Assignments

Your assignments are threefold:

  1. to co-scribe one lecture
  2. to write one or two course essays
  3. to pass the final exam.

Assessment will be based either on the course essay (25%) and the final examination (75%) or on the two course essays (20% + 20%) and the final examination (60%).

1. Scribing

Scribe notes are due by 4 pm on the day after lecture and should be submitted by email. They are collaborative work; your fellow scribe is listed under Classes. Please send me only one file.

Note the following:

  • Use this template and write at least two pages.
  • In case of doubt, check the audio version, which will in general be posted immediately after class.
  • The file name should be of the form 2010-[mm-dd].doc (for instance, 2010-03-29.doc).
  • If you do not use MS Word, then please send me your text file together with a PDF file.

2. Essays

The course essay consists in a commentary on Metaphysics Γ 4, 1007b18–1008a2 (= p. 94 [OK. If all contradictories...]–p. 95 [... can its assertion.]). The essay is due on Thursday, 13 May, at 6 pm.

The passage for the optional second course essay is Metaphysics Z 13, 1038b1–b16 (= p. 216 [I seem to...]–p. 216 [... said of some substrate.]). The second essay is due on Thursday, 27 May, at 6 pm.

The essays should be between 1,000 and 1,400 words. You should sketch the context in which the argument or objection was offered, show the structure of the passage, extract the premisses you need for your argument, present your reconstruction, and try to give a brief assessment. Please use this template (including the option ‘Line spacing: Single’), and submit your essay by email. The file name should follow the pattern: essay-[surname].[initials].doc.

Update 20 May 2010: two specimens of the first essay—one by Andrew, the other by Parus.

3. Exam

The final examination will be held on Monday, 7 June, from 3 to 6 pm, in Dodd 161. It consists in a commentary on one of the following passages:

  • Gamma 4, 1005b35 [For all that, ...]–1006a27 [... is not in that same way.]
  • Zeta 1, 1028a1 [That which is...]–1028b7 [... in this way is.]
  • Zeta 3, 1028b33 [There is no doubt...]–1029a33 [... with perplexities.]
  • Zeta 8, 1033b19 [But then the question...]–1034a8 [... of the form.)]
  • Mu 4, 1078b12 [Now the starting point...]–1078b32 [... they called Forms.]

Please bring your own copy of the text. In addition, you’ll receive a copy of Ross’s translation of the chosen passage. As a preparation for the exam, you may want to read Michael Frede’s Substance in Aristotle’s Metaphysics.