Nietzsche and Socrates

Here we discuss in Nietzsche the "death of tragedy" at the hands of Socrates and Euripides and the conflict between Socratic rationalism and  tragic aesthetics.

1) Watch the Video Lecture

2) Please read: Nietzsche´s Birth of Tragedy (sections 11-15)

3) Answer the Study Questions Below the Lecture

In this final lecture on Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy we discuss his notion how the breakdown of the Socratic rationalist culture of the Enlightenment is propitious for the REBIRTH of tragedy in the context of modern culture.

Please 1) Watch the lecture  video

             2)  Read sections 16-25 of the Birth of Tragedy

             3) Answer the Study Questions

We continue this week with a discussion of Nietzsche's conception of truth and its relationship to values, his notions of Master and Slave Morality, and his critique of Christian Values.

Please:

1) Watch the Lecture Video

2) Read the following texts:

Friedrich Nietzsche. On The Genealogy of Morals. First Essay

From Beyond Good and Evil Preface, I. “The Prejudices of Philosophers” and IX. “What is Noble”

3) Answer the Questions below the Video

This lecture will deal with the famous Nietzschean themes of "the Death of God" , nihilism, and the Superman, as well as his views on such matters as perspectivism, nationalism, and socialism.

1) Please watch the lecture video

2) Please read the following texts:

Friedrich Nietzsche. The Gay Science. 125 “The Madman”

The Will to Power: An Attempted Reevaluation of All Values. Preface, Book One “European Nihilism” 1-40, 125 “Socialism”, Book IIII481 – on Perspectivism

Beyond Good and Evil. Part Five ,202, Part Eight (entire)

Thus Spake Zarathustra. Prologue, XI “The New Idol”

3) Please answer the Questions under the Video

Socrates and Meno discuss the question of virtue and its relationship to reason and knowledge.

1) Please watch the Lecture Video

2) Read the Meno (an external link to one translation is provded. Note citations refer to Stephanus numbers which most translation include, not page numbers.)

3) Answer questions

We here deal with Plato´s thoughts on rhetoric, justice, and the good of the soul in the first part of his dialogue the Gorgias, as he discusses these matters with two practitioners of rhetoric - Gorgias and his disciple Polus.

1) Please watch the Lecture Video

2) ReadGorgias. 447-480 (Stephanus numbers not pages.)

3) Answer the Study Questions under the Video

In this last part of the Gorgias, Socrates faces the decisive intellectual confrontation with Callicles, who argues on behalf of the utility of rhetoric and the political power it brings.

Please:

1) Watch the Lecture Video

2) Read  Plato. Gorgias. 480-527(Stephanus) 480-527(Stephanus)

3) Answer the Q and A under the Video

We close with the dramatic trial of Socrates.  We will discuss the origin of his mission, his understanding of his mission, the care of the soul, his conception of the good life, and the "rational optimism" decried by Nietzsche. ith his life hanging in the balance Socrates provides a defence not only of the way in which he has lived it, but of philosophy itself.

Please:

1) Watch the lecture-video.

2) Read the text "The Apology"

3) Answer the Questions below the video.