73085 - History of Contemporary Philosophy (2) (LM)

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Philosophical Sciences (cod. 8773)

Learning outcomes

The teaching of the History of Contemporary Philosophy aims to explore an issue that throughout the XXth century has gone through different changes. The course introduces the students to the issues of a post-metaphysical thought which are rooted in the experience of the actual man while characterizing the last developments of the philosophical debate and involving different cultural contexts. The ideas on the end of the Subject, the death of God, the overcoming of the fundamental, the complaint of logocentrism, which mostly regard contemporary philosophy and are included in our existence, represent the focus of the course. The purpose is then to present the students a past that manifests itself in today, and precisely because the programme concentrates on the world which involves us all, the course wants to contribute to the acquisition of the student’s awareness and critical skills.

Course contents

 

«The Cunning of Reason»

On the Hegelian Philosophy of History (2)

The second module of the course analyses some classical critical works (from the twentieth century) on the Hegelian philosophy of history, in order to focus on its logic and verify its relevance and plausibility, also considering its cultural and historical context. On this regard, some pages from Horkheimer, Popper, Hayek, Löwith and Berlin will be read and discussed.

 

 

Class Schedule

Monday, Wednesday, 3-5 p.m., classroom I, via Zamboni 38

Tuesday, 3-5 p.m., classroom IV, via Zamboni 38

 

Starting date: 11th November 2019

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

1. Primary Text

G.W.F. Hegel, Lezioni sulla filosofia della storia, a cura di Giovanni Bonacina e Livio Sichirollo, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2010

 

2. Critical Readings (2 texts of your choice, both different from the one chosen for the first module)

M. Horkheimer, Gli inizi della filosofia borghese della storia. Da Machiavelli a Hegel (1930), Einaudi, Torino 1978

K.R. Popper, La società aperta e i suoi nemici (1945), II: Hegel e Marx falsi profeti, Armando, Roma 2004

K. Löwith, Significato e fine della storia (1949), il Saggiatore, Milano 1989

I. Berlin, La libertà e i suoi traditori (1952), Adelphi, Milano 2005

K.R. Popper, Miseria dello storicismo (1957), Feltrinelli, Milano 1975

G. Lukács, Il giovane Hegel e i problemi della società capitalistica (1948), Einaudi 1960

E. Weil, Hegel e lo Stato e altri scritti hegeliani (1950), Guerini, Milano 1988

R. Bodei, La civetta e la talpa. Sistema ed epoca in Hegel (1975), il Mulino, Bologna 2004

D. Losurdo, Hegel Marx e la tradizione liberale. Libertà, uguaglianza, Stato, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1988

A. Burgio, Il sogno di una cosa. Per Marx, DeriveApprodi, Roma 2018

 

3. Basic Skills

The knowledge of fundamental authors and themes regarding the history of philosophy between the 19th and 20th centuries is required for the oral exam.

 

List of authors:

Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Comte, Mill, Spencer, Nietzsche, Freud, Bergson, Croce, Gentile, Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Benjamin, la scuola di Francoforte, Gadamer, Sartre, Lévinas, Althusser, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, Habermas, Rawls.

 

The programme is the same both for attending and not attending students. The oral exam will be also about on the topic discussed in class.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons with discussions in class of the most crucial issues; seminar.

Assessment methods

The final oral exam focuses on the programme’s material and will be held in the Professor’s office: 5.08, Via Zamboni, 38.

The critical evaluation considers the fundamental notions, the level of the analysis and the critical skills. On the basis of these three principal parameters an overall evaluation in thirtieths is expressed.

 

Evaluation

18-21 Sufficient

22-25 Average

26-28 Good-Very Good

29-30 Excellent

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Burgio

SDGs

Reduced inequalities Peace, justice and strong institutions

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.