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PHI103: Socrates and the Examined Life

UNIT OUTLINES

PHI103: Socrates and the Examined Life

Key details

Accredited towardsBachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts
Diploma of Liberal Arts
Unit typeCore unit
Credit points6
Indicative contact hours3 hours per week
PrerequisitesNone
Offered inSemester 1
Tuition feeLearn more

 

Overview

In Fides et Ratio, Pope St John Paul II says that philosophy, “one of the noblest of human tasks,” is “directly concerned with asking the question of life’s meaning and sketching an answer to it”. This unit of study introduces students to this task, central to liberal education and the Catholic intellectual tradition, by focusing on Socrates, the foundational philosopher of the classical Greek tradition. As dramatized in Plato’s challenging yet accessible dialogues, Socrates asks and seeks answers to some of the most fundamental human questions (What is justice? What is knowledge? What is the good life?) as he challenges his fellow Athenian citizens to consider the purpose and nature of their lives.  Works studied may include Plato’s Apology, Crito and Republic.

 

Learning outcomes

On completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:

  1. Examine Socrates’ quest for the right way of life and the question of how we can know it
  2. Understand the significance of the author’s choice of the literary form of the texts
  3. Evaluate the major themes, stylistic features and argumentative strategies employed in selected dialogues
  4. Identify and use the Socratic method of inquiry
  5. Understand the importance of clear argumentation and written expression

 


 

Interested in other Philosophy units?

PHI103Socrates and the Examined Life
PHI104The Good Life in Greek and Roman Philosophy
PHI203Aristotelian, Thomistic and Kantian Ethics
PHI204Political Philosophy: From Aristotle to Locke
PHI301Modern Philosophy
PHI303Philosophy of Language
PHI306Close Reading of a Modern Philosophical Text
PHI307Metaphysics
PHI308Medieval Philosophy
SCI308Formal Logic

 


 

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