99679 - Workshop on Critical Reading

Learning outcomes

The workshop aims to introduce students to the critical reading and understanding of texts (primarily in political and social sciences), starting from the examination of significant cases. At the end of the workshop, students will have acquired the necessary skills to summarise, schematise (also in written form), contextualise and critically analyse theoretical, empirical and methodological aspects of the examined texts (volumes, journal essays, research reports, short articles).

Course contents

This workshop addresses two foundational authors of Greek political thought: Thucydides and Plato. The first four sessions focus on selected passages from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, tracing the emergence of political realism from the causes of war and the dynamics of power to the relationship between justice and force, the logic of empire, and the limits of imperial ambition. Rather than presenting a single doctrine of realism, Thucydides stages competing conceptions of politics through the speeches and actions of his protagonists, inviting readers to evaluate their arguments critically. The final four sessions turn to Plato (especially the Republic), whose dialogues offer a different model of political inquiry grounded in philosophical argument and dialectical reasoning. The course aims to equip students with analytical tools for interpreting classical texts while fostering a deeper understanding of enduring questions concerning power, justice, leadership, and political responsibility.

Readings/Bibliography

Selected passages from

Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War, New York: Basic Books, 2025, introduction by Polly Low, translation by Robin Waterfield.

Plato: Republic. Edited and translated by Christopher Rowe. London: Penguin Classics, 2012. (books III, VIII, IX)

(non-compulsory)

Jacqueline de Romilly, The Mind of Thucydides, Cornell University Press, 2017 (first pub. 1956)

Orwin, Clifford. The Humanity of Thucydides. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Strauss, Leo. The City and Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978 (first pub. 1964), chapter on Thucydides

G.R. Ferrari (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures, with the active participation of students.

Assessment methods

Students are required to produce a paper of approximately 15.000 characters (notes and bibliography excluded) on the relevant topics of the worshop.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint presentations uploaded by the lecturer on "virtuale"

Office hours

See the website of Elena Irrera