PHIL 411.001 & 002 – Aristotle (Love, Sex, and Friendship)

IDEAs in Action: Which curricular requirements does this course satisfy?

Instructors: C.D.C. Reeve and Mariska Leunissen. This course meets M 3:35 – 6:05 p.m. in DE 303.

This course offers a high-level survey of the works of Aristotle with the aim of providing students with a more thorough understanding of the key texts, doctrines, notions, and ideas in Aristotle’s philosophy as a whole and of his views on love, sex, and friendship in particular. We will read, interpret, and critically engage with a broad selection of Aristotelian texts, including the On the Soul, History of Animals, Generation of Animals, Eudemian Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics. For some topics, we will include selections from Plato as well. Attention will be paid to how Aristotle developed his views in their own socio-historical context as well as to the methodological problems involved in the study of ancient texts, and the texts of Aristotle in particular.

Instructor permission is required to enroll in this course. Please email Profs. David Reeve and Mariska Leunissen at cdcreeve@email.unc.edu and mariska@email.unc.edu for a permission number.