68895 - Moral Philosophy B

Learning outcomes

Students are expected to acquire knowledge of the main issues of moral philosophy and their relationship with metaphysics and politics.

Course contents

Triumph and crisis of the thinking subject. Paths in seventeenth-century metaphysics.

The subject of philosophy as a thinking subject is being developed on new foundations with the advent of modern science. The seventeenth-century philosophy rethinks the whole building of philosophy and science starting from the question of method, ordered to the problem of truth and its certainty. Through various authors and textual paths, the course intends to critically resume the question of the nature, origin and foundations of the subject of philosophy.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography:

Cartesio, Meditazioni metafisiche, trad. S. Landucci, Laterza, Bari, 2010 (Mediazioni I, II and III).

Spinoza, Trattato della riforma dell’intelletto, Enrico De Angelis, SE, Milano, 2009.

 

 On Nihilism (one of three):

F. Vercellone, Il nichilismo, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2009.

S. Givone, Storia del nulla, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2011.

E. Severino, Essenza del nichilismo, Adelphi, Milano, 1982 (2010).

 

 Critics on Descartes (one of two):

E. Scribano, Guida alla lettura delle Meditazioni metafisiche di Descartes, Laterza, Bari, 1997.

S. Di Bella, Le Meditazioni metafisiche di Cartesio : introduzione alla lettura, La Nuova Italia, Firenze, 1997.

 

 Critics on Spinoza (one of two)

L. Vinciguerra, Spinoza, Carocci, Roma, 2015 (2019). 

P.-F. Moreau, Spinoza e lo spinozismo, Morcelliana, Brescia, 2007.

 

Complementary bibliography (for non attending students only).

Cartesio, Il discorso sul metodo, testo francese a fronte, trad. M. Garin, Laterza, Bari, 2007.

 

 

Teaching methods

The lessons include both direct and commented reading of texts and the synthetic reconstruction of problems and paths. Particular attention will be given to interacting with students (discussions, short reports, etc.).

Assessment methods

Final interview, possibly (for those attending only) also starting from a text or a track prepared by the student in agreement with the teacher.
During the interview the student will have to demonstrate an excellent knowledge of the readings and, with the aid of secondary literature, good ability to set up historical reconstructions, relationships and comparisons between the authors and the topics dealt with: only this second ability allows to acquire excellent results.

Office hours

See the website of Lorenzo Vinciguerra