Although the pre-Socratic philosophers of Ionia and Italy had explored important questions, most of those questions involved matters of natural science rather than the deeper issues of human meaning and existence. The first man who really took on that subject was Socrates, who lived in the last half of the fifth century b.c.

Socrates left no writings, and our knowledge of him comes almost entirely from his most famous disciple, Plato. Socrates did, however, establish the framework for the real task of philosophy, that is, to inquire into the nature of true virtue, and how language should be used to make than inquiry. Socrates's dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living has left its mark on all future philosophical discussion, and no survey of philosophy would be complete without some consideration of his contribution.

Many have viewed Socrates as heroic because of his insistence that discussion and debate are always preferable to the bloodshed of the battlefield as a method of resolving differences. In this Socrates sounds like a Christian, and many in Christian history have viewed him as a good model for the ethic that Christ himself would later proclaim.

1. Introduction to the Major Themes of Philosophy
2. The Ionian Philosophers
3. The Italian Philosophers
4. The Athenian Pluralists
5. The Life and Times of Socrates
6. Introduction to Plato
7. Plato's World of the Forms
8. Plato's Parable of the Cave
9. Dualism in Plato
10. Introduction to Aristotle
11. Aristotle's Metaphysics
12. Aristotle's Categories
13. Aristotle's Theory of Language
14. Aristotle's God
15. The Epicureans
16. Stoicism
17. Philo of Alexandria
18. The Christian Synthesis
19. Early Christian Apologists
20. Antiochan Christianity
21. Alexandrian Christianity
22. The Council of Nicaea
23. Manichaeism
24. Neo-Platonism
25. The Life of Augustine
26. Overview of Augustin's Thought
27. Augustin's Epistemology
28. Augustin's Epistemology (part 2)
29. Augustin's Theory of Faith
30. Augustin's Understanding of the Church
31. The Pelagian Controversy
32. The Pelagian Controversy (cont)
33. The Pelagian Controversy (concl)
34. Anselm of Canterbury
35. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo
36. Introduction to the Classical Synthesis
37. The Classical Synthesis (part 2)
38. Thomas Aquinas and the Five Ways
39. Art, Philosophy, and the Renaissance

This wide ranging course starts with the pre-Socratic philosophers of the ancient world, and traces the history of philosophical speculation across the ages up to the present. Included along the way is special attention to the greatest Christian thinkers in history, including Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and many others.