Ancient Philosophy

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label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Diana Ignat
Tackling the ultimate questions that have occupied great minds for centuries, this course gives you the chance to delve to the very depths of philosophy, as seen through the eyes of the ancient Greeks.Bringing debates to life: Are the events of tomorrow already decided today? How should we define knowledge? Is it morally permissible to eat animals? Each day, you will read, analyse and interpret philosophical texts which explore some of our most profound questions, considering your own answers alongside those of the ancients.

This course is designed to give you an awareness and understanding of a range of philosophical questions and their ancient answers. You will become familiar with a variety of philosophical texts and develop the ability to analyse arguments and interpret texts. As a student on this course, you'll gain key skills in critical reasoning and analysis that are vital across a variety of disciplines.

Each day will begin with an introductory lecture which sets out the problem for consideration and provides a framework for discussion and analysis. You will then read, analyse and discuss the contents of ancient and contemporary texts in groups, and come to a decision over whether you think the author provides a good answer to the problem, as well as what answer you would provide to the same problem.

The course will cover a huge variety of philosophical problems and texts, from the early Greeks (Zeno, Plato, Aristotle) to some contemporary philosophers (Singer, Gettier), and it will consider questions such as 'Is the world eternal?' and 'What is the soul and is it immortal?'

Period
01-07-2013 - 19-07-2013 (3 weeks)

Target group
This course is open to students of any discipline. The analysis and formulation of arguments may be of particular interest to English and Law students. It may also be of interest to Classics students interested in exploring Greek philosophy.

Course aim
By the end of the course, you should expect to:

- Have an awareness and understanding of a range of philosophical questions and their ancient answers.



- Be familiar with a variety of ancient (and some contemporary) philosophical texts.

- Have developed your ability to analyse arguments and interpret texts.

- Have developed key skills of critical reasoning and analysis which are useful in many disciplines.

Credits
7.5 ECTS credits

Many of our students get credit for the summer courses taken at Kings. You should approach your home university before applying to find out whether they accept our courses for credit. We would recommend a three-week course to be equivalent 4 US credits or 7.5 ECTS, for instance.

Course fee
GBP 1350: tuition fee only

Course leader
Our Summer School tutors are experts in their fields who often do ground-breaking research of their own and love what they do.

King's College London
Address: Strand, London
Postal code: WC2R 2LS
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7848 1533