29424 - Seminars (1) (LM) (G.G)

Learning outcomes

The Philosophy Seminars have the specific objectives of seminar teaching: (1) training students in philosophical argumentation by discussion on themes and texts, also in the original language, presented in meetings with Italian and foreign scholars; (2) broading and deeping philosophical knowledge through participation in conferences held by specialists; (3) comparing different methodological approaches to philosophy.

Course contents

Crisis: uses and abuses of a concept


The seminar aims to focus on the conceptual and analytical category of 'crisis'. Few terms are as commonly used in scientific discourse as in everyday life, to the point of dispersing its heuristic value and making it difficult to use in historical understanding. By referring to concrete historical examples (the great crises of the 20th century: the 1930s and the 1970s) and analysing the interpretations of scholars and thinkers, we will reconstruct the different disciplinary uses of the category of 'crisis', its changing over time, and the forms of its application to processes of social change.

Readings/Bibliography

Selected bibliography

Reinhart Koselleck, Il vocabolario della modernità. Progresso, crisi, utopia e altre storie di concetti, Il Mulino;

Reinhart Koselleck, Crisi. Per un lessico della modernità, Ombre corte;

Daniele Besomi, Il linguaggio della crisi. L'economia tra esplosioni, tempeste e malattie, Donzelli;

Alessandro Colombo, Tempi decisivi. Natura e retorica delle crisi internazionali, Feltrinelli;

Johan Huizinga, La crisi della civiltà (1935), Einaudi;

Jared Diamond, Crisi. Come rinascono le nazioni, Einaudi;

Dario Gentili, Crisi come arte di governo, Quodlibet.

Further bibliographical information will be provided in the course of the seminar.

 

Teaching methods

The seminar includes general interventions by the lecturer in order to set and define the historical and conceptual frame of reference, then collective classroom reading and discussion of texts and documentary materials. The primary objectives are to develop critical and interpretive skills through work on texts, to acquire the aptitude for conceptual synthesis and the interweaving of different points of view contextualized in different eras, and to identify the main processes of change over time of the 'crisis' understood both as an analytical category and as a 'total social phenomenon'.

Assessment methods

Eligibility will require a short written report agreed with the lecturer based on the topics discussed in the seminar and the particular individual interests that emerged during the course. Attendance at least two-thirds of the meetings is required to consider oneself an attendee.

Teaching tools

Texts, images and documentary sources. Possible interventions in the discussion by researchers and experts in the topic.

Office hours

See the website of Luca Baldissara