29424 - Seminars (1) (LM) (G.A)

Course contents

This seminar is a thematic workshop, held by graduate students under the teacher's supervision. The aim to foster both organizational and research skills, public presentation and discussion.

Students will be asked to (1) prepare a presentation of about 50 minutes; (2) present it before an audience composed of the other participants and the teacher; (3) reply to questions and comments from the public; (4) in turn, make questions and comments in the discussion followi other participants' presentations. Each student will also be requested to (5) chair at least a meeting. At each meeting, (6) one or more students will be the discussants, starting the debate; as a rule, the presentator will have shared her/his text, or a substantive synopsis of it, with the discussant beforehand.

The idea, then, is to learn and practice all the roles that are usual in the scientific community and communication.

The chosen topic is, I believe, sufficiently broad to satisfy most kinds of interests and philosophical orientations. The general title of the seminar is "DUALISMS". It can undoubtedly be enacted in quite a number of ways. To give just some examples: Nature/culture (physical/social); mind/body; subject/object; knowing and the known; male/female, given/contructed, human/animal, and whatnot. In preliminary meetings we will devise more specific titles based on the interests expressed by participants.

The seminar will be in the second semester. The meetings will be on Wednesdays from 15 to 17, in Aula VII, via Zamboni 38, ground floor. Start date and calendar of the meetings will be announced later. Attendance will be mandatory (at least 12 meetings).

Enrolment will start October 30th, 2018, at 10am, via the seminar e-learning page;

https://iol.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=23822

To register for the seminar, simply register for the e-learning platform.

The number of registrations is limited to 20; the meetings will be at least 15. It could be more than 15, depending on your interest, but the attendance obligation for each student is 12. It will be possible to propose presentations with two or maximum three speakers.

Once the number of registrations is attained, I will call one or more preparatory meetings to build the group and define calendar and roles. These meetings are an integral part of the number of hours required to earn the credits, so the participation is mandatory.

Readings/Bibliography

On such a topic, the bibliography is too vast to even provide a selection. In fact, though, one of the main points of this exercise is that students should autonomously do their bibliographic research. Once we have more specifically defined the presentations' titles, I will be available to help define an appropriate bibliography. The most suitable course, in my experience, is to focus on a relatively small body of texts, or on a particular theory, or thesis, advanced in the philosophical debate.

Teaching methods

All presentation may involve the use of handouts, slides, physical and digital blackboards, web links, or any resourc that the speaker may considers useful. This is not mandatory, but I don't encourage unaided speaking unless you feel very sure of what you're doing.

At a reasonable notice before the presentation, each speaker will circulate a wide synopsis of his work (ideally, even the complete text), so as to facilitate preparation and discussion.

The teacher is available to discuss in advance the structure and contents of the presentation, and assist in the bibliographic research. You can contact me any time via email or during office hours, and we can talk it through during the preparatory meetings before the beginning of the seminar.

Assessment methods

The presentation itself will be the main part of the evaluation, but the active and professional participation in the entire seminar will also be taken into account in order to earn the credits.

Teaching tools

To ease contacts and documents exchange, I opened an e-learning site on the Unibo portal:

https://iol.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=23822

The webpage will be active as from October 30th. It includes a discussion forum, and we can also use it to distribute reading materials, slides, etc.

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Brigati