AHST 272 / 372, The Classical Tradition of Thought, is a Unit half-way between Ancient History and Philosophy. It deals with the beginnings of philosophy in the Greek and Roman world, from the earliest known Greek philosophers, c. 600 B.C., through to Socrates and Plato, Aristotle, the great schools of Hellenistic philosophy, and into the Roman period. Along with the Greek and Roman strands of classical philosophy, it also considers the input of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in the 1st-4th Centuries A.D.
    No technical background in either Ancient History or Philosophy is required. The approach taken in the Unit is primarily historical. It sets the various thinkers studied in their broad historical context, and relate them to each other. The Unit is a broad survey of a thousand years of the "History of Ideas", but also allows scope for students to study particular areas of interest in greater depth. The Unit proceeds by the detailed study of particular works of the various thinkers in English translation. For further details see the link to the Main Unit Outline.
    The Unit falls into three sections:

1. From the first "Pre-Socratic" thinkers down to Aristotle
2. From the Hellenistic Schools to Greek and Roman thinkers of the 1st century B.C.
3. The emergence into the "Classical" world of Jewish and early Christian ideas, and the beginnings of a synthesis.