always better to be just than
unjust. Then, because Socrates wants not only to show that it is always better to be just but also
to convince Glaucon and Adeimantus of this point, and because Socrates’ proofs are opposed by
the teachings of poets, he bolsters his case in Book Ten by indicting the poets’ claims to
represent the truth and by offering a new myth that is consonant with his proofs.

The course is structured based on the original text. The specific themes are composed in the form
of weekly lectures and seminars, which invite students to read and study the narratives and
commentaries that follow them.

The Symposium, a work from the middle of Plato's writings, presumably implements Socrates as
a character to voice Plato’s theories on love. The dramatic dialogue concerns itself with the
origin, purpose, and nature of love, or eros, through a series of speeches by men at a symposium
(symposion) was an occasion for drinking together following the meal in an ancient Greek
banquet, when the focus was on wine rather than food. Scholars have defined the symposium as
a nighttime gathering of aristocratic men who dined on couches, drinking wine and enjoying
entertainment--poetry, conversation, and various erotic pursuits with men and women. All
symposiasts were equal in the room, drinking the same amount of wine from a communal krater.
As a custom emphasizing bonds among men, female presence in a symposium only occurred as
servants, entertainers, and courtesans. The proceedings allowed for the practice of paidersasia,
institutionalized love between older and younger men common in ancient Greece.

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COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course aims at introducing students/seminarians to the classics of Plato’s Republic and
Symposium in order to influence their understanding of the complexion and ideas encapsulated
in the discourse, and to appreciate how relevant they are to contemporary life situations.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is anticipated that, students would be able to:

1. Read and comprehend the narratives

2. Familiar with the characters involved in the dialogues
3. Analyze the important thematic issues raised in the books
4. Develop ability to apply the ideas to realities in contemporary society
5. Draw important lessons for professional life

REQUIREMENTS

 Active participation during in-class reading and commentaries - (10%)

 Group presentations - ( 30%)
 Writing end-of-semester examination (take-home) - (60%)

NB:
Take-home exams should not be more than 6 pages typed on A4 sheets using the usual
specifications of Sowutuom in the APA style; 1.5 line spacing; 12 font size, and in Times New
Roman font.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Week Date Topic Issues to be discussed
1 2/9/2019 Introduction: general background including, the Platonic Dialogues
characters and setting of the Republic and
Symposium
2 9/9/2019 1. Book I: Socrates & Glaucon visit the Piraeus Polemarchus & Socrates
to attend a festival in honor of the Thracian Discourse on happiness
goddess Bendis. They enter Polemarchus’ house and justice

2. Book II: Glaucon & Thrasymachus’ challenge Analogy of Justice in the

Socrates to defend justice. Adeimantus & City & human soul
Glaucon rather defend injustice
3 16/9/2019 1. Book III: Socrates and political measures of The Just life – the rulers
the censorship of poetry – the guardian class of the Just City

2. Book IV: Adeimantus complains about Measures to promote the

guardians in the Just City not being happy and founded Just City eg.

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 Socrates conviction: four virtues in man Education
4 23/9/2019 1. Book V: Socrates and unjust political regime Guardian: PK bringing
& Adeimantus and Polemarchus’ interruptions happiness to Just City

2. Book VI: Socrates defence of PK rule and Education of the PK:

Adeimantus’ objection Form of the Good
5 30/10/201 1. Book VII: Socrates & PK and the Third Qualifications of the PK
9 Analogy

2. Book VIII: Socrates returns to argument in Types of regimes: good

Book V: the regimes and the individuals and bad ones
6 7/10/2019 1. Book IX: Socrates discusses tyrannical Are the Just happier than
individual the Unjust?
2. Book X: Socrates on defence of the exclusion rewards for the just and
of poetry from just city: punishment for the unjust

7 14/10/2019 Phaedrus & Pausanias’ Speeches What kinds of Love?

8 23/10/2019 Eryximachus & Aristophanes’ Speeches Location of love & its
manifestation
9 28/10/2018 Agathon & Socrates Nature of love
10 4/11/2019 Diotima & Socrates Nature of love
11 11/11/2019 Alcibiades Speech Extolling Love
12 18/11/2019 End of Dialogue Love reigns supreme
13 25/11/2019 Summary/highlights of key issues covered Q&A

READING LIST

Major Text

Jowett, Benjamin. The Republic by Plato: Books 1 – X (see; www.semantikon.com)

Cooper, John M. & Hutchinson, D. S. (Eds.). (1997). Plato: Complete Works.

Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.

Commentaries

IDPH. (2002). The Republic by Plato. (See: http://www.idph.net)

( www.idph.net/conteudos/ebooks/republic.pdf)

Plato: The Republic Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (see also https://plato.stanford.edu/ )

Plato: The Republic Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (see also: http://www.iep.utm.edu/ )

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