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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Liberal Arts and Sciences College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Andrew Wolpert

Department of Classics

GRW 3501: Plato’s Apology of Socrates

Fall 2015

Time and Location Socrates_Louvre

M W F Period 4 FLG 275

Required Texts

  • Miller, Paul Allen, and Charles Platter, eds., Plato’s Apology of Socrates: A Commentary (Norman: Oklahoma Press 2010).
  • Liddell, H.G., and Robert Scott, eds., An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, 7th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1945).

Recommended Texts

Prerequisites

GRE 1131 or the equivalent. All students must have completed introductory ancient Greek.

Course Description

This course serves as an introduction to Plato, teaching students how to develop strategies for translating, and helping them improve their knowledge of ancient Greek grammar and vocabulary by reading passages that illustrate different prose styles and rhetorical techniques.  Each day the class will go over assigned readings from Plato’s Apology and review Greek syntax and morphology.  In addition, we will consider the cultural, social and historical setting of the trial and execution of Socrates to better understand how Plato represented these events. For a final project, students will deliver an oral presentation that discusses the main topic of their paper due on the last of class.

Course Requirements

  • Class Attendance (10%): 20% deduction if students arrive later or are unprepared to review readings.
  • Three One-Hour Examinations: September 25 (20%), October 23 (20%), November 23 (20%).
  • Oral Presentation (5%): Each student will deliver a 20-30 minutes oral presentation on the topic of their term paper during Week 15 and 16 (December 2 – December 9).
  • One Term Paper (25%), approximately 4-6 pages, due on December 9.

Weekly Schedule

  • Daily translation of select passages of Plato (click here).
  • Daily review of Greek syntax and morphology.
  • During the semester students will study a topic of their choice on Plato’s Apology and Socrates (with feedback from Dr. Wolpert) for their oral presentation and term paper.

Grading Scale

A = 93-100%
A- = 90-92.9%
B+ = 87-89.9%
B = 83-86.9%
B- = 79-82.9%
C+ = 75-78.9%
C = 72-74.9%
C- = 69-71.9%
D+ = 66-68.9%
D = 62-65.9%
D- = 60-61.9%
E < 60%

Course Policies

  • Requirements for class attendance and make-up exams, assignments, and other work in this course are consistent with university policies that can be found at: https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/attendance.aspx.
  • Students are required to be honest in their coursework. Any act of academic dishonesty will be reported to Student Conduct & Conflict Resolution Committee, and may result in failure of the assignment in question and/or the course. See Honor Code.

Disability Resource Center

  • Students with disabilities requesting accommodations should first register with the Disability Resource Center (352-392-8565; https://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc) by providing appropriate documentation. Once registered, students will receive an accommodation letter which must be presented to the instructor when requesting accommodation. Students with disabilities should follow this procedure as early as possible in the semester.

Campus Resources