92582 - Critical Reading Laboratory (C)

Learning outcomes

The laboratory aims to introduce students to the reading, interpretation, and critical discussion of significant texts from the tradition of political thought. Through practical exercises and collective discussions, the course is designed to develop and strengthen students’ abilities in conceptual analysis, argumentation, and oral and written communication. By the end of the laboratory, students will be able to understand, summarize, and outline the main contents of the texts studied, to situate them within their historical and theoretical context, and to critically analyze their key conceptual, methodological, and argumentative aspects. They will also be able to present and discuss their own interpretations, individually or in groups, using clear and appropriate academic language. Course materials will include classical works of political philosophy as well as essays and articles selected to foster the practice of critical reading and analysis

Course contents

The workshop consists of reading and analyzing classic or fundamental texts on political thought and political philosophy. Particular attention will be paid to defining analytical and contextualized reading techniques, identifying central theses and argumentative strategies, critically comparing authors and concepts, and orally presenting the results of the analysis. The reference texts address topics such as power, freedom, equality, war, revolution, and peace, allowing students to investigate and interpret political dynamics and political spaces as discussed by authors of political thought over the last few centuries. Finally, these themes will be explored in relation to their context and genealogy, their thematic relationship with the present, and, more generally, their cultural and/or political reception.

Readings/Bibliography

The following texts (or parts of texts) available in libraries and/or bookshops will be read and analyzed.

Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe

Étienne De La Boétie, Discorso sulla servitù volontaria

Thomas Hobbes, Il Leviatano

John Locke, Il secondo trattato sul governo

Immanuel Kant, Per la pace perpetua

Max Weber, La politica come professione

Carl Schmitt, Il concetto di ‘politico’

Hannah Arendt, Sulla rivoluzione

Michel Foucault, Sorvegliare e punire

Michel Foucault, "Bisogna difendere la società"

Nicole Loraux, La città divisa

Additional reference texts will be communicated or agreed upon with the instructor during the workshop.

Teaching methods

The workshop consists of a combination of lectures by the instructor (contextualization and reading tools); practical exercises in analysis, discussion, and presentation of texts, conducted by the students; and group debates.

Assessment methods

Attendance is mandatory and therefore a prerequisite for eligibility.
Participants must demonstrate, orally, their ability to synthesize, summarize, contextualize, and critically analyze the theoretical, historical, and methodological aspects of the texts studied. In particular, active participation in laboratory activities and an individual oral presentation on a text (or part of it) agreed upon with the instructor is required to demonstrate critical reading and argumentation skills.

Teaching tools

Books, texts, and PowerPoint presentations

Office hours

See the website of Valentina Antoniol