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UNIVERSITY OF LONDONM.A. Courses in:
2008 - 2009Published on behalf of: |
The list of courses given below is as accurate as is possible, but provision of courses is subject to demand, and courses may have to be withdrawn or added if necessary. Updates to the courses on offer will be posted on the website at the earliest opportunity.
'Dedicated M.A. course' means 100% M.A. teaching.
'B.A./M.A. course' normally means a 50/50 package.
'B.A./M.A. course, subject to numbers' normally means a 50/50 package unless the numbers of M.A. takers make it appropriate to arrange a separate M.A. group.
* indicates a dedicated M.A. course.
+ indicates a language-testing or language-acquisition course for M.A. Classics.
All courses are coded K - if taught exclusively at King's College London; M or CLASM - if following a common syllabus shared between colleges; CL or HS - if taught exclusively at Royal Holloway, University of London; CLASU, CLASG or HISTG - if taught exclusively at University College London; or MB - if they are taken from the M.A. in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies.
The aim of the course is to study the contribution of Plato to philosophical thought as an integral part of the ancient Greek cultural achievement, to consider the Platonic dialogue as a literary form, and to consider the bearing of the second of these topics on our consideration of the first. The course will involve study of an extensive selection from the writings of Plato with Philebus selected for study in depth (about 20% of the teaching time being devoted to this dialogue).
B.A./M.A. course.
Special prerequisite none. The course is not language testing and texts may be studied in translation, but knowledge of Greek will not be a disadvantage.
Assessment: three essays of 4,000 words each.
Teachers: Professor R. W. Sharples (UCL) and Dr A. D. R. Sheppard (RHUL).
Meetings over two terms shared with B.A.s, starting on 3rd October at 12.00 pm, plus a fortnightly two-hour M.A. class, at a time to be arranged, over three terms at UCL.
The central topic of this course is 'birth' and early development of critical and scientific thinking among the Greeks (in the period 550-400 BC), in the fields of natural science (physics), medicine, ethnology, history, sociology and communication theory. The first section of the course concentrates on the earlier Presocratic natural scientists (particularly the Milesians, Xenophanes and Heraclitus), and looks also at Parmenides and Empedocles; then come the Hippocratic medicine (with special reference to the tracts On the Sacred Disease, The Art of Medicine, Tradition in Medicine and Airs, Waters and Places) and early history and ethnography (Hecataeus; Herodotus Histories 1 and 2); the final section covers the theories of Sophists relating to society, language and communication (with special reference to Protagoras). Themes for consideration include the nature of the claims to knowledge made by the thinkers studied, the kind of status and authority they sought to acquire in their societies, the applicability (or otherwise) of subsequent concepts of 'science' to their projects, and the extent to which it is legitimate to regard them as participating in a single intellectual tradition. Knowledge of Greek and Latin is not required.
B.A./M.A. course.
Assessment: three essays of 4,000 words.
Teacher: Professor Michael Trapp (KCL).
Weekly meetings at KCL over two terms, shared with B.A. students, on Tuesdays from 11.00-13.00 in room 228, Strand Building, plus a weekly or fortnightly MA class, time to be arranged. The first class will be on Tuesday 30/9/08.
Last Modified by Michael Broderick October 21, 2008