00961 - History of Philosophy (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

Students learn to become familiar with trends, issues, important authors of modern philosophy, and to orient themselves in its historical interpretations. They are trained in the critical reading of philosophical texts, and in evaluation of argumentative and rhetorical strategies.

Course contents

Causes and reasons of the philosophers.

From Descartes to Kant

The aim of the course is to present the six-eighteenth-century philosophical discussion on the notion of cause that invests the great themes of science, theology, metaphysics and anthropology.
In modern philosophy, the notion of cause progressively abandons the traditional meaning of the ontological necessity to access the modern definition of rational intelligibility. The monographic course examins some selected steps, from the exemplary Descartes’ formula of the equivalence of cause and reason (“causa sive ratio”) to Spinoza’s theory of the immanence of the cause that places the identity of the order of ideas and the order of bodies excluding any finalism, to Leibniz’s invention of the principle of sufficient reason that rationalizes existence by subtracting it from the necessity of efficiency, to the humeana redefinition that transfers the causal relationship within the psychological principles of human nature, subtracting it from the necessity of logical inference, to the categorization of Kant in the Transcendental Dialectics.

The course is divided into two parts:

I. monographic part

II. institutional part

I. MONOGRAPHIC PART (about 40 hours)

The following texts or parts of them will be examined:

1. R. Descartes, Discours de la Méthode (P.VI); Meditationes de Prima Philosophia (II, III; Primæ Objectiones);
2. B. Spinoza, Ethica (P. I);
3. G. W. Leibniz, Discours de Métaphysique (§ 1-16);Monadologie
4. D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (Book 1, P. III)
5. I. Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, DieTranszendentale Dialektik

N.B. : The teacher will indicate in class the English translations or the English editions of the texts in question. The student is required to prepare for the exam only four authors of the five listed above.

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following general bibliography is useful for following the thematic articulations of the course:

V. Carraud, Causa sive ratio. La raison de la cause, de Suarez à Leibniz, Paris, PUF, 2002;

E. Cassirer, Cartesio e Leibniz, trad.it. Bari, Laterza, 1986;

P. Dessì, Causa/effetto, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2012

A. Funkenstein, Theology and the Scientific Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century, Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1986 (trad. it. Torino Einaudi 1996);
T. Gregory, Genèse de la raison classique, Paris, PUF, 2000

 

II. INSTITUTIONAL PART (about 20 hours)

The aim of the institutional course is to follow the basic lines of the history of modern philosophy from Descartes to Kant, which the student must know starting from the study of a manual for high schools. As an indication, the Storia della filosofia con testi e letture critiche edited by F. Adorno, T. Gregory, V. Verra (Bari, Laterza 1979, rist., Vol. II), the Storia della filosofia edited by F. Restaino (Torino, Utet 1999, Vol 3/1 and 3/2), the Storia della filosofia moderna edited by M. Mori (Bari, Laterza, 2005), the Storia della filosofia moderna edited by G. Belgioioso (Le Monnier University, 2018).
The institutional part is completed by an index and a collection of texts related to the monographic course “ Causes and Reasons of the Philosophers” by D. Donna.
This collection is available to students at the Didactic Secretariat of the Department of Philosophy and Communication, Via Zamboni, 38, II.

 

GENERAL WARNINGS

The program is unique, for attending and non-attending students.
The exam is only oral and is held in the study of Prof. M. Spallanzani (Department of Philosophy ans Communication Studies, Via Zamboni, 38, IV floor). Registration for the exam is carried out on the ALMAESAMI website.

Readings/Bibliography

Texts and bibliography are indicated in the program.

Teaching methods

Lectures concern specific themes, and intend to analyze them in reference also to the peculiarities of historical contexts, the diversity of cultures and of philosophical problems, and, finally, the determination of intellectual options of individual philosophers. The predominantly seminar format of the lessons involves students in an independent and shared research, conducted with bibliographic tools and discussed in dialogic forms of scientific communication.

Assessment methods

The oral exam, which takes place in the teacher office (Via Zamboni, 38, 4th floor), tends to verify:

1. the historical and philosophical knowledge, the study of texts and bibliography ;

2. the level of conceptual assimilation and critical elaboration;

3. the properties of language and expression;

4. the ability of orientation of the main lines of classical interpretation and contemporary historiography.

Exam registration is available on-line at AlmaEsami

Assessment criteria and assessment thresholds:

30 cum laude: oustanding

30: excellent

29-27: very good

26-23: satisfactory to adequate

22-19: poor to barely adequate

18: minimum passing grade

< 18: fail

Teaching tools

A. The lectures aim to examine classical texts, which are available in Italian and English translation, but with many references to the original language.

B. The general part follows the basic lines of the history of modern philosophy from Descartes to Kant, that the student must study on a high school manual. For example: Storia della filosofia con testi e letture critiche by F. Adorno, T. Gregory, V. Verra ( Bari, Laterza 1979, rist., vol. II), Storia della filosofia by F. Restaino (Torino, Utet 1999, vol. 3/1 e 3/2), Storia della filosofia moderna by M. Mori (Bari, Laterza, 2005).
This general part is completed by an index and collection of texts on the main course curated by D. Donna and P. Schiavo. This collection will be available to students at the Student Secretariat of the Department of Philosophy and Communication, Via Zamboni, 38, second floor.

Office hours

See the website of Mariafranca Spallanzani