28017 - History of Ancient Philosophy (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students have an advanced understanding of the relevance of a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of Comparative Public Law; they are able to analyze religious phenomena seen through the lens of multiple tools from several disciplines and apply research methods to address issues relating to the discipline in question. They are able to give form to the results of their own research on Comparative Public Law, documenting in an accurate and complete way the information on which they base their conclusions and giving an account of the methodologies and research tools used.

Course contents

“The Great Hope”: A “Slow Reading” of Plato’s Phaedo

According to Plato, we are embodied souls: this is the core of our human identity. His mature masterpiece, the Republic, is devoted to the time of embodied life. Yet there is another work, likely composed in the same years and deeply complementary to the Republic, that extends the natural history of the human soul by exploring what lies beyond incarnate life and completes the cycle of its existence. This bold philosophical work—because it wagers on what is fated to remain invisible and unknowable, namely the soul’s existence before birth and after death—is the Phaedo.

Recounting the final day in the life of Socrates, the dialogue preserves, through the voice of Phaedo of Elis, his paradoxical conviction that death is a good. This is not, however, a mere opinion, but what Socrates calls the “great hope” (pollè elpís): the reasonable belief that the inescapable future is good. This is the challenge the Phaedo poses to its reader, echoing a central theme of the Apology: is there a way to overcome the “scandal of death,” which—by bringing our brief lives to an end (a butterfly’s wingbeat in the infinity of time)—seems to strip them of all meaning? If there is an answer, it must lie in the continuity of existence and its possible forms—those forms of immortality to which the intrinsically mortal human being might aspire.

In the fifteen sessions of the course, we will read the Phaedo slowly, seeking the arguments that make hope “great,” that is, the good reasons to believe in our eternal good. Are we convinced? Are Plato’s arguments sound? And if they are not, what remains of hope? The course will be both philosophical—focused on close argumentation—and historical, as we will read the text with constant reference to its Socratic precedent in the Apology (as well as other relevant dialogues), and to the Orphic and Pythagorean religious-mystical traditions with which Plato was intellectually indebted and in fruitful philosophical dialogue.

In the final sessions, students will be invited to take part in the reading exercise directly by presenting the closing pages of the dialogue to the class.

__________

The course will take place in the Second Semester, Third Period.

 

Start: Wednesday, February 11 2026, 3pm, Classroom C.

 

Hours:

Wednesday, 3-5pm, Classroom C (Via Zamboni, 34);

Thursday, 3-5pm, Classroom C;

Friday, 3-5pm, Classroom C.

 

* Any supplementary activities (conferences, seminars, etc.) will be announced on the Facebook page Filosofia Antica a Bologna.

Readings/Bibliography

Sources

• Platone, Fedone, introduction and notes by Cesare Lami, translation by Pierangiolo Fabrini, Milano: BUR, 1996; or Platone, Fedone, introduction by Franco Trabattoni, translation and notes by Stefano Martinelli Tempesta, Torino: Einaudi, 2011.
• Anthology of selected passages included in the course handout (for attending students only).

Secondary Literature

(A) Introduction to the work read during the course

• Maddalena Bonelli, Leggere il Fedone di Platone, Roma: Carocci, 2015.

(B) Thematic in-depth essays (choose one)

 

• Claudia Bloeser, Hope, in Vocabolario Treccani.it, s.v., URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hope/ (accessed July 25, 2025); and Douglas Cairns, Can We Find Hope in Ancient Greek Philosophy? Elpis in Plato and Aristotle, in David Konstan (ed.), Emotions Across Cultures: Ancient China and Greece, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022, pp. 41–74.
• Mauro Bonazzi, Creature di un sol giorno: I Greci e il mistero dell’esistenza, Torino: Einaudi, 2020.
• Riccardo Di Giuseppe, La teoria della morte nel Fedone platonico, Bologna: il Mulino, 1993.
• Shelly Kagan, Sul morire: Lezioni di filosofia sulla vita e la sua fine(2012), Italian trans. by Aldo Piccato, Milano: Mondadori, 2019 (chapters V–XVI).
• Vito Mancuso, Destinazione speranza, Milano: Garzanti, 2024. 

* The reading list may be supplemented during the course.

** Attending students who wish to do so may replace the study of one of the texts listed under (B) with a written paper (10–15 standard pages) on a topic related to the course. The topic must be agreed upon with the teacher, and the paper must be written following the guidelines provided in the writing seminar, which will take place during a 3-hour supplementary class session. The seminar materials will be available on the Virtuale platform. The paper must be submitted by email (in both .docx and .pdf format) one week before the exam date, according to the schedule provided.

Teaching methods

LECTURES COURSE (15 lectures)

Adopted methods:

• Slow reading of the sources in the original language and through a comparison of translations.
• Linguistic analysis and semantic fields.
• Argumentative analysis and short essays (pensum).

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING SEMINAR (an additional 3-hour lecture)

• Editing guidelines.
• Reading essay of an ancient work: form and contents.

Assessment methods

EXAM SYLLABUS

The exam syllabus for both attending and non-attending students is detailed under the section Required Texts / Bibliography and includes:

(1) The study of the primary sources analysed during the course.

(2) An introduction to the work read during the course.

(3) A critical essay offering in-depth thematic analysis of one of the topics addressed in the course.

 

* As an alternative to point (3), attending students who wish to do so may submit a written paper.

 

EXAM ASSESSMENT

The exam will be considered overall sufficient only if each of its components is individually sufficient. The final grade will be the average of the marks obtained in the individual parts, based on the following criteria: knowledge of historical and philosophical content, depth of analysis, and critical thinking.

 

Grading scale:

• 18–21: low/sufficient level

• 22–25: average level

• 26–28: good/very good level

• 29–30: high/excellent level

• 30 with honors (30L): outstanding level

 

* Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

• Handout with excerpts from ancient works.
• Partition diagrams and concept maps.
• Handbooks.
• Web pages.
• Databases and bibliographical repertoires.

* All materials will be shared in class and made available to students on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Carlotta Capuccino