73085 - History of Contemporary Philosophy (2) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the history of philosophical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries. The aim of the course is to enable students to become acquainted with the main historiographical traditions, to be able to move critically within the contemporary debate within the discipline, and to have at their disposal the methodological tools to independently conduct research of a historical-philosophical nature.

Course contents

The Transcendence of the Ego and Transcendental Empiricism: Deleuze Beyond Sartre

 

The first module of the course examined how Jean-Paul Sartre, in his writings of the 1930s, especially The Transcendence of the Ego, critically reconfigured Husserlian phenomenology by depriving the ego of its role as the foundation of consciousness and opening a new line of inquiry into experience and the status of subjectivity. The second module follows the development of this trajectory in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. For a long time, the philosophies of Sartre and Deleuze have been regarded as irreconcilable alternatives: on the one hand, a phenomenology of consciousness and freedom; on the other, a philosophy of immanence that dissolves every primacy of the subject. Through a reading of selected chapters from Bergsonism, Difference and Repetition, The Logic of Sense, and What Is Philosophy?, the course will show instead that Deleuze's engagement with Sartre, mediated by Hume, Bergson, and Spinoza, constitutes one of the decisive moments in the development of the notion of the impersonal transcendental field. It is precisely at the intersection of Sartre's transcendental field without an Ego and Spinoza's conception of substance as causa sui that Deleuze first conceived the notions of the plane of immanence and the idée sauvage of transcendental empiricism. Deleuze's transformation of the transcendental problem consists in shifting the inquiry from the conditions of possibility of experience to the conditions of its real genesis, that is, to the processes of differentiation and individuation through which subjects and their worlds are simultaneously produced. On this basis, Deleuze develops a theory of absolute immanence in which human finitude is no longer understood as an insurmountable horizon, but rather as a finite mode of the infinite process of creative differentiation.

Readings/Bibliography

Required Reading (for attending and non-attending students)

 

Monografic Course

• J.-P. Sartre, La trascendenza dell’ego. Una descrizione fenomenologica, a cura e con prefazione di R. Ronchi, Christian Marinotti, Milano 2011.

• G. Deleuze, «Fu lui il mio maestro», in L’isola deserta e altri scritti. Testi e interviste 1953-1974, trad. di Deborah Borca, Einaudi, Torino, 2007 (pp. 95-99).

G. Deleuze, Il bergsonismo e altri saggi, a cura di P.A. Rovatti, D. Borca, Torino, Einaudi 2001 (pp. 41-61).

• G. Deleuze, Differenza e ripetizione, trad. di G. Guglielmi, traduzione rivista da G. Antonello e A.M. Morazzoni, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milano 1997 (pp. 169-218).

• G. Deleuze, Logica del senso, trad. di A. Verdiglione, Feltrinelli, Milano (89-115).

• G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Che cos’è la filosofia?, trad. di A. De Lorenzis, a cura di C. Arcuri, Torino, Einaudi 2006 (pp. 25-49).

 

Studies. Two texts of your choice:

• Filippo Domenicali, Paolo Vignola, Deleuze. Filosofia di una vita, Carocci, Roma 2023.

• Maria Russo, Sartre. Vita di un filosofo radicale, Carocci, Roma 2024.

• Rocco Ronchi, Introduzione a Jean-Paul Sartre, La trascendenza dell’ego. Una descrizione fenomenologica, Christian Marinotti, Milano 2011.

• Giulio Piatti, Cosmogenesi dell’esperienza. Il campo trascendentale impersonale, da Bergson a Deleuze, Mimesis, Milano 2021.

• Rocco Ronchi, Gilles Deleuze. Credere nel reale, Feltrinelli, Milano 2015.

• Felice Cimatti, L’uomo e il cavolfiore. Da Sartre a Deleuze, in «Studi sartriani», XIII, 2019, pp. 87-101.

• François Zourabichvili, Deleuze. Una filosofia dell’evento, trad. di F. Agostini, Ombre Corte, Verona 1998.

Teaching methods

The course combines lectures by the instructor with active student participation. It is structured around sessions based on shared reading and open dialogue.
A series of seminars will also take place as part of the course, featuring contributions from national and international scholars. Times and locations will be announced shortly on the course webpage.

Assessment methods

The attendance of the entire course corresponds to 6 credits. The programme is unique for both attending and non-attending students.

The oral examination takes place in the teacher's studio and tends to verify:

1. the historical-philosophical knowledge acquired through attendance at the lessons, the study of the basic texts and the relative bibliography
2. the degree of understanding and critical reworking of the proposed content
3. expressive skills and the ability to orient oneself among the main lines of interpretation

Attendance is considered relevant both to the learning process and to the assessment.

Exam registration is available through the ALMAESAMI platform. The dates of each exam session are published on the Professor’s webpage.

 

Verification criteria
30 cum laude: excellent proof, for solidity of knowledge and critical processing skills

30: excellent proof, adequate knowledge and expressive richness

27-29: good proof, satisfactory knowledge, correct expression

24-26: discrete proof, non-exhaustive and partially correct knowledge

21-23: sufficient proof, general knowledge, confused expression

18-21: barely sufficient proof. Poor articulation and relevant theoretical gaps

<18: insufficient proof, missing or incomplete knowledge, lack of guidance in the argument.

 

Exam sessions

During the 2025/26 academic year, exam sessions are scheduled for the following months: December, January, March, May, June, July, September, October.

 

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)
Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders have the right to special adjustments according to their condition, following an assessment by the Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD. Please do not contact the instructor but get in touch with the Service directly to schedule an appointment. It will be the responsibility of the Service to determine the appropriate adjustments. For more information, visit the page: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

It is recommended that students contact the University office in advance. Any proposed adjustments must be submitted at least 15 days in advance for the instructor’s approval, who will evaluate their appropriateness in relation to the learning objectives of the course.

Teaching tools

A collection of texts will be made available to articulate the debate on the legacy of the debate on systems in the history of modern and contemporary philosophy.

Office hours

See the website of Diego Donna