180015 VO-L History of Philosophy I (Antiquity) (2025W)

This lecture aims to highlight key positions and intellectual endeavours in ancient philosophy. The focus will be on Greek philosophy. Starting with the oldest literary sources, which represent a worldview and conception of the gods that remained valid for many centuries, we will first briefly address early Greek philosophy with its critique of the gods and its thinking about being and becoming. However, the course will focus on Plato and Aristotle, who were the most influential authors for large parts of the Western philosophical tradition. The last third of the lecture will explain the views of Epicurus and the Stoics, who also shaped the intellectual world for many centuries, as well as representatives of so-called Neoplatonism, who were central to the development of the doctrine of the Trinity and the concepts of German idealism.
The lecture will proceed on the basis of selected texts from the aforementioned philosophical movements. These text examples are intended to make the reasoning of the individual thinkers comprehensible and to point the way to further reading. At the end of each lecture unit, there will be an opportunity to discuss the content presented and the texts discussed. No knowledge of Greek is required. The materials presented will be made available via the Moodle learning platform.
The course will be held in a hybrid format.