B4959 - History of Modern Philosophy (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims at clarifying the main articulations of philosophical reflection between early modernity and the Age of Enlightenment. Within the framework of a wide-ranging philosophical-historical investigation of the categories and figures that founded European philosophical rationality, the course focuses on the following topics: philosophy in the Renaissance after the Platonic revival: the interest in Hellenistic philosophies and modern skepticism; the new models of philosophical rationality: the cosmological debate, mathematical knowledge, knowledge of the external world, history between rhetoric and science; political philosophy: variations in the doctrine of the law of nature and forms of government; the encyclopaedic debate: philosophy and systems theory in the modern age, the hermeneutics of the Enlightenment. Through the reading of texts, in translation and in the original language, for about 200 pages and through the examination of the fundamental critical bibliography, the student acquires the ability to understand a philosophical text and to grasp its meaning in a historical perspective.

Course contents

Mirrors of the Universe, Mirrors of the Mind. From the Renaissance to Modern Psychology 1

“A mirror up to nature”: the world soul and the human soul between the Renaissance and early modernity

This course examines the development of the metaphor of the mirror in Renaissance and early modern philosophy, focusing on its role in reflections on the world soul, the human soul and the relationship between the divine nature and human knowledge. Interacting with related images such as the eye and the shadow, the metaphor of the mirror became a powerful means of conceptualizing the natural world as a manifold reflection of a single, infinitely productive principle underlying life, animation and cosmic unity.

Within a macrocosm understood as a “living mirror” of the divine, the human being as microcosm occupied a privileged position: the human soul was conceived as a distinctive reflection of the infinite principle, linked to it through a relation of ontological reciprocity and participating in both life and knowledge.

Through a selection of representative authors from the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries (Ficino, Bovelles and Bruno), the course explores the diverse uses of this metaphor and its biblical and Neoplatonic sources. Particular attention will be devoted to themes including the relationship between reality and its images, the nature of animal souls, the substantive meaning of the dignitas hominis, the idea of sapientia as self-knowledge and the ambivalent role of imagination as an intermediary between bodily perception and intellectual cognition.

The final part of the course considers Montaigne’s innovative and markedly dissonant reformulation of the motif. In the Essais, the self no longer appears as a reflection of divine truth and a gateway to immutable essences, but rather as a mobile and fragmented reality whose identity can only be glimpsed through the continuous interplay of its own transformations.

 

Readings/Bibliography

1. During the classes will be read the following texts (or any part):

M. Ficino, Sulla vita, a cura di A. Tarabochia Canavero, Milano, Rusconi 1995 (Libro III, pp. 183-294);

M. Ficino, De raptu Pauli, in Prosatori latini del Quattrocento, a cura di E. Garin, Torino, Ricciardi-Einaudi, 1977, VII, pp. 931-969;

C. de Bovelles, Il libro del sapiente, a cura di E. Garin, Torino, Einaudi, 1987;

G. Bruno, De la causa, principio et uno, in Id., Dialoghi filosofici italiani, a cura e con un saggio introduttivo di M. Ciliberto, Milano,

F. Brusori, La mente come specchio flessibile. Storia e preistoria dell'immaginazione produttiva tra XV e XVIII secolo, Bologna, Pendragon, 2022 (capp. I-V);

S. Carannante, Unigenita natura. Dio e universo in Giordano Bruno, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2018;

M. Ciliberto, Il sapiente furore. Vita di Giordano Bruno, Milano, Adelphi, 2020;

Giordano Bruno. Filosofia, magia, scienza, a cura di S. Carannante, G. Licata, P. Terracciano, Pisa, Edizioni della Normale, 2019 (sections Anima e corpo, Caccia divina, Forme del sapere, Scrittoio);

T. Gontier, La questione dell’animale. Le origini del dibattito moderno, Milano, Mimesis, 2018;

P. O. Kristeller, Il pensiero filosofico di Marsilio Ficino, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1988;

N. Panichi, Montaigne, Roma, Carocci, 2010;

A. Tagliapietra, La metafora dello specchio. Lineamenti per una storia simbolica dell'immagine, Roma, Donzelli, 2023;

N. Tirinnanzi, Umbra naturae. L'immaginazione da Ficino e Bruno, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2000.

Further bibliographical information will be provided at the beginning of the lessons.

N.B.: The course program is the same, as for attending and not attending students. Anyway, students who cannot attend classes or who don't know Italian may contact the teacher (in office hours, and not by e-mail) to decide upon any additional or alternative readings.

Teaching methods

The course combines traditional lectures by the instructor with direct student involvement. It is structured around sessions conducted through collective reading and open discussion.

The course will be held in the first semester and will start on September 14, 2026.

Timetable

- Monday, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Room Celio, Via Zamboni 38;

- Tuesday, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Room Celio, Via Zamboni 34;

- Thursday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Room I, Via Zamboni 38.

Office hours: Prof. Scapparone will receive students on Thursday, h. 3.30-4.30 p.m.

Assessment methods

This course is offered as an “integrated teaching module”. Assessment consists of two examinations, one for each module, conducted by the respective instructors. Each exam contributes to the determination of the final grade. There is no required order in which the exams must be taken; however, students are required to complete both modules, demonstrating the competencies targeted by the course. The final grade will correspond to 12 ECTS credits.

The oral exam is divided into two parts. It will take place in the offices of the respective instructors 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 contents;

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 posted on the respective professor’s webpage. During the 2026/27 academic year, Prof. Elisabetta Scapparone plans to schedule exam sessions in the following months: November, January, March, May, June and September.

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 arguments.

Use of Artificial Intelligence: the use of AI tools in assessment and examination activities is not permitted. Any such use will be treated as a breach of academic integrity.

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders are entitled to special adjustments according to their condition, subject to assessment by the University Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD.

Please do not contact teachers or Department staff, but make an appointment with the Service. The Service will then determine what adjustments are specifically appropriate, and get in touch with the teacher. For more information, please visit the page:

https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Teaching tools

Slides;

Photocopies (limited to hard to find texts);

Advanced seminars;

Any individualized works.

Office hours

See the website of Elisabetta Scapparone