00983 - History of Political Doctrines

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 aims to provide students with the fundamental coordinates of political modernity, through a path of reading and commenting on classical texts that analyzes its two extremes: the historical-theoretical genesis in the early modern age (XV-XVII centuries) and the XX century as the century of their greatest tension. During this passage we will constantly problematize the persistence or crisis of this conceptual apparatus in the contemporary age.
In the first part of the course, analyzing the writings of some of the most important modern political philosophers (Renaissance writers, Machiavelli, Hobbes), the historical-conceptual genealogy of concepts such as individual, state, conflict, freedom, people, representation will be reconstructed. The understanding of the classical constructs of modern political thought will allow, in the second part of the course, to analyze their development and their radical tension during the Twentieth century (Weber, Gramsci, Benjamin, Schmitt, Arendt, Tronti), as well as the lines of fracture that emerge in our contemporaneity.

Readings/Bibliography

The assesment takes place through an oral exam both for those who attend and for those who do not attend lessons, in the following ways:

 

ATTENDING STUDENTS

(attending students are those who have attended, in person or online, at least 80% of the lessons. Attendance will be marked)

The course includes, during the semester of attendance, the reading of short extracts from classical texts before each lesson, made available by the teacher in IOL. These texts form the basis of each lesson and are an integral part of the final oral exam.

In addition to these readings, to be carried out regularly throughout the course, attending students must choose one of the following texts:

[these books concern the authors covered in class, at least one book per author is available in English, for those wishing to take the exam in English please email the teacher]

- Quentin Skinner, Le origini del pensiero politico moderno, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1989 (also available in English: The Foundations of Modern Political Thought).

- Michele Ciliberto, Niccolò Machiavelli: ragione e pazzia, Laterza, Bari-Roma, 2019.

- Roberto Esposito, Ordine e conflitto: Machiavelli e la letteratura politica del Rinascimento italiano, Napoli, Liguori, 1984.

- Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli e Guicciardini: pensiero politico e storiografia a Firenze nel Cinquecento, Einaudi, Torino, 2012 (also available in English: Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth Century Florence).

- Tito Magri, Il pensiero politico di Hobbes, Laterza, Roma, 1994.

- Crawford B. Macpherson, Libertà e proprietà alle origini del pensiero borghese: la teoria dell'individualismo possessivo da Hobbes a Locke, ISEDI, Milano, 1973.

- Yves Charles Zarka, Hobbes and Modern Political Thought, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1995.

- Furio Ferraresi, Il fantasma della comunità: concetti politici e scienza sociale in Max Weber, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2003.

- Dimitri D'Andrea, L'incubo degli ultimi uomini. Etica e politica in Max Weber, Carocci, Roma, 2005.

- Wilhelm Hennis, Il problema Max Weber, Laterza, Roma, 1991 (also available in English: Max Weber's Central Question).

- Alberto Burgio, Gramsci: il sistema in movimento, DeriveApprodi, Roma, 2014.

- Michele Filippini, Una politica di massa: Antonio Gramsci e la rivoluzione della società, Carocci, Roma, 2015.

- Michele Filippini, Using Gramsci: A New Approach, Pluto Press, London-New York, 2016.

- Fabrizio Desideri & Massimo Baldi, Benjamin, Carocci, Roma, 2010.

- Dario Gentili, Il tempo della storia. Le tesi Sul concetto di storia di Walter Benjamin, Quodlibet, Macerata, 2019.

- Howard Eiland, Michael W. Jennings, Walter Benjamin: una biografia critica, Einaudi, Torino, 2015 (also available in English: Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life).

- Hasso Hofmann, Legittimità contro legalità. La filosofia politica di Carl Schmitt, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1999.

- Carlo Galli, Lo sguardo di Giano: saggi su Carl Schmitt, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008.

- Jean-François Kervégan, Che fare di Carl Schmitt?, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2016.

- Hannah Arendt, Sulla rivoluzione, Edizioni di comunità, Milano, Edizioni di Comunità, 1999 (also available in English: On Revolution).

- Hannah Arendt, Vita activa: la condizione umana, Bompiani, Milano, 1994 (also available in English: The Human Condition).

- Simona Forti, Hannah Arendt tra filosofia e politica,
Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2006.

- Mario Tronti, Operai e capitale, Einaudi, Torino, 1966, oppure edizione Deriveapprodi (also available in English: Workers and Capital).

- Mario Tronti, La politica al tramonto, Einaudi, Torino, 1998 + M. Cavalleri, M. Filippini, J. Mascat, Introduzione, in M. Tronti, Il demone della politica. Antologia di scritti 1958-2015, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017, pp. 11-63.

 

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Those who do not attend the course must take the exam by bringing these two texts:

- Carlo Galli (a cura di), Il pensiero politico moderno, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017.

- Franco M. Di Sciullo, Furio Ferraresi, Maria Pia Paternò (a cura di), Profili del pensiero politico del Novecento, Carocci, Roma, 2015.

+ a text of your choice from the previous list (the one in the attending section).

Teaching methods

30 lectures of 120 minutes each, usually divided into 90 minutes of lecture + 30 minutes of discussion and questions.

Assessment methods

For both attending and non-attending students the assesment takes place through an oral exam.

For attending students who wish to do so, it is possible to arrange an intermediate oral exam at the end of the first part of the course, so as to take the exam in two sessions. Please email the teacher for this option. The final assesment will be made up of the average of the two sessions. It will always be possible to refuse the vote and come back on every part of the program.

The exam can be done in Italian or English.

Teaching tools

The readings for each lesson will be provided by the teacher on the IOL platform, as will the power points used during the lessons.

Office hours

See the website of Michele Filippini