Man's Place in the World: Selected Philosophical Issues in the Traditions of Ancient Greece, India, and China 3800-MSC26-S

The course is based on the assumption of a polycentric origin of philosophy. During the seminar, the
views of thinkers primarily from the Greco-Roman, Indian, and Chinese traditions will be analyzed.
Through a comparative approach, we will examine the similarities and differences between the
philosophical traditions of the East and West. The main issue will be the broadly understood
problem of wisdom in its various dimensions and cultural contexts. We will also reflect on the
specificity of philosophy within a given cultural sphere, its relationship to religion, science,
legislation, and politics.
We will be interested in patterns of wisdom in Archaic Greece and their literary context (the so-
called Seven Sages, the Delphic and Aesopic traditions, the Presocratics), as well as Classical ones
(tragic wisdom, the figure of Socrates and its reception, the question of philosophy and the
philosopher in Plato). We will look at the figure of the sage in Hellenistic schools (Stoicism,
Epicureanism) and in the writings of thinkers of the Roman Imperial era, as well as the figures of
“divine men” (theioi andres) in Late Antiquity. We will attempt to define, among others, such terms
as sophia, phronesis, metis, synesis, and sophrosyne. The issue of Greco-Roman patterns of wisdom
will be presented in the context of the therapeutic dimension of philosophy.
The problem of wisdom will also be addressed with consideration of non-European traditions,
primarily Chinese and Indian. The presented problem will be shown in a broader context
encompassing, among other things, the relationship of wisdom to knowledge (Daoist thought), the
role of the sage in society (Confucian and Brahmanical traditions), and wisdom in its practical
dimension. We will also look at the problem of the connection between wisdom and a broadly
understood liberation from suffering. These issues will be discussed through the reading of selected
source texts in Polish or English translations, with particular emphasis on the most important
philosophical terms in Sanskrit (karman, dharma, atman, brahman, duhkha, samsara) and Classical
Chinese (dao, ren, li, xiao, zhengming, wuwei, ziran).
In each instance, we will try to show how the language in which philosophical thought was expressed
(Greek, Latin, Classical Chinese, Sanskrit) determined the shape of that thought (no knowledge of
any of these languages is required). We will also show the historical conditions for the development
of philosophy in Eastern and Western traditions.