11325 - History of Philosophy B

Learning outcomes

Students learn to become familiar with trends, issues, important authors of modern philosophy, and to orient themselves in its historical interpretations. They are trained in the critical reading of philosophical texts, and in evaluation of argumentative and rhetorical strategies.

Course contents

Sensitivity and Intellect in the Seventeenth Century Philosophy

The course is dedicated to the Seventeenth Century Debate about the innate ideas. After presenting the Cartesian position, reconstructed through an analytical lecture of the Metaphisical Meditation, Malebranche’s Occasionalism will be examined, together with John Locke’s Empiricism and the concept of monad by Leibniz.

The first lessons will be dedicated to present the discipline and to some methodological reflections; then, we will focus on innatism in the Ancient and Medieval philosophy. In the second part of the first module, we will read Descartes’Metaphysical Meditations, and study the debate sparked by this book in the European Philosophy; we will also analyze some parts of Nicolas Malebranche’’s Search after Truth.

 

Class Schedule

Starting date:September 20, 202i

First period: Mon., Wed., Thu. h. 13-15 (aula Tibiletti)

Second period: Mon. h. 13-15 (Tibiletti), Wed. h. 13-15 (aula B, Via Zamboni 34), Thu. h. 13-15 (Tibiletti)

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

 1. Compulsory readings

- R. Descartes, Meditazioni metafisiche, qualsiasi edizione

- N. Malebranche, La ricerca della verità, qualsiasi edizione (Preface; Book I: 1-5; Book III (First part):1; Book III (Second part): 1- 6.

- J. Locke, Saggio sull’intelletto umano, qualsiasi edizione (parti scelte) (Epistola al lettore; Introduzione; Libro I: cap. I. "Non ci sono principi speculativi innati"; Libro II; Libro IV: Capp. 1- 5.)

G.W. von Leibniz, Nuovi saggi sull’intelletto umano, qualsiasi edizione (parti scelte)*

-G.W. von Leibniz, Monadologia, qualsiasi edizione

* The selected parts of the texts to prepare for the exam will be communicated in class and published on the teacher's website.

 

2. Students must choose one book for each group:

A. Descartes

- E. Scribano, Macchine con la mente. Fisiologia e metafisica tra Cartesio e Spinoza, Carocci, Roma 2015

- J. Laporte, Il razionalismo di Descartes, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2016

- G. Mori, Cartesio, Roma; Carocci, 2010

-A Gombay, Descartes, Torino, Einaudi, 2010

- S. Landucci, La mente in Descartes, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2002

- J. Cottingham, Cartesio, Bologna, il Mulino, 1991

- G. Crapulli Introduzione a Descartes, Roma - Bari, Laterza, 1988

- E. Garin, Vita e opere di Descartes, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1984

B. Locke

G. Di Biase, La morale di Locke: fra prudenze e “mediocritas”, Roma, Carocci, 2012

J. W. Yolton, John Locke, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1990

M. Sina, Introduzione a Locke, Roma – Bari, Laterza, 1989
C.A. Viano, John Locke. Dal Razionalismo all’Illuminismo, Torino, Einaudi, 1960

Allegra, A., Dopo l'anima. Locke e la discussione sull'identità personale alle origini del pensiero moderno, Edizioni Studium, Roma 2005

C. Leibniz

- M.-Th., Liske, , Leibniz, Bologna, Il Mulino, Bologna 2007
- M. Mugnai, Introduzione alla filosofia di Leibniz, Einaudi, Torino 2001

- V. Mathieu, Introduzione a Leibniz, Roma- Bari, Laterza, 1976

3. Basic Skills

From the 2021-2022 academic year onwards, Professors Alberto Burgio, Francesco Cerrato and Diego Donna will work in an integrated manner with regard to the institutional part of the History of Philosophy in their respective courses (Storia della Filosofia B, Storia della Filosofia Moderna, Storia della Filosofia LM).

The institutional part to be prepared for the exam is the same for all the courses. It can only be taken once: the mark obtained in one of the above-mentioned subjects will be recognised - without any need for further examination – by the others as well.

List of authors:

Bruno, Machiavelli, Bacone, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Montesquieu, Vico, Hume, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Croce, Wittgenstein, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Lukács, la Scuola di Francoforte, Foucault, Arendt.

Non-attending students must read  Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding fully and A. Pacchi, Introduzione alla lettura del «Saggio sull'intelletto umano» di Locke, Milano, Unicopli, 2008.

Teaching methods

Ex cathedra lessons.

Assessment methods

The final oral exam focuses on the programme’s material and will be held in the Professor’s office, Via Zamboni, 38.

The critical evaluation considers the fundamental notions, the level of the analysis and the critical skills. On the basis of these three principal parameters an overall evaluation in thirtieths is expressed.

18-21 Sufficient

22-25 Average

26-28 Good-Very Good

29-30 Excellent

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Cerrato