Augustine Tutorial

Jeffrey Mcdonough

Description

99 – Tutorial on Augustine Fall 2005 Syllabus Important Information: Lecture: Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 – 12:00, Emerson 104 Professor: Jeffrey McDonough Office Hours: 314 Emerson Hall, Friday 10:30 – 11:30 E-mail: [e-mail] Required Texts (available at the Coop): Henry Chadwick, ed. and trans., Saint Augustine: Confesssions (New York: Oxford University Press). Peter King, ed. and trans., Augustine: Against the Academicians and The Teacher (Indianapolis: Hackett). Thomas Williams, ed. and trans., Augustine: On Free Choice of the Will Reserved Texts (available at Robbins Library): Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Abbreviated below as CCA. Gareth Matthews, ed., The Augustinian Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press). Abbreviated below as AT. Course Description: St. Augustine, born in North Africa in 354 A.D., and made Bishop of Hippo in 396 A.D., is widely recognized as one of the most important fathers of the Christian Church. His influence on the development of philosophy in the Western tradition, however, is also immense – perhaps unsurpassed. For nearly a thousand years – from roughly the time of the fall of Rome to the reemergence of Latin translations of Aristotle’s principal works – the amalgam of Platonism and Christianity that Augustine defended dominated Western thinking. Even ...

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• Publié par: Usso
• Nombre de lectures: 56
• Langue: English

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99 – Tutorial on Augustine

Fall 2005

Syllabus

Important Information:

Lecture:

Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 – 12:00, Emerson 104

Professor: Jeffrey McDonough

Office Hours:

314 Emerson Hall, Friday 10:30 – 11:30

E-mail: [e-mail]

Required Texts

(available at the Coop)

:

Henry Chadwick, ed. and trans.,

Saint Augustine: Confesssions

(New York:

Oxford University Press).

Peter King, ed. and trans.,

Augustine: Against the Academicians and The Teacher

(Indianapolis:

Hackett).

Thomas Williams, ed. and trans.,

Augustine:

On Free Choice of the Will

(Indianapolis:

Hackett).

Reserved Texts

(available at Robbins Library):

Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, eds.,

The Cambridge Companion to

Augustine

(Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press).

Abbreviated below as

CCA.

Gareth Matthews, ed.,

The Augustinian Tradition

(Berkeley:

University of

California Press).

Abbreviated below as AT.

Course Description:

St. Augustine, born in North Africa in 354 A.D., and made Bishop of Hippo in 396 A.D.,

is widely recognized as one of the most important fathers of the Christian Church.

His

influence on the development of philosophy in the Western tradition, however, is also

immense – perhaps unsurpassed.

For nearly a thousand years – from roughly the time of

the fall of Rome to the reemergence of Latin translations of Aristotle’s principal works –

the amalgam of Platonism and Christianity that Augustine defended dominated Western

thinking.

Even after the synthesis that he helped to forge came under attack in the high

middle ages, Augustine’s works and views continued to exert a profound influence, first

as a challenge to the emerging blend of Christianity and Aristotelian metaphysics

defended most famously by Aquinas, and then as an inspiration to the more Platonically

minded mechanical philosophers of the early modern period.

We will work through

some of Augustine’s most philosophically influential works including

The Confessions

,

On Free Choice of the Will

,

Against the Academicians

, and

The Teacher

.

Likely topics

of discussion will include the metaphysics of evil, free will, skepticism, knowledge,

language, memory and time.

Requirements and Grading:

1.

Attendance

Given the nature of tutorials, regular attendance is absolutely essential, and students will

be expected to arrive promptly at every meeting.

If you cannot attend a particular

meeting please let the professor know ahead of time.

All absences will require proper

documentation as described in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Handbook.

Any student

with more than one absence unexcused by the standards of the Handbook should expect

to receive an F for the course.

2.

Reading

It is absolutely essential to the success of this course that students read the assigned texts

before tutorial meetings.

The assigned readings are short, but difficult, and it is expected

that students will have read through them at least twice carefully and thoughtfully.

Fortunately, for us Augustine, whose training was in rhetoric, is a masterful writer and

his dialogues are amazingly sophisticated, elegant, and often witty.

For each week, a

secondary reading has also been assigned.

These readings are recommended but are not

required.

Students may find them helpful in stimulating their own thoughts either for

discussion or writing.

3.

Discussion and Writing

One of the principal aims of this course is to give students a chance to engage in

philosophical discussion in a small group setting.

For this reason, informed, considered

participation in tutorial meetings is crucial.

In order to facilitate discussion, and give students an opportunity to reflect on their own

views before discussion, a short writing assignment is due each week.

A carefully

written essay of 1-3 pages should be e-mailed to all members of the tutorial, including the

professor, by midnight before the next meeting.

Students are required to also bring a

hard copy of their essays to be turned in at tutorial meetings.

Essays should be explicitly related to the week’s readings, but otherwise their topics are

up to students.

You might, for example, explore a theme you find especially interesting,

raise a question and suggest an answer, or relate something in the reading to points raised

in the previous week’s discussion.

You may also engage with the supplementary

readings listed in the tentative schedule.

Each student may decide not to submit a writing assignment for any two weeks over the

course of the semester without penalty.

If on a given week, you decide use one of your

“passes,” you should inform the professor by e-mail.

Note, students not writing are still

responsible for participation during the tutorial meeting.

4.

Grading

Students’ grades will be based on their participation in tutorial meetings, and the quality

of their weekly essays.

After approximately our fourth and eighth meetings, the

professor will send out e-mails informing students of the grades they may expect given

their current level of performance.

Unless circumstances require, there will be no exams

or term papers.

Tentative Schedule by Meetings

(1) Required:

Confessions

, Books I-IX

Supplemental:

“Structure and Meaning in St. Augustine’s Confessions,” by Frederick J.

Crosson in AT

(2) Required:

On Free Choice of Will

, Book I

Supplemental:

“Augustine on Free Will” by Eleonore Stump in CCA

(3) Required:

On Free Choice of Will

, Book II

Supplemental:

“Do We Have a Will?” by Simon Harrison in AT

(4) Required:

On Free Choice of Will

, Book III, Chapters 1-4, and

Retractions

, pp. 124-

129.

Supplemental:

“Predestination, Pelagianism, and Foreknowledge,” by James Wetzel

(5) Required:

On Free Choice of Will

, Book III, Chapters 5-24

Supplemental:

“Avoiding Sin:

Augustine against Consequentialism” by Christopher

Kirwan in AT

(6) Required:

Anselm’s

On Freedom of Choice

(7) Required: Anselm’s

On the Fall of the Devil

, Chapters 1-11

(8) Required:

Anselm’s

On the Fall of the Devil

, Chapters 12-28

(9)

Required:

Against the Academicians

, Book I

Supplemental:

“Faith and Reason,” by John Rist in CCA

The Teacher

, Division II, pp.

123-146

(10) Required:

Against the Academicians

, Book II

Supplemental:

“The Response to Skepticism and the Mechanisms of Cognition,” by

Gerard O’Daly in CCA

Confessions

, Book X

(11)

Required:

Against the Academicians

, Book III

Supplemental:

“Knowledge and Illumination,” by Gareth B. Matthews in CCA