Education and Philosophy in Ancient Greece

Academic Year 2025/2026 - Teacher: CHIARA MILITELLO

Expected Learning Outcomes

After attending the class on Education and Philosophy in the Ancient World, the student will understand how philosophy was born, will know the fundamental aspects of ancient philosophical thought, with particular attention to the theme of education (paideia), will grasp the elements of continuity and rupture between contemporary and ancient thought, and will assimilate the differences between the different types of educational relationships and between the different intellectual and ethical models that can be found in Greek history. This will accustom the student to confronting an “other” that is distant in time, which will in turn be useful for understanding the people who come from a different culture. From a more specifically methodological point of view, the student will be equipped with the hermeneutical tools necessary to recognize the origin and initial development of the main philosophical questions, to understand the ancient philosophical texts and grasp the main theories exposed in them, to understand which are the roots of “Western” civilization, and to apply the methods of philosophy to education. In general, the student will have a clear picture of the theoretical and methodological tools used in the study of philosophy and ancient educational processes.

The student will also be able to personally evaluate the different current theories on ancient thought, and to apply the lessons of ancient philosophers to modern educational problems with a critical spirit. The student will master the ancient philosophical vocabulary, but, above all, he will be aware of the importance of using a precise technical vocabulary. Finally, the student will cultivate their learning skills, including the (particularly important but not always practiced) skill of understanding a written text that does not have the form of a treatise, and will be used to consulting experts in the crucial moments of their learning-by-oneself path.

The expected learning objectives, declined according to the Dublin Descriptors, are the following:

Knowledge and ability to understand (DD1):

- To know theories and models proper to ancient philosophy in order to interpret educational and training events.

Applied knowledge and understanding (DD2):

- Relate the theoretical and methodological contents learned to the interpretation of ancient philosophical-educational texts.

Autonomy of judgement (DD3):

- Evaluate the relevance of the ancient theories studied to modern educational problems.

Communication skills (DD4):

- To be able to communicate and share analysis of events from knowledge of the history of one’s professional field.

Learning skills (DD5):

- To be able to define one’s own personal development plan, monitoring one’s actions.

- To be able to promote self-assessment actions aimed at one’s own professional development.

Course Structure

The teaching will be carried out through lectures, a method that will ensure the transmission of contents and methods. In order to achieve the objectives relating to learning and communication skills, questions for clarification and deepening by the students will be encouraged during the lessons. Lessons will include guided reading of a classical text, in order to develop the ability to read various types of philosophical works.

Required Prerequisites

No prior knowledge is required.

Attendance of Lessons

Course attendance is strongly recommended because (1) it greatly facilitates the acquisition of the content, by virtue of the instructor’s presentation of ancient philosophical and educational theories and explanation of the classical texts, and (2) it allows one to take the mid-term exam.

Detailed Course Content

Care of the part and care of the whole. Man as the union of body and soul. Care of the soul. Self-mastery. Temperance. True health. Self-consciousness in Plato’s early thought. The spurious Platonic dialogues. Plato and Heraclitus. Self-control as a fundamental virtue. Bodies that have the capacity for movement. The soul as the principle of animals. The superiority of psychology over the specialized biological sciences. The intellect. The faculties and functions of the soul. Aristotle’s critique of his predecessors’ doctrines of the soul. Objections to the Platonic doctrine of the soul’s self-movement. Objections to the Pythagorean doctrine of the soul as harmony. The definition of the soul as the form and essence of the organic body. The vegetative faculty. The sensitive faculty. The nature of the five senses. Imagination. The active and passive intellect. The influence of Aristotle on subsequent thought. Aristotle’s key ideas.

Textbook Information

1. Plato, Charmides, translated with an introduction, notes, and analysis by Christoper Moore and Christopher C. Raymond, Hackett 2019, only the translation. [ISBN: 978-1624667787]

2. Julia Annas, Self-Knowledge in Early Plato, in Platonic Investigations, edited by Dominic J. O’Meara, The Catholic University of America Press 1985, pp. 111-138. [ISBN: 978-0-8132-3090-0] [available on the website of the course on Studium]

3. Aristotle, De Anima, translated, with introduction and notes, by C.D.C. Reeve, Hackett 2017, pp. 1-198. [ISBN: 978-1-62466-619-3].

4. John Sellars, Aristotle. Understanding the World’s Greatest Philosopher, Pelican 2023. [ISBN: ‎978-0241615652]

Author	Title	Publisher	Year	ISBN
Platone, Manara Valgimigli	Opere	Laterza	1966-67	9788842023715
Dominic J. O’Meara	Platonic Investigations	The Catholic University of America Press	1985	978-0-8132-3090-0
Aristotele, Renato Laurenti	Dell’anima	Il tripode	1970	9788858136003
John Sellars	Sette brevi lezioni su Aristotele	Einaudi	2024	9788806255282
Plato, Christoper Moore and Christopher C. Raymond	Charmides	Hackett	2019	978-1624667787
Aristotle, C.D.C. Reeve	De Anima	Hackett	2017	978-1-62466-619-3
John Sellars	Aristotle. Understanding the World’s Greatest Philosopher	Pelican	2023	‎978-0241615652

Course Planning

	Subjects	Text References
1	The Contemplative Life	4 (chapter 1)
2	Studying Nature	4 (chapter 2)
3	A Rational Animal	4 (chapter 3)
4	Social Animals	4 (chapter 4)
5	The Benefits of Literature	4 (chapter 5)
6	A Good Life	4 (chapter 6)
7	A Life of Inquiry	4 (chapter 7)
8	The Scope and Difficulty of the Inquiry into the Soul	3 (I.1)
9	A Critical Examination and Refutation of Prior Doctrines on the Soul’s Nature and Motion	3 (I.2-5)
10	Defining the Soul as the Form and First Actuality of a Living Body	3 (II.1)
11	Outlining the Hierarchy of Psychic Powers: Nutritive, Perceptive, and Intellectual	3 (II.2-3)
12	The Nutritive Soul and the Function of Reproduction	3 (II.4)
13	Perception as the Reception of Sensible Form Without Matter	3 (II.5-6)
14	A Systematic Analysis of the Five Senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Touch	3 (II.7-11)
15	The Unifying Faculty of “Common Sense” and the Awareness of Perception	3 (II.12-III.2)
16	The Nature of Imagination (Phantasia) and Its Distinction from Perception and Belief	3 (III.3)
17	The Nature of the Intellect (Nous), Its Relation to Imagination, and the Distinction Between its Active and Passive Powers	3 (III.4-8)
18	Desire (Orexis) and Practical Reason as the Sources of Animal Motion	3 (III.9-11)
19	A Summary on the Interrelation of the Soul’s Faculties	3 (III.12-13)
20	Treating the Soul as the True Cure for the Body	1 (153a-157c)
21	Refuting Three Definitions of Temperance	1 (157c-162b)
22	Defining Temperance as Self-Knowledge	1 (162b-165e)
23	The Possibility and Usefulness of a “Science of Science”	1 (165e-169c)
24	The Inability of a “Science of Science” to Judge Specific Knowledge	1 (169c-172c)
25	Distinguishing Temperance as a Useless “Science of Science” from the Truly Beneficial Science of Good and Evil	1 (172c-176d)
26	Self-knowledge in Early Plato	2

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

Midterm Exam

Midterm tests on the course content are scheduled for attending students, in the form of a multiple-choice questionnaire administered via Microsoft Teams.

Students must pass this test with a score of at least 18/30 to avoid having to take the official oral exam on that section of the program.

The purpose of the midterm tests is summative, and the assessment results in a grade that is averaged into the final grade.

Final exam.

Oral examination, assessed on the basis of the following elements: relevance of the answers to the questions asked (necessary to pass the exam); content quality, ability to connect the various parts of the course, proper philosophical language, overall expressive skills (all these elements contribute to the final evaluation, provided that the answers are relevant).

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

What is the first definition of temperance given by Charmides?

What conclusion do the interlocutors in the Charmides reach?

Read this passage from Plato’s Charmides and explain its meaning, placing it in context within the work.

Why does Julia Annas, to understand the young Plato’s conception of self-consciousness, refer to dialogues that might not be authentic?

Why, according to Socrates in the Charmides, is the notion of ‘knowing that one knows’ problematic?

According to Aristotle, what are the fundamental questions to ask about the soul?

Why, according to Aristotle, can an animal’s body not be simple?

Read this passage from Aristotele’s On the Soul and explain its meaning, placing it in context within the work.

What is the purpose of life according to Aristotle?

Was Aristotle dogmatic?

Degree Course in

Educational Sciences