Dr. Hamish Williams

In this module, I will take you on a tour of some of the most important philosophical movements in the Greco-Roman world. After an introductory class (where we will talk about our approach and where I will give an overview of our module), the first few lessons will be based on the so-called pre-Socratic philosophers (6th to early 5th century BCE), with a special focus on Heraclitus.

These archaic/early Greek philosophers did not necessarily establish coherent systems of philosophy and often focused only on fysis (physics), trying to understand if there was a unifying principle to our physical world and if everything is composed of many parts or is ‘one’ (among other topics). Apart from physics, they also provide us with some of the earliest discussions of logic (especially, Parmenides), although they are far more creative than later philosophers in their use of different kinds of reasoning (for example, metaphorical reasoning). Subsequently, we will move to the two greatest philosophers of the classical period: Plato and Aristotle. Each of these two demands an entire course devoted to discussing their philosophy, and I have instead selected sub-topics within which they have been greatly influential in the Western philosophical tradition: for Plato, we will discuss his political philosophy, namely, his conception of an idea state. for Aristotle, we will discuss the principles he establishes for ‘good artwork’, specifically, tragedy. In the final three lessons, we will turn to three important post-Socratic or Hellenistic schools of philosophy (mid-fourth century BCE to late antiquity in some cases): Cynicism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism.

Our focus here will primarily be on ethics (on the proper virtues which each school recommends); at the same time, the ethical assumptions of each of these schools need to be understood within their particular view of the physical world. Throughout the lessons, I will provide students with close readings, key passages which we will analyze, composed of important fragments from the selected philosophers. These readings will serve as discussion points after my brief introductions to the given writer/philosophical movement.

Course Outline:

Week One
• Introduction to Ancient Philosophy: Overview and Methods
• The Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Pythagoras, Parmenides, Democritus, and Empedocles
Week Two
• Heraclitus: Movement, Harmony, and Oppositions in nature
• Plato and Utopianism: A Close Reading of the Critias and Republic
Week Three
• Aristotle and Aesthetics: The Principles of Writing Tragedy
• The Virtues of Cynicism: Self-Independence, Free Speech, and Endurance
Week Four
• The Virtues of Stoicism: Practical Reason, Justice, Temperance, and Courage
• Epicureanism: A Close Reading of Epicurus’ Letter to Menoeceus

This sixth-month programme consists of six individual learning modules. Each module will consist of eight lessons spread over four weeks. The focus of these modules is three-fold: 1) to introduce you in a relaxed way to the essential grammar of the Latin language (from the basics of noun declensions to the subjunctive uses of verbs); 2) to build your Latin vocabulary (to something around 2,000 words at the end of the six modules); and 3) to learn to enjoy reading basic Latin texts. The last of these is most important. Grammar is not an end in itself but helps us understand texts in a more accurate manner and to become more fluent. The grammar which you will learn roughly follows the order prescribed by Shelmerdine’s Introduction to Latin, which will serve as textbook throughout the modules. In addition to the translation and grammar exercises she provides, I will provide you with tailored ‘modernised’ Latin passages, including passages from The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and other literary and historical works. In a given week, the basic idea is for the first lesson to be more instructional, focused on explaining key grammatical constructions, while the second lesson will take the form of a workshop, where we will translate passages together, and where I can help answer questions from homework assignments.

The path to language proficiency lies in making many mistakes (and not being ashamed of these) and in extensive daily practice.

Critical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy writing which I have been pioneering in my own creative works which puts an emphasis on aspects of writing which are often neglected in mass-market fantasy: namely, the careful and controlled use of stylistic devices, the integration of socially relevant themes and philosophical problems into stories, and greater intertextuality with other works in our inherited literary traditions. At the same time, critical fantasy stays true to the core elements of fantasy writing, such as immersive worldbuilding (in spatial and temporal senses), a wide cast of complex characters, and plots often focused on adventures and quests into the unknown.

In this module, I will use my own creative writing and that of other writers to illustrate the key topics of each week (see list below). I will also occasionally use theoretical works (in literary theory) to introduce or explain certain concepts in writing (all such readings are optional). At the start of each week’s lesson, we will also have a sharing session where you can read out your own writing (drafts, overviews, or just random thoughts on your writing) in a safe space among fellow creatives.

Course Outline:

Week One
• Introduction: Module Structure, Topics, and Methods
• Stylistic Principles: Syntax and Phonetics: Chiasmus, Hyperbaton, Parallelism, and Alliteration
Week Two
• Character Principles: Developing Psychological Complexity in Your Characters: Inner Conflicts, Perception, Habits
• Narratological Principles: Narrators Types: Extradiegetic vs Intradiegetic; Heterodiegetic vs Homodiegetic
Week Three
• Narratological Principles: Narrative Space: Dynamic Space, Chekov’s Gun, Ecphrasis, and Fable vs Story Space
• Worldbuilding: Building Historical Layers into Your Writing: Ruins, Symbols, and Forgetfulness
Week Four
• Writing as ‘Philosophical impulse’: Why do we write?
• Workshop: Sharing Thoughts and Writing

While the idea of establishing an ‘actual’ utopia has been disparaged since the first half of the twentieth century from socio-political perspectives (e.g. the failed age of ideology from 1917-1945), literary and related cultural narratives have a long history of imagining and representing utopia (also paradise, the golden age, etc.). These utopias often function to criticize the problematic social norms and climates of their times as well as providing progressive imaginings for a better future, often based on certain ideals or virtues. In this module, we go on a chronological tour of different representations of utopia, including: the paleolithic utopia of hunter-gatherers (e.g. as discussed in Harari’s Homo Sapiens) (before 10,000 BC), the Bronze Age utopia of Minoan Crete (4000-1400 BCE), Plato’s mythical island of Atlantis (ca 400 BC), the pastoral utopia of the Roman poet Virgil (ca 40 BC), the New World utopia of Sir Thomas More (1516), the Enlightened, reasoned utopia of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Tolkien’s fantasy utopia of Númenor (ca 1940), and more.

When one thinks of ancient, pre-classical civilisations, one thinks of Sumerians, Egyptians, Hittites, and, not least, Minoans. The Minoan civilisation, discovered around 1900 by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, has often been styled as the first major European civilisation, equally proficient in technology and the arts, with a sea empire spanning across the Eastern Aegean. But how much of what we imagine about the Minoans is truthful and how much is modern mythmaking?

In this module, we will examine the immense impact which the discovery of Minoan Crete and its integration with the classical myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth has had on literature, movies, the arts, and even computer games. We will examine the works of Sir Arthur Evans, Pablo Picasso, Nikos Kazantzakis, Robert Graves, Mary Renault, Poul Anderson, and Stephen King, among others. In so doing, we will explore such key 'Minoan' concepts and phenomena as: the sublime, utopianism, feminism, irrationality and the unconscious, mythmaking, and European identity.

Based on the preceptor's edited volume, Tolkien and the Classical World, this module takes students on a tour of the classical influences and ideas on the life, writings, and thought of English fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien, while also introducing seminal Greco-Roman texts to those without any classical background.