04402 - History of Contemporary Philosophy

Learning outcomes

The student is able to acquire knowledge of history of contemporary philosophy. In particular, it is able to read philosophical works of the last two centuries contextualizing them within a more general cultural universe. He also acquired critical skills and awareness of the philosophical issues of our time.

Course contents

The question of recognition from Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit to contemporary debate.
The course aims to reconstruct and situate, from a historical and systematic point of view, some of
the fundamental stages of the discussion on the concept of recognition, starting from the famous
dialectic of master and servant dealt with in G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Without
claiming to exhaust the possibilities of interpreting this fundamental notion, we will analyze the
historical Marxist interpretation of A. Kojève, that of A. Honneth in the field of critical theory, the
interpretation of J. Butler in the field of gender philosophy, and that of R. Brandom in the field of
semantics. At the end of the course, it will be possible to develop reflections on the relevance and/or
irrelevance of the concept of recognition, as well as on its different meanings and possible
distortions within the various schools of thought considered during the course. Students will acquire
the ability to read classical and contemporary texts, as well as the ability to compare historical
contexts and philosophical aims that are very distant from one another.

Readings/Bibliography

Hegel G. W. F., Fenomenologia dello spirito, trad.it di De Negri, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1963.

Honneth A., Kampf um Anerkennung. Zur moralischen Grammatik sozialer Konflikte, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1992. Trad. it. di C. SANDRELLI, Lotta per il riconoscimento. Proposte per un’etica del conflitto, Il Saggiatore, Milano 2002.

Honneth A., Suffering from Indeterminacy. An Attempt at a Reactualization of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Assen, Amsterdam 1999. Ed. ted. Leiden an Unbestimmtheit. Eine Reaktualisierung der
Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie, Reclam, Stuttgart 2001. Trad. it. di A. CARNEVALE, Il dolore dell’indeterminato. Una attualizzazione della filosofia politica di Hegel, Manifestolibri, Roma 2003.

Honneth A., Umverteilung oder Anerkennung? Eine politisch-philosophische Kontroverse, (con Nancy FRASER), Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 2003. Trad. it. di E. MORELLI e M. BOCCHIOLA,
Redistribuzione o riconoscimento? Una controversia politico-filosofica, Meltemi, Roma2007.

Honneth A., Verdinglichung. Eine anerkennungstheoretische Studie, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 2005. Trad. it. di C. SANDRELLI, Reificazione. Uno studio in chiave di teoria del riconoscimento,
Meltemi, Roma 2007.

Honneth A., Erneuerung der Kritik. Axel Honneth im Gespräch, raccolta di interviste a cura di M. BASAURE, J. Ph. REEMTSMA, R. WILLIG, Campus, Frankfurt a. M.-New York 2009.

Kojeve A., Introduction à la lecture de Hegel, Gallimard, Paris, 1947; Introduzione alla lettura di Hegel. Lezioni sulla “Fenomenologia dello Spirito” tenute dal 1933 al 1939 all’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, trad.it di Frigo, Adelphi, Milano, 1996.

Butler J., Subjects of Desire. Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth- Century France, Columbia University Press, New York, 1987; trad.it di Giuliani, Soggetti di desiderio, Laterza, Roma, 2009.

Butler J., Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identità, Routledge, New York, 1990; trad.it di Zuppet, Scambi di genere. Identità, sesso e desiderio, Sansoni, Milano, 2004.

Butler J., Bodies That Matter. On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”, Routledge, New York and London, 1993; trad.it di S.Capelli, Corpi che contano. I limiti discorsivi del sesso, Feltrinelli, Milano,1996.

Butler J., Excitable Speech. A Politics of the Performative, Routledge, New York and London,1995.

Brandom R.B., A Spirit of Trust. A reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology, Harvard University Press Cambridge (Mass.),/London, 2019.

Brandom R.B., "Some Pragmatist Themes in Hegel’s Idealism: Negotiation and Administration in Hegel’s Account of the Structure and Content of Conceptual Norms”, in European Journal of
Philosophy 7 (2), 1999, pp. 164-189.

Brandom R. B. "Pragmatismo e metafisica hegeliana". Intervista a cura di Italo Testa. Iride: Filosofia e Discussione Pubblica 14 (3), 2001, pp.575-598.

Brandom R.B., Olismo e idealismo nella Fenomenologia di Hegel, in L. Ruggiu, I. Testa (a cura di), Hegel contemporaneo. La ricezione americana di Hegel a confronto con la tradizione europea,
Guerini e Associati, Milano 2003, pp. 247-289.

Brandom R.B., Tales of the Mighty Dead: Hystorical Essays on the Metaphisics of Intentionality,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2002, pp. 178-234.

Office hours

See the website of Giorgia Cecchinato