Your assignments are threefold:
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%).
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:
2010-[mm-dd].doc
(for instance, 2010-03-29.doc
).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.
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:
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
.