00983 - History of Political Doctrines (A-E)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students: - know the fundamental features of the modern and contemporary History of Political Thought, - know the main forms of political communication and understand the complex relationships between ideas and facts, - know the most important political doctrines and are able to critically analyze them in connection with the relevant cultural, institutional, historical and social context,- is able to understand the most important political and institutional changes in Western history.

Course contents

The course will be based on the analysis of history of modern and contemporary political thought from the point of view of the concept of political power.
Through the analysis of the political power, we will investigate some of the milestone concepts of modern and contemporary political thought - natural right, State, political subject, pact, sovereignty, representation, citizenship, rights, civil society, constitution, democracy. The course will not only focus on the texts based on the concept of political power written by the main thinkers (from Machiavelli to Hobbes, from Locke to Rousseau, from Kant to Hegel, from Marx to Weber, from Nietzsche to Benjamin, from Arendt to Foucault), but also on the conceptual analysis of the classical texts about the concept of freedom, from Greek to us, in order to investigate the contradictory relationship between power and freedom in the western political theory.

Readings/Bibliography

STUDENTS ATTENDING THE COURSE

- Il pensiero politico moderno, a cura di C. Galli, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2017.

- C. Galli - E. Greblo - S. Mezzadra, Il pensiero politico contemporaneo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011

- Potere, a cura di G. Preterossi, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2018 (II ed.)

- Libertà, a cura di M.L. Lanzillo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2014 (III ed.)

STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING THE COURSE

Since the bibliography for students not attending the course is partially different from that of the attending ones, not attending students are kindly requested to meet the teacher at least once before the exam to get in touch with the program.

Teaching methods

30 lectures of 2 hours each

Assessment methods

STUDENTS ATTENDING THE COURSE

- 2 short written examinations with open questions (7) will be held during classes in order to understand how familiar the students have become with taught matters.

- The final evaluation will be an average of written examinations.

STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING THE COURSE

- A written examination with 15 open questions about the textbooks will be held at the end of the course

- An oral examination after a satisfactory written examination should be attended on the monographic part (previously agreed with the teacher) in order to demonstrate how confident the students are with the analysis and criticism of the history of modern and contemporary political thought

- The final evaluation will be an average of the written and oral examination

Office hours

See the website of Maria Laura Lanzillo