00983 - History of Political Thought

Learning outcomes

Provide students with the tools to understand the theoretical and practical matters being discussed by western political thought in modern and contemporary age.

Course contents

The course will be based on the analysis of history of modern and contemporary political thought from the point of view of the State.
Through the analysis of the State constitution, we will investigate some of the milestone concepts of modern and contemporary political thought - natural right, political power, political subject, pact, sovereignty, representation, citizenship, rights, civil society, constitution, democracy. The course will not only focus on the texts based on the political concept of State written by the main thinkers (from Machiavelli to Hobbes, from Locke to Rousseau, from Kant to Hegel, from Marx to Weber, from Gentile to Gramsci, from Arendt to Foucault), but also on the conceptual analysis of the classical texts about the concept of freedom, from Greek to us, in order to investigate the contradictory relationship between the political power of the State and freedom in the western political theory.

Readings/Bibliography

STUDENTS ATTENDING THE COURSE

- Manuale di storia del pensiero politico, a c. di C. Galli, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011, nuova edizione aggiornata  (i capitoli indicati a lezione dal docente)
- Stato, a cura di P.P. Portinaro, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005
- Libertà, a cura di M.L. Lanzillo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009 (II ed.)   - I grandi testi del pensiero politico. Antologia, a cura di C. Galli, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011, nuova edizione (i brani indicati a lezione dal docente)

STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING THE COURSE

Since the bibliography for students not attending the course is partially different from that of the attending ones, not attending students are kindly requested to meet the teacher at least once before the exam to get in touch with the program.

Teaching methods

25 lectures of 2 hours each

Assessment methods

STUDENTS ATTENDING THE COURSE
- 3 short written examinations composed of open questions will be held during the classes in order to understand how familiar the students have become with the taught matters - students who have been attending the written examinations, will have to undergo a spoken exam at the end of the course in order to demonstrate how confident with the taught matters, the analysis and the criticism of history of modern and contemporary political thought they are. - the final evaluation will be given as an average between the written and the spoken proofs.
STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING THE COURSE - a written examination composed of 15 open questions about the Manuale will be held at the end of the course - a spoken exam after a satisfactory written examination should be attended about the monographic part (previously agreed with the teacher) in order to demonstrate how confident the students are with the analysis and criticism of the history of modern and contemporary political thought - the final evaluation will be given as an average between the written and the spoken exam.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Laura Lanzillo