04385 - History of Modern Philosophy

Learning outcomes

Students will be able to pinpoint and clarify the main problematic cruxes from the late Renaissance down to the Age of Enlightenment. The focus will be on the following areas: philosophy in the Renaissance after the rebirth of Platonism: interest in Hellenistic philosophy and modern scepticism; new models of rationality: the cosmological debate, mathematical learning, knowledge of the outside world, history torn between rhetoric and science; political philosophy: variations in the doctrine of natural law, the absolute State, a tempered monarchy, republican claims; the rise of economic science: protectionism, free exchange, theories of value; the encyclopaedic approach to learning. Via the reading of texts (some 300 pages in translation or the original) and via examination of the basic critical bibliography, students will learn to understand a philosophical text and grasp its significance from a historical angle.

Course contents

Mandeville, Rousseau, and Adam Smith

The moral and social theories and conceptions of the history of three classics of eighteenth-century philosophy, linked together by a complex web of influences, will be examined and compared. Smith took a position on the Rousseauian critique of civilization and read Mandeville with passion, in which Rousseau also saw a paradigmatic interpreter of modernity.

Through parallel reading of the Fable of the bees, of the second Discourse by Rousseau and of the Smithian lessons on "Jurisprudence", models and conceptual constellations emerge destined to deeply affect the nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophical discussion.

 

Class Schedule

Monday, Wednesday, 5-7 pm, classroom VI, via Zamboni 38 (and, on line, via Teams)

Tuesday, 5-7 pm, classroom II, via Zamboni 38 (and, on line, via Teams)

 

Starting date: September 21, 2020

Readings/Bibliography

1. Primary Texts

Bernard de Mandeville, La Favola delle api. Vizi privati e pubbliche virtù, Bur, Milano 2011

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discorso sull’origine e i fondamenti della disuguaglianza tra gli uomini, in Id., Discorsi, a cura di Luigi Luporini, Bur, Milano 2007

Adam Smith, Lezioni sulla “Jurisprudence” 1763-64, in Id., Lezioni di Glasgow, a cura di Enzo Pesciarelli, Giuffrè, Milano 1989, pp. 507-733

991

 

2. Texts commented in class (at the end of the course made available online in Teaching materials)

 

3. One text of your choice among:

Karl Löwith, Significato e fine della storia. I presupposti teologici della filosofia della storia (1949), il Saggiatore, Milano 1989

Ronald L. Meek, Il cattivo selvaggio (1976), il Saggiatore, Milano 1981

M. Emanuela Scribano, Natura umana e società competitiva. Studio su Mandeville, Feltrinelli, Milano 1980

Roberto Marchionatti, Gli economisti e i selvaggi. L’imperialismo della scienza economica e i suoi limiti, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2008

Roberto Finzi, La superiore prosperità delle società civilizzate. Adam Smith e la divisione del lavoro, clueb, Bologna 2008

Alberto Burgio, Rousseau e gli altri. Teoria e critica della democrazia tra Sette e Novecento, DeriveApprodi, Roma 2012

 

4. Basic Skills

The knowledge of fundamental authors regarding the history of philosophy between the 16th and 18th centuries is required for the oral exam.

List of authors:

Erasmo da Rotterdam, Tommaso Moro, Telesio, Bruno, Campanella, Lutero, Pomponazzi, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Bodin, Montaigne, Galilei, Bacone, Descartes, Pascal, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Vico, Newton, Berkeley, Hume, Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Montesquieu, Condillac, Rousseau, Kant.

 

Those who have already taken the exam of History of Philosophy with prof. Cerrato in this same academic year do not have to take the exam on this part of the program.

 

The program is the same for attending and non-attending students. Thus, for everyone, the exam interview will also focus on the subject covered in class. 

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures with discussion in class of the crucial issues.

Assessment methods

The final oral exam focuses on the programme’s material.

It usually takes place at the Professor’s office (via Zamboni, 38 - 5.08); due to the health emergency, exams may take place remotely on the Teams platform.

The evaluation considers the degree of learning of the fundamental notions, the level of the argumentative competence, expressive property and the critical skills of candidates.

On the basis of these parameters an overall evaluation in thirtieths is expressed, according to the following judgment criteria:

18-21 Sufficient

22-25 Average

26-28 Good-Very Good

29-30 Excellent.

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Burgio