28488 - History of Philosophy (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student is able to identify and clarify the main theoretical issues of the philosophical debate and will develop an understanding of the relevant authors and topics, making constant reference to the historical context. There will be a particular focus on the study of images (representations, metaphors, figures, etc.) through which philosophical problems have been thought. The primary texts will be accompanied by a reading list of secondary texts, by means of which the student can explore the plurality of historiographical interpretations of this theme.

Course contents

Figures of time, iconology, and 'political hippology':
Reinhart Koselleck and the visual arts

This course will be dedicated to deepening the iconological thought of one of the greatest historians of the twentieth century, Reinhart Koselleck.

Koselleck was an amateur caricaturist and reveals his interest for the visual arts, and more precisely for the connection between them and theory of history, when, in his book Futures Past, he uses Albrecht Altdorfer's painting Battle of Alexander and Darius at Isso to interpret the historical transformation of the relationship between experience and expectation in the modern age.

Koselleck's iconological research gradually developed through engagement with the theories of various great art historians (in particular Warburg and Panofsky) and in constant dialogue with Max Imdahl, a friend and colleague in Bielefeld.

Koselleck carried out a period of research at the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg and created an iconographic study of war monuments, photographed and cataloged in his private archive (now preserved at the Bildarchiv Foto Marburg).

Koselleck's research on equestrian monuments and the use of the horse in the visual arts (particular attention will be paid to the Marino Marini's sculptures) is of particular interest. In his final years, Koselleck outlined a sort of 'political hippology', which reinterpreted the succession of eras and the specificity of the modern age in the light of the social and political role of the horse.

  

Workshop

The course will include a workshop on topics and authors related to the themes of the course.

The workshop programme will be announced before the start of the course.

Partecipation is optional. Students who participate will be entitled to prepare only one, rather than two, critical texts for the final exam.

 

Starting date: 2nd April 2025

Wednesday, 17:00 - 19:00, aula Picchi (Palazzo Marescotti, via Barberia 4)

Thursday, 15:00 - 17:00, aula Secci (Palazzo Marescotti, via Barberia 4)

Friday, 15:00 - 17:00, aula Secci (Palazzo Marescotti, via Barberia 4)

 

Readings/Bibliography

1. Primary readings:

Selected parts * of these texts by Koselleck:

• Futuro passato. Per una semantica dei tempi storici, Clueb, Bologna 2007

• I monumenti: materia per una storia collettiva?, in Lisa Regazzoni (a cura di), Per un’estetica della memoria, «Discipline Filosofiche», XIII, 2003, 2, pp. 9-33

• La difficile memoria. Alcune questioni legate al monumento in ricordo dell’Ottocento, in «Novecento», 3, 2000, pp. 99-102
  

 

Selected parts translated into Italian ** of these texts by Koselleck:

• Geronnene Lava. Texte zu politischem Totenkult und Erinnerung, Suhrkamp, Berlin 2023

• Les monuments aux morts. Contribution à l’étude d’une marque visuelle des temps modernes, in Centre méridional d’histoire sociale des mentalités et des cultures (a cura di), Iconographie et histoire des mentalités, Edition du CNRS, Paris 1979, pp. 113-123

• Geschichte des politischen Totenkultes der Neuzeit, in «Wissenschaftskolleg. Jahrbuch 1988/1989», pp. 134-137

• Der politische Totenkult. Kriegerdenkmäler in der Moderne, Fink, München 1994

• Der unbekannte Soldat als Nationalsymbol im Blick auf Reiterdenkmale, in «Vorträge aus dem Warburghaus», 7, 2003, pp. 137-166

• Der Aufbruch in die Moderne oder das Ende des Pferdezeitalters, in Berthold Tillmann (a cura di), Historikerpreis der Stadt Münster. Die Preisträger und Laudatoren von 1981 bis 2003, LIT, Münster 2005, pp. 23-39
  

 

 Selected parts translated into Italian ** of these newspaper articles by Koselleck:

• Die Utopie des Überlebens. Der politische Totenkult der Neuzeit, in «Neue Zürcher Zeitung», 12.3.1994, p. 65

• Glühende Lava, zur Erinnerung geronnen, in «Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung», 6.5.1995, p. 4

• Das Ende des Pferdezeitalters, in «Süddeutsche Zeitung», 25.9.2003/Nr. 221, p. 18
  

 

* The selected parts of the texts will be provided in a handout (See Teaching Resources)

 

** The selected parts of Koselleck's texts not available in Italian will be translated into Italian (See Teaching Resources)

 

 

2. Critical readings (two texts of your choise) ***:

Bettina Brandt, Britta Hochkirchen (a cura di), Koselleck und das Bild, Bielefeld University Press 2021

Lisa Regazzoni (a cura di), Im Zwischenraum der Dinge. Eine Annäherung an die Figurensammlung Reinhart Koselleck, Bielefeld University Press 2021 [OPEN ACCESS]

Michele Cometa, Cultura visuale, Cortina Editore 2020

W.J.T. Mitchell, Pictorial turn. Saggi di cultura visuale, Cortina Editore 2020

AA. VV., Politische Ikonologie – Begriffsgeschichte –Epochenschwellen, «Forum für Interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte», 2018, pp. 1-94 [OPEN ACCESS]

Ulrich Raulff, Das letzte Jahrhundert der Pferde. Geschichte einer Trennung, Beck, Muenchen 2015 (Engl.: Farewell to the Horse: A Cultural History, Liveright 2018)

Gennaro Imbriano, Le due modernità. Critica, crisi e utopia in Reinhart Koselleck, DeriveApprodi, Roma 2016

Hubert Locher, Adriana Markantonatos (a cura di), Reinhart Koselleck und die Politische Ikonologie, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 2013

Andrea Carbone (a cura di), Iconografia e storia dei concetti, Palermo 2008

 

*** For those participating in the workshop, only one, rather than two, texts need to be studied

                                              °°°°°

Optional activity

Students who want to deepen their understanding of the history of twentieth-century philosophy, can refer to one of these handbooks:

Lucio Cortella, La filosofia contemporanea. Dal paradigma soggettivista a quello linguistico, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2020

Fabio Cioffi et al., Il testo filosofico, Mondadori, Milano 1992 e seguenti

Mario Dal Pra, Sommario di storia della filosofia, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1987

Students who want to deepen their understanding of art history, can refer to this handbook: Arte nel tempo (3 voll.), a cura di Pierluigi De Vecchi e Elda Cerchiari Necchi (Sansoni, Milano 2020)

                                                 °°°°°

 

The programme is the same both for students who attend the lectures and those who don’t.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures with discussions in class of the most crucial issues

Assessment methods

The final oral exam focuses on the programme material and will be held in Professor Imbriano’s office, via Barberia, 4.

Students will be examined on their knowledge of fundamental concepts, their level of analysis and their critical skills.

On the basis of these three principal parameters an overall evaluation is expressed out of a total of 30.

Evaluation of level:

18-21 Low/Sufficient

22-25 Medium

26-28 Good/very good

29-30 High

30 L Excellent

 

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

Traditional lectures with the support of Power Point

Office hours

See the website of Gennaro Imbriano