CLAS45530: The Unity of the Virtues in Ancient Philosophy

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• To promote self-motivated and self-directed research in the field of ancient philosophy, for students who have received appropriate grounding in their undergraduate studies.
• To promote the ability to engage with complex philosophical arguments and to produce ones own arguments in response.

• Ancient philosophers almost unanimously agree that if people are excellent, they are excellent in all respects. In other words, they think that the virtues or excellences are all possessed together in a unity. This is called the Unity of the Virtues Thesis. The precise understanding of this thesis differs among ancient philosophers and philosophical schools. To our contemporary ears, the Unity of the Virtues Thesis seems wrong: we can easily think about people who are excellent in one respect (e.g. a great pop star), but may be disappointing or even reproachable in other respects (e.g. a great pop star with an unacceptable social behaviour). We can think about people who have one or more virtues (e.g. a generous friend), but lack other virtues (e.g. a generous friend who is not courageous). By retracing how ancient philosophers think about the Unity of the Virtues Thesis, the module offers a unique lens to investigate ancient ethics, ancient epistemology, and moral psychology. The module may include readings from Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Skeptics, Plotinus, as well as Medieval philosophers such as Augustine, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. The module seeks to compare ancient and medieval arguments with arguments offered by contemporary philosophical debates on the unity of the virtues. By the end of the module, students will be familiar with several approaches in ancient and medieval philosophy as well as with the ethical and epistemological systems offered by the authors discussed. Students will be able to assess complex philosophical arguments, to think critically about them, and to develop their own responses to these arguments.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Knowledge of the Unity of the Virtues Thesis (and its many formulations), its discussion and developments in ancient philosophy.
• Knowledge of a selection of texts and arguments in ancient and medieval philosophy.
• Knowledge of the echoes of the ancient debate on the unity of the virtues in contemporary philosophical discussions.
• Knowledge of relevant scholarship on the unity of the virtues.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Skills in how to identify and assess diverse types of texts and arguments in ancient and medieval philosophy.
• Ability to engage and assess critically modern scholarship.
• Ability to use reference tools and bibliography.

Key Skills:

• Close analysis and evaluation of evidence using a range of methods and approaches.
• Ability to assess, evaluate, and compare a range of different scholarly arguments, methodologies, and approaches.
• Ability to work independently on projects, organise time, and make use of appropriate resources.
• Capacity to produce sound arguments in both oral and written form.
• Capacity to engage with arguments produced by others (classmates, scholars, authors,), to assess them, and evaluate them.

• Teaching will be by seminars organised around topics related to the unity of the virtues, along with brief introductory sessions on the authors, texts and arguments discussed.
• The seminars are two hours long rather than weekly one hour sessions to allow preparation and detailed discussion.
• Formative assessment will be by a short response paper (1000 words) and a presentation on a topic of each student's own choosing which ideally will become the basis for their summative essay.
• Summative assessment will be by a 5000-word essay to be submitted at the end of the year on a topic of each student's own choosing.
• These assessments will help to promote a proficiency in producing engagement with the relevant source materials, and demonstrate students' understanding and evaluation of relevant modern scholarship. It will also enable students to work within the parameters of proper academic conventions, and in general contributes to research carried out at the appropriate level. It also enables students to practice the dissemination of their ideas in both oral and written forms.

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