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Hellenistic Philosophy

Key information

  • Module code:

    6AANA014

  • Level:

    6

  • Semester:

      Spring

  • Credit value:

    15

Module description

The Hellenistic period of philosophy begins with the founding of the Stoic, Epicurean and Sceptical schools around the time of Aristotle, and extends to the late antique period. These three schools developed some of the most interesting ideas to be found in ancient philosophy, for instance the determinism of the Stoics, the atomism and hedonism of the Epicureans, and of course the sceptical approach initiated by Pyrrho, which culminated in the work of Sextus Empiricus. Hellenistic philosophy reacts to earlier Greek thought – the Presocratics, Plato and Aristotle – but is in many ways a new beginning for ancient philosophy. This course will introduce some of the principal themes of the Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, considering each philosophical school in its own right, as well as some ways they influenced and criticised one another.

For full details:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/philosophy/modules/level6/6aana014.aspx

Assessment details

Summative assessment: 1 x 3,000 word essay

Teaching pattern

 One one-hour weekly lecture and one one-hour weekly seminar over ten weeks.

Suggested reading list

A.A. Long and D.N. Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers, Vol.1 (Cambridge, 1987)

Sharples, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics (Routledge, 1996)

Inwood (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics (Cambridge 2003)

Brennan, The Stoic Life (Oxford 2005),

Warren (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism (Cambridge 2009)

Algra (ed.), The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy (Cambridge 1999)

Bett (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism (Cambridge 2010)

M.F. Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition (Berkeley, 1983)

Burnyeat and M. Frede (eds.), The Original Sceptics (Indianapolis 1998)

Striker, Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics (Cambridge 1996)

Department

Module description disclaimer

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