Philosophy is one of the world’s oldest intellectual disciplines. In the West, the philosophical tradition reaches back 2,700 years to the ancient Greeks who pioneered philosophy and inspired major philosophical thinkers of ancient Rome.
The ancient Greek and Roman philosophers thought deeply about virtually every aspect of human life, from the origins of the cosmos, the nature of divinity, and the physics and biology of the natural world to the nature of government, politics, law, and ethics, including thought on pleasure in living, happiness, and the ideal human life.
In Greece, Rome, and the Birth of Western Philosophy, celebrated philosopher Professor Margaret Scharle of Reed College invites you to join her in an extraordinary philosophical and human inquiry. In 24 highly engaging lectures, you’ll come to grips with the lives, the essential thinking and the core influence of the great philosophers of the Greek and Roman traditions in a far-reaching exploration of the origins of philosophy
At the heart of this course, you’ll encounter philosophy not as ivory tower abstraction, but, in the spirit of the philosophers themselves, as a bios, a hands-on way of life—philosophy as it interfaces with how we live, in the home, the marketplace, and the public and political spheres. In these compelling and delightful lectures, you’ll gain penetrating insight into the Greek and Roman philosophers and their impact on Western thought.
