Course Syllabus

Stranger

[The sophist], who flees by stealth into the darkness of Not-Being and comes to grips with the darkness by blind practice, is difficult to observe among the shadows of his abode. Isn't that right?

Theætetus

Probably.

Stranger

But the philosopher too, always devoted in his logic to the idea of Being, is not at all easy to see because of the brilliance of his surroundings; most people cannot endure gazing at the divine with the eyes of their soul.

Overview

Every story with heroes also has its villains; philosophy does not differ in this regard. The heroes, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, struggled to discover logic and understand what truth is; philosophers' efforts in developing logic led eventually to the computer on which you are reading this. The villains, called sophists, took different paths from the philosophers. Some proved that everything was true, others that everything was false. Some sophists claimed to teach excellence or how to make the weaker argument the stronger; other people claimed that the sophists were subverting the youth. Whether or not they were actually able to teach or subvert anything, they gained a reputation for charging tuition greedily. Eventually sophists overthrew the Athenian democracy, not once but twice. They were also some of the most adept and knowledgable writers of classical Greece, and they inspired a brilliant Second Sophistic literary movement during the Roman period. It might seem difficult to judge whether the sophists were good people or bad, but the philosophers tell us that they were bad, and we trust the philosophers, because the philosophers love the truth—we know that because the philosophers tell us that they love the truth, and those who love the truth would not deceive us.

In this course, we shall read what remains of the sophists' writings, testimonia or reports about them, and philosophic attacks upon them. We shall practice the methods that Aristotle ascribes to the sophists in his Sophistici Elenchi and learn how they work. We shall also pursue modern scholarship about the sophists to examine how academics today interpret their writings. Finally, we shall study the sophists' legacy in the Roman-era, multicultural literary movement called the second Sophistic. How does the "second" Sophistic relate to the "first," how does it differ, and what do those labels "first" and "second" really mean? Do those later sophists really possess the ability to levitate, to raise the dead, to hunt dragons and curse demons and refute vampires?

Class Times and Location

CLST 450 meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 until 5:10 PM in Old Main 585.  Note that the fifth floor of Old Main is divided into two parts, and our classroom is in the side furthest from Red Square.  Neither the south (closest to Red Square) elevator nor stairs leads to the classroom; you'll need to take the central stairs, north stairs, or north elevator.

Instructor

Miller Krause ( miller.krause@wwu.edu )

Office: Miller Hall 122E

Office Hours: TR 10:30–11:30

Textbooks

CLST 450 is taught in English, with texts translated into English from the Greek and, in Seneca's case, the Latin. I've asked the bookstore to make available two books:

Aristotle's On Sophistical Refutations is widely available online for free, yet having the text at hand in a paper format may well come in handy. I have marked Dillon's anthology of the fragmenta and testimonia of the sophists as required, because you will not easily find this material elsewhere. Dillon's book should be between $15 used and $20 new; Forster and Furley's translation of Aristotle, like most Loebs, should run around $30.

Free, online translations of Aristotle include:

• Forster, E. and Furley, D. trans. 1955. available (whether legally or not) via Loebulus
• the same via the Internet Library
• the same as an audio recording in the most tedious voice imaginable, via LibriVox

There are many other readings for this course, all linked from the assignments found in the Course Syllabus and Modules. Most are online on external web sites, although some of the declamations will be given as PDF files because they are nowhere available online. For each reading, make sure that you click on the assignment and read any information available there.

Academic Honesty

Don't commit academic dishonesty. Explore the University's Integrity website.  You may—and should—work with other students and refer to your books, notes, and (for what it's worth) the internet on any and every assignment, quiz, or exam in this class.

Grading

Grading Scale

Course Components

Readings

This is a literature class. We read ancient literature (primary sources) and modern scholarship (secondary readings). Keep up with the reading.

The reading is not long, but it is hard. Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations and Plato's Euthydemus are among the most difficult readings you will encounter as undergraduates. Be prepared not to understand some things until you discuss them in class—but read them before class, because the discussions won't help much without having read the texts first.

Attendance and Participation (10%)

Sophistry, whether an art of enlightenment or deception, is inherently interpersonal and practical or poetic, not theoretical. Meditating on texts in seclusion is not likely to help you understand anything; discussing them with others is. That is why we have synchronous classes.

This class relies on your active participation in discussions, and therefore it relies on your attendance. I realize that emergencies do arise, so I will drop two absences (ten percent of our sessions). After that, you must show me a good reason for being absent, or I will begin deducting points from your attendance and participation grade.

Canvas is already set to drop the two lowest absence grades. This means that, by the third class, two attendance grades will appear greyed-out in the grades; if you have no absences, two will be greyed-out anyway, because the lowest two scores out of three perfect scores are still perfect.

Weekly Sophisms (20%)

Every week, you will write a sophism based on the fallacies that Aristotle treats in his Sophistici elenchi. We shall read through the entire Sophistici elenchi quickly the first week, but every week you will focus on one or two sophisms in depth and, by imitating them and refuting others' examples, gain deeper insight into the sophist's tools. Thus, when we meet fallacies in sophistic (or even philosophic) writing in the course of our readings, you will be better equipped to appreciate deception.

Each week, you will write a brief sophism and post it to a Canvas discussion. Then, you will attempt either to refute two other students' sophisms or to point out why their sophisms are not in fact examples of the sophisms they attempted to emulate. These assignments only work if you are actively engaged in designing and refuting sophisms. The assignments open each Sunday and are due on Friday but close on Saturday to give you an extra day should you need it.

Article and Book Reports (20%)

Peer-reviewed, secondary scholarship is a core component of higher academia. The thing that separates a university from a book club or reading group is secondary scholarship. Universities pour vast resources into making available to students the "academic conversation" of research and scholarship, in which people who have spent significant time and effort working on problems write papers that incorporate earlier scholarship, pass muster with peer reviewers, and appear in print for your easy perusal and digestion. In this way, you have access not only to the primary source texts, as well as the benefit of the little time might have spent reading them and discussing them in class, but to many different perspectives shaped over the course of many years and a vast accumulation of knowledge. Research into secondary scholarship is a major reason why you pay tuition and how you benefit from a university education. Although this course does not carry a WP credit or require a research paper, I would prove myself an irresponsible instructor if I did not require some form of research into secondary scholarship.

Therefore, you will write three brief (one or two paragraph) summaries of articles, book chapters, or books of secondary scholarship.  With each of these three assignments, I'll provide a bibliography of recent, relevant articles (and maybe books chapters). Choose a secondary reading from the bibliography and write a brief summary as outlined in the assignments.  Post your summaries to those discussions and respond briefly to two other students' posts for each round to familiarize yourself with some of the important, modern scholarship dealing with sophistry. The first round is due the third week, the second round with the midterm, and the final round the final week of class.  Each will open the day after the previous round closes.

I may ask those who review especially important scholarship or research relevant to a day's primary readings to speak briefly about their summaries in class, for the benefit of all students.

Lesser Peirastics (20%)

Six lesser peirastics are scheduled to test your knowledge. These will involve writing brief essays. You are free to use your books, notes, and the internet. I'll reserve time in class for you to discuss these and time for you to write quietly.

First Greater Peirastic (15%)

The first of two greater peirastics will cover Aristotle and the "first" sophists of classical Greece. The exam will consist of essay questions: you will be able to choose a few questions to answer from a larger pool of questions.

Second Greater Peirastic  (15%)

The second of two greater peirastics will cover Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, and the authors of the second sophistic. The exam will consist of essay questions: you will be able to choose a few questions to answer from a larger pool of questions.

Weekly Schedule

Below you will find a schedule of all exams, quizzes, assignments, readings, and so forth.

This syllabus is subject to change. Changes, if any, will be announced in class. Since the syllabus is on Canvas, students will have the latest information available at all times. Students will be held responsible for all changes.

Canvas provides feeds to which you can subscribe, to keep all your course info in your favorite calendar program like Apple's Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. For details, see the Canvas Guide on Calendar.