SNU, College of Liberal Studies Jun Cho

Spring 2018, 991.308 j.cho@snu.ac.kr

Bldg. 220 Rm. 311 Bldg. 220 Rm. 304
Tue/Thr 3:30-4:45pm Thr. 5-6 pm
and by appointment

Classics Seminar 2: The Western Tradition

Course Description

This seminar introduces and engages texts that seriously struggle with issues and questions that we
also confront today in our personal lives and as a society as a whole: Who is a man, a woman, a
citizen, one of us? What is a good life, how can it be attained, and what must be done to promote it?
How should we relate to others and what is the best way to organize our community? What is the
proper relationship between us, the natural, and the supernatural? And how are we to know and
find the answers to these questions? The course explores these questions by looking at both
foundational texts that later repeatedly became references to those who faced the same issues in
their own context, as well as key documents that crystallized an epoch’s responses and solutions to
the same questions. The tone of their voices, their way of reasoning, the manner of their
presentations, the imagination of their visions can be at times surprisingly familiar or disturbingly
unfamiliar, but the process of engaging them provides us with critical reflection, necessary
perspective, and greater humility to understand issues of our contemporary civilization and seek
answers to them. It is a journey that can be frustrating to take, but one that can be refreshingly
liberating as well, and I ask you to gain the most out of it.

Course Texts

Plato, Republic (Hackett, trans. G.M.A. Grube & C.D.C. Reeve)

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford, trans. David Ross)
Epictetus, Handbook (Hackett, trans. Nicholas P. White)
Cicero, On Duties (Cambridge, trans. M.T. Griffin)
Augustine, Confessions (Pengin, trans. Pine-Coffin)
Machiavelli, The Prince (Hackett, trans. David Wootton)
Three Early Modern Utopias (Oxford)
Montagne, Essays: A Selection (Penguin, trans. M. A. Screech)
Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (Hackett, trans. Donald A. Cress)
Hobbes, Leviathan (Oxford, trans. J.C.A. Gaskin)
Montesquieu, Persian Letters (Penguin, trans. C.J.Betts)

The above books need to be acquired in advance. Unfortunately, Kyobo Bookstore on campus is not
able to carry some of the titles, while others need to be imported and hence purchased in advance.
Please make sure to either i) acquire the books personally in advance of the semester, or ii) inform
me if you would like to join in an advance group purchase of the books via Kybobooks (by March
18). All other texts will be available as a reader, also accessible via eTL. This is a upper level
seminar, with intensive reading and writing.
Course Requirements and Assignments

Attendance and Participation. The heart of this course is lively discussion based on close reading of
the texts. Attendance and participation in discussion is a large component of your final grade. Come
to class prepared with your own notes and participate actively as informed, attentive and collegiate
discussants. Please volunteer to share your understandings, questions and views, with other
members of the class. Missing over 4 sessions will affect your grade, while SNU mandates F or U for
students who miss over 1/3 of the classes. Outstanding contribution to class will receive extra
credit.
Online Response Postings. To facilitate class discussions, students will be asked to post their
reactions to the readings on the online discussion board. Include in your posts what you found to be
the most interesting in the readings, as well as questions you’d like to raise and further discuss in
class. Occasionally, we will also have short exercises in which students prepare material in advance
to discuss in class. Short exercises will be more individualized work which would allow you to bring
your perspective and contribution to the common issue at hand. The responses must be posted by
the noon before class, to ensure everyone reads the posts of their fellow students before coming to
class.
Class Presentation and Discussion-leading. Each student will be asked to prepare a 10-minute
presentation on a reading of your choice and lead discussion on that text for 15 minutes. Your
presentation should succinctly summarize the main issues and ideas in the text, lead the students
through a discussion of the arguments and methods of the author, and raise further questions about
the reading. Think of your presentation as a polished elaboration of your online postings, and
discussion leading as a collective project of getting to the bottom of the text and the issues. Please
consult with me in advance which reading you would like to present and strategies for discussions.
3 Essays. 2000 words. You will be asked to submit three essays. The first two essay should weave at
least 3 texts together, around a common theme that you chose. What is the fundamental issue
broached by the authors? How do the different authors converge and diverge with each other?
What are the different approaches and methodologies that inform their arguments? What do you
find to be the strength and weakness of the approaches? Assessing them together, how do they
provide grounds to consider your own answer to similar questions? The final third essay should
raise a question that was an undercurrent in our discussions across the whole semester.

Grading

Attendance and Participation (30%) Online Responses, 400 words (30%)

Three Essays, 2000 words each (30%) Class presentation (10%)

Academic Honesty

All students enrolled in this course pledge to abide by the basic standards of Academic Honesty and
Integrity. This includes mutual respect and consideration in lectures and discussions, integrity in
the process of preparing for class and conducting research, as well as honesty in presenting one’s
work in oral and writing. All incidents of plagiarisms, falsifications, etc will result in failure of the
class.
Students with Disabilities and Special Needs

If you have specific needs or disability that may impact your capacity to participate in class and
carry out assigned classwork, please contact me in private to discuss what can be done, and contact
the Support Center for Students with Disabilities (02-880-8787).

eTL
eTL will serve as the central platform for course management, including course announcements,
handouts for course assignments, copies of primary documents and additional readings, online
postings and discussions, links to relevant websites, etc. Students are required to actively access it
during the course and keep themselves aware of most recent updates. For a guide to using eTL,
please visit https://etl.snu.ac.kr. Often, asking your peers is the best resource

Course Schedule
* The following schedule is provisional and subject to change, depending on the progress of the
course as well as the interests of the students. Please check eTL for the most recent updates to
schedules and readings.

Mar 5. Introduction: Why Read the Classics?

Mar 7. Plato, Republic Books I-IV

Mar 12. Plato, Republic Books V-VII

Mar 14. Plato, Republic Books VIII-X

Mar 19. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books I-V

Mar 21. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books VI-X

Mar 26. Aristotle, Politics Books I, III, IV, VII: ch.1-3

Mar 28. Hellenistic Thought: Epicurus andEpictetus

Apr 2. Cicero, On Duties

Apr 4. Cicero, On Duties

Apr 9. Augustine, Confessions

Apr 11. Augustine, City of God (excerpts)

First Essay due.

Apr 16. Aquinas, Summae

Apr 18. Medieval Thought: Al-Ghazali, Maimonides, Ibn Rushd, Julian of Norwich

Apr 23. Protestant Reformation: Luther “Freedom” “On Government” “Galatians”

Apr 25. Protestant Reformation: Calvin “Ecclesiastical Ordinances” “Institutes” “
Apr 30. Machiavelli, The Prince
May 2. Machiavelli, The Discourses

May 7. More, Utopia

May 9. Bacon, New Atlantis

May 14 Montagne, Essays

May 16. Montagne, Essays

May 21. Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duches

May 23. Descartes, Meditations

Second Essay due.

May 28. Hobbes, Leviathan: Ch. 1, 10, 12-15

May 30. Hobbes, Leviathan: Ch. 17-21, 29-30

June 4. Montesquieu, Persian Letters

June 6. Memorial Day

June 11. Montesquieu, Persian Letters

June 13. Conclusion: What do the Classics tell us?

Final Essay due.

Happy Holidays!