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P515 (§ 29794) Fall 2009 History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages

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P401 (§ 11962)/P515 (§ 29794) Fall 2009 History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages Office Hours: E-mail: Title of the course: History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages. This course is a combined undergraduate/graduate course, being offered under two simultaneous numbers: P401 for the undergraduate graduate version and P515 for the graduate version. The fact that we have two “instances” of what is in effect exactly the same course is perhaps an illustration of the very problem of universals that is the topic of this course. (I’ll say more about what that problem is in a moment.) But it’s not really exactly the same course. I will be expecting an appropriately more ambitious term-papers and examination answers from those of you taking this course under the graduate number. Handouts: (1) Syllabus Lectures: 2:30–3:45 PM Mondays & Wednesdays. Format: Lecture with some questions. Required Texts: Paul Vincent Spade, Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994). Paul Vincent Spade, History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages: Notes and Texts. A packet of materials containing additional notes on the translations in Five Texts, together with some further translations. It comes to 191 pages, and is available from Mr. Copy, 501 E. 10th St. (= 10th & Dunn) (334- 2679). ($29.90 plus tax.) 2 Bring these first two items to class with you regularly; I will be frequently referring to particular passages in them. Thomas Aquinas, On Being and Essence, Armand Maurer, tr. I’d like to call your attention to some things on the Syllabus. You can read the details there. (a) Oncourse site for this class: https://oncourse.iu.edu/. When you log in, you will see two tabs across the top of your screen: one for either FA09 BL PHIL P401 11962 or FA09 BL PHIL P515 29794, depending on whether you’re enrolled in this class under the undergraduate or the graduate number; and the other a tab for FA09 BL PHIL P401 C11662. The latter is the combined site I am using for this course, rather than having to duplicate everything. Everything will take place on this combined site. If you go to either of the other course sites, you will be redirected to this combined one. On the Oncourse site, you will find: A copy of the Syllabus. Various announcements, posted as we go along. An email archive, where you can view messages from me or your classmates relevant to this course. You can send email to [email protected] and it will be automatically forwarded to all members of this class and deposited in the email archive for later viewing. (Porphyry is one of the first main figures we will be talking about in this class.) Note that this feature is to be used only for matters relevant to this class. If you abuse it and start sending random emails to everybody, I'll have to reconfigure the utility so that only I can send mail through it. An "Assignments" utility, where you will submit your examinations and papers for this course in digital format. A quiz-taking utility, for weekly quizzes as described below. (Click on the "Original Test and Survey" link in the menubar on the left of your screen.) A "Post'Em" grade-reporting utility, where you can see your running grades for this course: quiz grades, examination grades, paper grades, comments, etc. (Note: I have to upload these grades manually from my Excel spreadsheet gradebook. So there will be some lag-time between, say, taking a quiz and seeing the results 3 posted here.) I am not using the Oncourse "Gradebook" utility, which I find too restrictive for my purposes. A "Resources" folder. Lots of important things will be deposited here. These will include information about books on reserve for us at the Wells Library, several articles and papers in PDF format, copies of all class handouts (including the Syllabus), and whatever other amazing and unpredictable things I come up with. Get familiar with the “Resources” folder. (b) Course requirements: Mid-term and final examinations and a term paper. Also: Series of eleven weekly 20-point quizzes, beginning next week. (We won’t have done enough this week to be able to quiz you over anything.) These quizzes will be done through Oncourse. They will be available from 3:45 Wednesday afternoons (right after this class) until the following Sunday midnight (technically 0:00 a.m. the following morning). (See the Syllabus for details.) The idea here is (a) to prod people to keep up, (b) make sure you have all the facts and names and things in place before we start drawing connections, raising objections and getting too theoretical, and (c) to give both you and me some constant feedback. Finally, I want to make one last preliminary remark about the nuts and bolts of this class. All written work for this class will be submitted online. The quizzes I’ve already told you about; they are handled through the Oncourse quiz utility. The mid-term, the term paper, and the final examination, will all be submitted through the “Assignments” utility on Oncourse. (2) Reserves. This is not a reading-list of stuff you are expected to master for this course, although it would be terrific if you did. Rather the idea is that these are mostly things that may be relevant to writing your term papers. A few of them are things we will be actively discussing in class. First Reading Assignment (For Next week): This is not as much as it sounds like. From the Five Texts: Porphyry the Phoenician, Isagoge, together with the corresponding further notes in the Notes and Texts. 4 Boethius, together with the corresponding further notes in the Notes and Texts (there’s only one further note in this case). Then, in “Part Two” of Notes and Texts, where you get further translations, please read the additional material from Porphyry and Boethius. That is: Porphyry the Phoenician, From his Exposition of Aristotle’s Categories by Question and Answer. Boethius, From his Second Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge, III.11. (This is the same work as, but a different passage from, the Boethius text in Five Texts.) Boethius, From his Second Commentary on Aristotle’s De interpretatione, II.7. Boethius, Two Texts from his Theological Tractates. This is not a lot of reading, some 44 or 45 pages in all. We will be spending considerable time on these texts, but we will begin talking about them fairly soon. The main ones are: Porphyry’s Isagoge, the passage from Boethius in Five Texts, and the passages from the Theological Tractates. I will be using the other texts simply to illustrate particular points I want to make along the way. Pay particular attention to the Boethius passage in Five Texts. Don’t be worried if you don’t understand these texts the first time through. You soon will. Optional (But Entertaining and Highly Recommended) Readings: From “The Course in the Box,” Version 3.0 beta (explain): Ch. 2: “Methodological Considerations.” (That is, “Why Study the History of Philosophy Anyway?”) Perhaps Ch. 3: “The Greek Background to Mediaeval Philosophy, or Everything You Need to Know About the Greeks.” If you need to brush up on your Plotinus, for instance. Ch. 22: “Boethius: Life and Works.” If you want to know who this Boethius fellow was that we’ll be talking about. (I will say a little about that later on.) 5 What Is The Problem of Universals? The first thing we need to do is to ask: What is the problem of universals anyway? In other words, what is this course going to be about? We can ask this question in at least two forms: (1) If all we are asking for is some kind of motivation for the problem of universals, something to get the discussion going, then that is fairly easy, and I will try to do that in a moment. (2) But if we are asking for a precise statement of the problem of universals — or of the problems of universals, since after all there is a whole cluster of relevant philosophical problems here — then that is a much harder task, and something you have to work into slowly. This is something we will get into gradually throughout the semester. But let’s start with what I said was the easy part, the motivation for the problem of universals — a kind of quick and easy statement of it. Consider these two pieces of chalk. They come from the same manufacturer and — apart from their different lengths — are in most respects pretty much alike. In particular, they are of the same color: they are both white. Now I want you to look at these two pieces of chalk, and for the moment to ignore everything else about them, and to focus only on their color. How many colors do you see here? How many whitenesses? One or two? If you reflect a bit, I think you will see that, at an initial, pre-philosophical level, either answer is plausible. (And I will want to maintain in this course that, even at a fairly sophisticated, philosophical level, the correct choice is not clear.) Now don’t interrupt with objections — not yet. I’m about to give you some arguments you may think are fallacious and silly — on either side of the question. That doesn’t matter for now. I’m simply trying to set up the situation for future discussion.
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