Classical Studies V

Description: After studying the histories and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, students now embark on a historical journey through the ancients’ most fundamental ideas. Starting with the pre-Socratics and their search for the first cause of the cosmos, students will be required to think through causation, multiplicity, and change. Plato and Aristotle will then become the guides as the philosophical giants of the ancient world. The course then approaches Christian philosophical thought through Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy and culminates in Aquinas’ thought in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and anthropology. This if a full-year course worth 1.0 high school credit.

Grade Level: 11-12 (ages 16-18)

Prerequisites: Students must have a strong reading ability and completed Material Logic.

Required Materials:  A History of Philosophy, Volume I: Greece and Rome by Frederick Copleston, S.J., The Last Days of Socrates by Plato, The Nature of the Gods by Cicero, A Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, A Shorter Summa by Peter Kreeft, and the beta version of Memoria Press’ Classical Metaphysics Student Study Guide and Teacher Guide. Students will also need a USB headset microphone (built-in microphones will also work).