Credit Hours - 3

Provides practical familiarity with quantificational first order predicate logic, and a cursory survey of some basic features of formal systems such as consistency, adequacy, and the significance of undecidable formulas.

Credit Hours - 3

A critical introduction to Plato‘s Socratic Dialogues, with special emphasis on analyses and discussions of the enduring scholarly issues in Socratic method(s), epistemology, ethics, politics and religion.

Credit Hours - 3

Distinguishing normative reasoning from meta-ethics, this course will study the foundations, nature, and function of morality, covering scepticism, naturalist and subjectivist vs. realist theories of morality, varieties of ethical relativism and objectivism, ethics of care, virtue ethics, notions of integrity, moral weakness and moral responsibility, and free will.

Credit Hours - 3

An examination of principles central to the normative appraisals of human agency and institutions involving the concepts of justice, legitimate authority, sovereignty, power, self-determination, democratic governance, representation, participation, obligation, equity, civil liberty, human rights, and ideology.

Credit Hours - 3

An examination of modern and classical problems connected with the notion of mind as it emerged from the European Enlightenment‘s mechanistic worldview, including the place of consciousness in the physical world, diagnostic methods for treating metaphysical confusion emanating from everyday psychological vocabulary, artificial life and intelligence, action and intentionality.

Credit Hours - 3

Critical survey of classical and modern texts that propose knowledge is somehow based upon sense experience. Discussion focuses upon works in the British empiricism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and subsequent work that their views inspired, e.g. the critiques of Kant.

Credit Hours - 3

A logical and exegetical analysis of the key ideas and concepts that constitute the framework of Aristotle’s philosophy, in the areas of investigative methodology, metaphysics, ethics, humanity, and theology.

Credit Hours - 3

A historical, philological and logical study of the early beginnings of Western science and philosophy, concentrating on the construction and assessment of arguments based on the extant fragments and/or testimonia from Thales, through Parmenides and the atomists to Diogenes of Apollonia.

Credit Hours - 3

A critical introduction to Plato‘s Socratic Dialogues, with special emphasis on analyses and discussions of the enduring scholarly issues in Socratic method(s), epistemology, ethics, politics and religion.

Credit Hours - 3

Selected texts of epic and drama (tragedy and comedy) are analysed and discussed in terms of their themes and social function; plot and structure, setting, characterisation, use of language and other literary devices, and general literary qualities.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Roman epic with emphasis on Virgil‘s Aeneid, and of Roman drama, focusing on Plautus and Terence. Content will concentrate on the Greek influence in the production process; the themes and their political and social context, audience and occasion; the analyses of language use, setting, plot and structure, characterisation, literary devices, and general literary qualities.

Credit Hours - 3

An account of the encounter between the ancient Greeks and Africans and the social, economic, military and political consequences, as well as the attitudinal reactions of the Greeks to the encounter, as reflected in their plastic and literary arts.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the encounter between the ancient Romans and Africans and the consequences. Topics include the physical presence of Africans, and African animals and products in the Roman world; trade relations; the social, economic, military and political dimensions of the encounter; and Roman attitudes to the encounter, as reflected in their plastic and literary arts.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of a watershed period in early Western history, highlighting the evolution of the city- state, the development of literacy, democratic constitutions, the philosophic and scientific temper, the major wars, and the Hellenisation of a significant part of the ancient world.

Credit Hours - 3

A critical examination of the concept and institution of slavery in Graeco-Roman antiquity, focusing on forms of economic slavery, politics and slavery, the effects of slavery on society and the economy, and slavery and human development.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the various forms of government that defined the political character and attitude of the ancient Greeks, focusing on an examination of Spartan communism and the evolution of democracy in Athens.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the 300 years between the reign of Alexander (336-323 BC) and Augustus, the first Roman Emperor (31 BC-AD14), focusing on the conquests of Alexander, the post-Alexandrian Greek kingdoms and the Hellenisation process.

Credit Hours - 3

Based on a critical evaluation of the sources, this is a study of the birth of the Roman Republic, the development of the Republican constitution, Rome’s rise to the centre of a world empire, the intervention of the military in politics, and the causes of the decline and fall of the Republic.

Credit Hours - 3

An examination of the central tenets of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Pyrrhonian scepticism, and an account of the main trends of Greek science, from its beginnings in cosmological speculations to its empirically and experimentally based approaches in the development of mathematics, mechanics, engineering, medical and other sciences.

Credit Hours - 3

An examination of the powers and functions of the emperor up to the reign of Domitian, consideration of the issue of separation of powers, the role of the emperor‘s household in empire-governance, procuratorial service, and the role of the law in imperial governance.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Greek religion from its prehistoric origins, through the natural theology of the Presocratics, to the philosophical encounter between Greek and Jewish religions in the Hellenistic Period.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Roman religion from its polytheistic prehistoric origins to the advent of Christian monotheism.

Credit Hours - 3

A cultural-historical and aesthetical study of Greek art and architecture, designed to develop skills in the critical analysis of objects through the cultivation of visual literacy.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of classical Greek, focusing on phonology, punctuation, morphology, declension of nouns, pronouns and adjectives, and the conjugation of verbs, with exercises in transliteration and pronunciation.

Credit Hours - 3

The study concentrates on classical Latin. Morphology covers the various verb types and their conjugations, plus the declensions of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives, with exercises in reading and translation of basic sentences.

Credit Hours - 3

This stage of Greek studies focuses on basic syntax, with exercises in reading and translation, covering word-order: positioning clitic particles, tmesis and pronouns; using the definite article to attribute, predicate or nominalise adjectives, participles, infinitives, and whole sentences; and constructing simple sentences.

Credit Hours - 3

Focuses on the introduction of basic syntax: word-order, comparative constructions, constructions showing agreement, and the constructions of questions (single, double, deliberative), commands, and wishes.

Credit Hours - 3

A critical study of the origins of myths in Graeco-Roman antiquity, their oral functions and structure, literary uses, attitudes to and theories of interpretation.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Middle Period Plato, with particular attention to his theories of forms, justice, soul and political leadership.

Credit Hours - 3

An account of the ancient Romans‘ practical extensions of Greek Stoicism, Epicureanism, and their adaptation of Greek mathematics, medicine and agriculture.

Credit Hours - 3

A critical study of the interface between society and literature (based on selected literary genres, including historiography, lyric, elegiac, and epic poetry, and the satirical elements in the works of Archilochus, Hipponax, and Aristophanes).

Credit Hours - 3

A close study of the interface between literature (especially epic, historiography, satire, lyric, and elegiac poetry) and Roman society (especially the Republican and Imperial Eras).

Credit Hours - 3

A biographical study of some of the leading personalities in ancient Greece (e.g., Solon, Lycurgus, Themistocles, Pericles, Alcibiades, Timoleon, Pelopidas, Epaminondas, Aristides, Philopoemen, Pyrrhus, Lysander). The study involves a critical examination of the sources, the methodological approaches to biography, and an assessment of the judgments in character sketches.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of some leading statesmen of ancient Rome, including some emperors. The study includes a critical assessment of the sources, the methodological approaches to biography, and an evaluation of the judgments in character sketches.

Credit Hours - 3

This is a comprehensive introduction to Greek historiography, covering the contributions to the genre and its varieties by classical, Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic authors. The focus will be on the aims, themes, motivations, and approaches to history-writing; sources of data and methods of data collection; theories of interpretation, explanation, standards of proof, and narrative techniques.

Credit Hours - 3

This covers the Greek influences, and the Roman contributors to the development of the genre; the military and political background of the Roman historians; the aims, themes, motivations, and approaches to history-writing; sources of evidence and methods of data collection; theories of interpretation, explanation, and standards of proof.

Credit Hours - 3

This studies the unique contribution of the sophists to the history of ideas and academic discipline by examining both sample texts associated with key sophists and their academic professions, methods of persuasion, interests, and general outlook.

Credit Hours - 3

Certain aspects of human experience dominant in the Graeco-Roman context (e.g. military history) are not covered in depth by any of the CLAS courses. This option will enable full-time faculty and visiting scholars to present specific research areas or the results of specialised scholarship in a lecture format, without being restricted to a single author or particular text.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of statutory law in Greek antiquity, from Dreros and Gortyn in Crete in the 7th century BC to the Athenian legal code commissioned in 410 BC. The focus is on the application of law in the administration of justice in Athens.

Credit Hours - 3

A survey of the development of the Roman legal system from the Twelve Tables (450 BC) to the Justinian Code (AD 528-34). Coverage includes discussions of the types, number and character of judicial bodies; civil and criminal procedures; appeals, execution of judgment, and standards of proof.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the art of persuasion in Ancient Greece, covering oratory in Homer, and the classical contributions to the works of Plato, Isocrates, the Sophists, the logographers, and Aristotle, with attention to persuasion and proof; creating the speech, arranging, styling, and delivering.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of rhetoric in Ancient Rome, covering the theoretical contributions to the art by Cicero, Quintilian, Tacitus, and the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium. The study also examines the application of rhetoric in politics, historiography, dialectics, memory theory, poetics, and ethics.

Credit Hours - 3

This level of Greek studies focuses on translation and practice in the construction of sentences, both simple and complex.

Credit Hours - 3

This focuses on translation and practice in the construction of complex sentences that build reading proficiency.

Credit Hours - 3

This consolidates the lessons of the previous studies towards the acquisition of a working proficiency through translation and the reading of prescribed primary texts in philosophy, fiction, history, and various genres of poetry.

Credit Hours - 3

A consolidation of the lessons of the previous studies, and on acquiring a working proficiency and comprehension through the translation and the reading of prescribed primary texts in various classical literary genres.

Credit Hours - 3

Option to pursue a specific author or text in greater depth and scope than the standard term- length undergraduate syllabi allow. Available in both semesters to facilitate a sustained study.

Credit Hours - 3

The specific objective of this course is to equip the student with the ability to do and present independent research work. The course falls into two complementary parts. The first addresses the issue of thesis preparation; the second part is a lesson in critical thinking, designed to enable the student appreciate deductive validity, inductive force, and how to identify, construct, and assess arguments.

Credit Hours - 3

A student who intends to write a long essay in classics must have taken the course CLAS 420 in Research Methods, whose principles they are to apply in critical reflections on perennial human issues in Greek or Roman studies. The research topic is to be determined by the student in consultation with the supervisor and with the approval of the Head of Department. Only single majors with a CGPA of 3.0 or better are eligible to register for the Long Essay.

Credit Hours - 3

Examines the early debates about the nature of sets, the ontology of number, rudiments of Cantor‘s transfinite set theory and notions of infinity, Hilbert‘s formalism and the development of meta-mathematic at the end of the 19th century, debates about the ontology of number theory, the philosophical implications of non-Euclidean geometries, the influence of computer technology on proof theory, implications of fractals and chaos theory for metaphysics, social philosophy and philosophy of mind.

Credit Hours - 3

Varied issues in this broad literature may be canvassed: truth and negation, classical and intuitionistic interpretations of the law of bivalence, many-valued logics, logical deviancy, modal logic, meaning and necessity, the semantics and syntax of ontology, competing interpretations of the quantifiers, and an introduction to proof theory.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of period themes in Scholastic works from Augustine to William of Ockham with emphasis on Augustine’s Christian and Neo-Platonic synthesis, and the theologian philosophers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Credit Hours - 3

Critical analysis of policies set by the United Nations, international agencies, and multilateral organisations based on competing definitions of human well-being. Considers the roles of economics and culture in the measurement of social progress. Evaluates reflections of influential African philosophers and global doctrines of the genre, including the modernisation school, dependency theory, neo-liberalism, the people‘s development approach, and the statist perspective.

Credit Hours - 3

The specific objective of this course is to equip the student with the ability to do and present independent research work. The course falls into two complementary parts. The first addresses the issue of thesis preparation; the second part is a lesson in critical thinking, designed to enable the student to appreciate deductive validity, inductive force, and how to identify, construct, and assess arguments.

Credit Hours - 3

Studies of the nature of meaning and intentionality, the interpretation of speech, belief, and reality, theories of reference, the semantic theory of truth and its adversaries, the metaphysical preconditions of language acquisition and participation, non-representational meaning, and the linguistic turn in analytic philosophy.

Credit Hours - 3

Topics include social responsibility for multinational corporations, accelerating debates concerning the legitimacy of international law and the cogency of international human rights, the ethics of international intervention, cross-border peace-keeping and reconciliation, global environmental responsibility, the possibility of global justice, and migration rights.

Credit Hours - 3

An occasional syllabus determined by the current research focus of permanent faculty members or our visiting scholars, offered under the discretion of the department faculty.

Credit Hours - 3

Option to pursue a specific author or text in greater depth and scope than the standard term- length undergraduate syllabi allow. Available in both semesters to facilitate a sustained study. Offered only according to the discretion of the department faculty.

Credit Hours - 3

Topics will include traditionalism versus modernism, cultural universalism and versions of relativism, ethnicity and ethnocentrism, problems of nation-building and national integration, national and cultural identity in Africa, multiculturalism and cultural liberty, globalisation and cultural identities, and culture and economic development.

Credit Hours - 3

An introductory exploration of the philosophical content and significance of Nkrumah’s published and extant writings, in the evolution of Africans’ domestic political debates, the way Africa features in contemporary global politics, the theme of pan-Africanism, his philosophy of nationalism, self-reliance and formation of identity, the notions of personhood and of good governance that are spelt out in his works.

Credit Hours - 3

Elucidation of key phenomenological terms, including ‘truth adequation and knowledge fulfilment’ in the transcendental phenomenology of Husserl. A study of the two basic principles of his transcendental subjectivity and Lebenswelt, as a basis for the hermeneutics of Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Derrida.

Credit Hours - 3

Considers the possibility of self-understanding through modern scientific methods, and problems peculiar to the idiographic sciences—varieties of relativism, essentially contestable categories, pseudo precision, reason-giving explanation and presuppositions about rationality.

Credit Hours - 3

Recent developments in the new sciences of the atomic age and their impact upon contemporary debates in philosophy of mind, logic, ontology and studies in the foundations of mathematics.

Credit Hours - 3

Critical treatment of issues and questions that remain contemporary and pressing, many of which generate from indigenous African intellectual traditions, concerning human existence, conceptions of God, nature, ontology, personhood, destiny, views of morality, the good society, and truth.

Credit Hours - 3

Explores the relationship between the law, judiciary, and politics, competing theories of law, including legal realism and positivism, Hart on legal precedent and Dworkin on constitutional law.

Credit Hours - 3

Deals with fundamental questions of practical concern about living in human society, analysing specific moral questions about personal relationships and responsibility, e.g. abortion, euthanasia, punishment, sex, the social implications of science and technology, functioning with integrity in corporate environments, health care rights and state obligations.

Credit Hours - 3

The profound and lasting influence of this eighteenth-century German’s contribution to epistemology and normative reasoning is accessible through an introduction to a selection of his works.

Credit Hours - 3

The nature, purpose and genesis of concepts of justice, studying texts of Marx, Rawls and other seminal writers.

Credit Hours - 3

Investigates general theories that analyse the variety of solutions to problems arising in ethics and aesthetics. Examines the criteria of moral value in contrast with tests for the veracity of empirical judgment.

Credit Hours - 3

Conceptual analysis and evaluation of the shared post-colonial experience. Examines the relevance of traditional African values, practices, and institutions to contemporary life, including modern expressions of ethnicity, nationhood, democracy, communitarian moral and political theory, ideology, political morality, economic transformation, science and technology, and the phenomena of globalisation.

Credit Hours - 3

Study of the goals of a unified theory, the innovations of Frege, the construction and abandonment of a formal language for science, the reformation of philosophy dubbed 'the linguistic turn', efforts to protect philosophy from political co-optation by the European logical empiricists working with Carnap, Schlick, Neurath, the influences of Wittgenstein and of Quine.

Credit Hours - 3

Introducing the notion, origin, and principles of modern scientific rigour, the contribution of scientific activity to postmodern notions of truth, the role of science in society, the development and retirement of the analogue of political revolutions to account for change in received scientific theory.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Middle Period Plato, with particular attention to his theories of forms, justice, soul and political leadership.

Credit Hours - 3

Addresses the legacy of the seventeenth century European Enlightenment and its antecedents in the Abbasid Empire, when the reliance upon the individual’s systematic reasoning to understand the world took precedence over appeal to authority of ancient texts.  The seminal influences of Ibn Al-Haythem, René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Spinoza and others will be introduced.

Credit Hours - 3

Introducing the realist (naturalist) vs. idealist (subjectivist) debate about the subject matter of history, the structure of historical explanation, methods and criteria for studying antiquity, the controversy concerning Black Athena.

Credit Hours - 3

Concerning fundamental issues in philosophy of the arts; problems examined include the nature of art and aesthetic experience, the relationship of art objects to the reality they represent, artistic expression, and authenticity.

Credit Hours - 3

Reappraises basic principles assumed in mainstream philosophical canons to reveal their gendered context: public vs. private domains, essential vs. accidental qualities, innate vs. learned behaviour, human rights vs. women’s rights—exposing implications of the fact that both men and women inhabit a social world which is bifurcated by gender; exploring the various connotations of masculinity vs. femininity, and the nature of prejudice.

Credit Hours - 3

Philosophical reflection is conveyed in a variety of genres and styles of expression beyond the treatise form.  African literature written in English and in French translated into English will be examined as a vehicle of social protest and transformative political critique, as spiritual inspiration, as a conveyance for moral precepts and lessons of history.

Credit Hours - 3

A logical and exegetical analysis of the key ideas and concepts that constitute the framework of Aristotle’s philosophy, in the areas of investigative methodology; metaphysics, ethics, humanity, and theology.

Credit Hours - 3

A cross cultural examination of African traditional thought about fundamental aspects of human existence as reflected in conceptions of God, nature, personhood, destiny, morality, the good society.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of nineteenth and twentieth century Western philosophical ideas about moral agency in everyday life, the existence of God, and the nature of the self, based on the works of Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and others. 

Credit Hours - 3

A study of questions arising about the concept of person in seminal texts that focus on the foundations of morality, political theory, cognitive science, psychology, theology, the interface between philosophy of mind, of language, and cross cultural metaphysics.

Credit Hours - 3

The general notion of education is investigated as a process and an activity, through a confrontational examination of the notion of pedagogy, drawing upon both classical and modern texts, such as Plato, J.S. Mill, John Dewey, Franz Fanon.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Roman art and architecture from their prehistoric Etruscan, Italian, and Greek origins. The aesthetical component of the study reflects various technical achievements and improvements, and involves the assessment of works of art and architecture on the basis of their moral and intellectual value, the issue of artistic creation or insight, stylistics, works of art and mimetic illusionism.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the issue of Greece’s indebtedness to the civilisations of Egypt and the Near East, it also critically reviews some Afrocentrist theses on the subject and the issue of the racial identity of the Egyptians from the pre-dynastic era in Nubia and Egypt (5500-3100 BC) to the Macedonian occupation of Egypt (332-30 BC).

Credit Hours - 3

This involves a critical evaluation of the sources of information on classes of women, their position and role in the family and society; social and psychological barriers to the human rights of women, especially the law on women, as it relates to their education, employment, marriage, rights of succession and inheritance, participation in public decision-making; women and religion; sexism and male chauvinism in Greek literature; women achievers.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of gender issues with emphasis on women, covering the conception, images and roles of, as well as the assumptions about, women in ancient Roman society, literature and art. 

Credit Hours - 3

Introduces excerpts of seminal texts to reveal lasting controversies and questions that concern basic assumptions central to the canons of metaphysics, epistemology, foundations of morality, social commentary and political thought.

Credit Hours - 3

An historical account of key genres in ancient Greek and Roman literary works, traced from their folkloric orality and prototypes to their conscious classical developments, as illustrated through critical discussion of sample texts.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the multiple sources of contemporary civilisations, demonstrating that certain lifestyles and life-conditions in antiquity conduce to our biological species more effectively than do certain modern lifestyles and conditions, and that increasingly glo

Credit Hours - 3

A broad and general study of ancient Graeco-Roman civilisations, highlighting processes in the development of material culture and the major trends and developments in social (including religious), constitutional (including political), and literary (including philosophical) history.

Credit Hours - 3

Introduction to propositional logic, elementary techniques of natural deduction, basic concepts of validity and soundness, distinguishing the syntactic analysis of reasoned argument from the varied criteria used for assessing other uses of language.  

Credit Hours - 3

Designed to stimulate thought and discussion through the reading of extracts from primary texts that address central problems in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy.  The aim is to help the student develop analytic skills by distinguishing problems that are philosophical from those that are social, political, scientific, historical, theological, or doctrinal.