8/28/2023 0 Comments Rarify scissorsThird, their writing assignment was to complete their own metaphysical treatise. We spend most of the time just close-reading through the incredibly intricate arguments in Books IV-IX. Finally, Act V, the “resolution,” turns to Books X-XIV, as this is when Aristotle provides his final answer to the question of being: god. Act IV, the “falling action,” is the heart of the Metaphysics. It is the “crisis” because the aporiai in Book III come from the philosophical predecessors that we engag e in Acts I and II. In Act III we read the aporiai from Book III. In sum, for every philosophical predecessor Aristotle mentions in Book I, we read that philosophers’ own writings and perform experiential learning exercises. Act II, the “rising action”, turns to Plato, wherein we read a whole dialogue (later in the semester, students go out on campus in pairs and try to convince random people on campus of their differing definitions of being). With atomism, students brought in objects that we then try to divide (by chopping, scissors, hammering, ripping, etc.) into nothing, eventually creating a heap of particles that used to compose macro-objects. For example, when Aristotle talks about Thales, we read Thales’ fragments, along with what Aristotle says in Book I, and we have class in a pool. Whatever better way to think about a metaphysics of water than to be in water? When he mentions Parmenides, we sit as still as possible in class, only speaking in nouns and adjectives. Then when we read Heraclitus (and what Aristotle says about him), our class pushed the chairs to the walls and kept moving, while speaking only in verbs and adverbs. When Aristotle mentions a pre-Socratic philosopher, we read not only what Aristotle says about that philosopher, and not only the writings attributed to those philosophers, but also do an experiential learning activity. In our class, Act I, the “exposition ,” turnspre-Socratic philosophy into a series of experiential learning exercises. Second, Book I of the Metaphysics is a dialectical history of Aristotle’s predecessors’ attempts to answer the question of being. Each act focused on a different part of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Fourth, students performed what I call metaphysical ekphrases.įirst, I organized the semester as a five-act Shakespearean play. Third, the students’ semester-long writing assignment was to write their own metaphysical treatises, as well as critique each other’s treatises and then re-write their own in response to their peers’ critiques. I developed these with the always creative and inspiring Rob Leib of Florida Atlantic University. Second, I turned Act I, which focuses on the moments in pre-Socratic philosophy that Aristotle discusses in Book I, into a series of experiential learning exercises. First, I turned Aristotle’s Metaphysics into a five-act Shakespeare-inspired play and used that to structure the course. Here are the four main ways I teacher ancient metaphysics as a practice. The question was how to turn this into a class. The constant theme of our class is: metaphysics is not a rarified, merely theoretical discipline, but is an activity, a practice. įor me, metaphysics is a practice. While theoretical, it is still something you do. If a qualifier is helpful, let’s call it lived metaphysics. I learned this from reading ancient metaphysics, especially Aristotle’s τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά. This sense of metaphysics as a lived practice inspired how I teach Elon University’s Ancient Philosophy class. This is his account of how he teaches Aristotle’s Metaphysics. I think you will share my enthusiasm for his creative approach. Ryan Johnson contacted me after my posts ( here and here) on teaching Aristotle through active teaching exercises to tell me about his own active Aristotle classroom.
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