Philosophical authors of antiquity and the Middle Ages

This teaching unit contributes to the development of the student's attitude to in-depth reading and philosophical commentary of the founding texts of ancient and medieval philosophy. The aim is to lead the student to approach an ancient philosophical text by familiarizing him/her with its specific characteristics (handwritten text, copied several times, often translated - from Greek or Latin - into several modern languages, etc.), with its own concepts, belonging to a different ancient culture, and with the way it is used in the history of the world. ), with its own concepts, belonging to an ancient culture different from ours. This in-depth reading work does not require any particular knowledge of ancient languages. However, the student will be confronted with ancient texts in their original language and guided to tame them, among other things by comparing the original text with the French translation for a number of key terms, and also by consulting critical editions. At the end of the course, the student should be able to : • read and explain an ancient philosophical text : • clarify what the text actually said; • provide a synthetic summary of the text, highlighting the different articulations of the argument proposed by the author; • to restore the historical framework in which the text was created. • comment on an ancient philosophical text: • orientate themselves in critical editions of the text and know how to evaluate the quality of the translation; • clarify what the text said was true; • question the text and its internal coherence with the help of other philosophical texts; • express personal reflections on the text in order to understand it critically. • produce a written summary of the work done on one of the texts examined in the course.