The Lover of Wisdom II

Posted: Mon, Feb 9, 2026

Today

  • A quick reminder about grades: Please ignore “percentage” + we value improvement
  • Wrap up Heraclitus
  • Sappho the forgotten philosopher? (first half)
  • The canonical (Western) philosopher (second half)

In-class activity

I’ll assign each group to become the expert on one of five sets of passages.

Focusing on the passages you’ve been given, please work together on the following questions and be prepared to present your answers to the class:

  • How is the philosopher portrayed by these passage? What are they—is he!—like?
  • What image of philosophy emerges from this portrait? What’s being valued/stressed, and what’s being dismissed as irrelevant/unimportant?

One member of your group should take notes, which I will ask you to post to CourseWorks > Discussions along with everybody’s names.

Here are the passages:

  1. Plato, Euthyphro, 7a–10a, 15c–16a
  2. Plato, Apology, 21a–e, 23a–24a, 38a–42a
  3. Plato, Crito, 48b–53a
  4. Plato, Republic, 514a–517a, and Phaedo, 116b–118a
  5. Aristotle, Metaphysics I.1–2, 980a22–983a23

Further questions

  • Is there a through line? According to these passages, what is philosophy all about, and what does a philosopher look like?
  • Is this how you would like to think of philosophy/the philosopher?

Elenchus: The Socratic method

Intense interrogation leading one to realize that one’s initial view isn’t so tenable after all.

  • ~Philosophy as midwifery.

The idea of a first philosophy

Not first in time, but first in generality => wisdom.

  • Not mere that something is the case, but why—an inquiry into causes.
  • Not just any causes, but first causes/first principles.
  • Not studied because useful, but for its own sake.

The idea of a “core” of contemporary philosophy.