28488 - History of Philosophy (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2022/2023

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Philosophical Sciences (cod. 8773)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student refines his knowledge about the history of modern and contemporary philosophical thought, with particular attention to long-term philosophical-political themes and concepts. The student also refines his ability to orient himself between the main interpretative and historiographical lines.

Course contents

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS

The course intends to follow the various meaning’s declinations of the notion of experience in modern and contemporary philosophy, starting from the classical empiricism conception of a passive receptivity in Locke and Hume to the Kantian question on the a priori structures of knowledge to the question of “philosophy of live” in Henry Bergson up to William James’ reflection on gnoseological problems.

The item of the course will be deepened in seminars with surveys on seventeenth and twentieth century philosophy and science.

The course is organized in several ways: readings and discussions of texts, presentations of ongoing research, interventions by scholars of the philosophy of experience.

The course is structured according to two axes: lectures (about 20 hours) and specialized seminars (about 10 hours). The course is structured according to two axes: lectures (about 20 hours) and specialized seminars (about 10 hours).

LECTURES

In the lectures some particularly significant texts will be examined which discuss the notion of experience in the different fields of a theory of knowledge and philosophy of consciousness. The following texts or parts of them will be read.

During the lectures, the teacher will provide English translations of the French and German texts.

I. J. Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding: Introduction; Book I, chap. I (1-6; 15), chap. II (1, 3, 4, 6); Book II: chaps. I, II, III, XII, XXVII; Book IV, chaps. I, III, IV (1-5).

II. D. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature: Intoduction; Book I: Part I (I-VI); Part IV (IV, VI, VII).

III. I. Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft: Vorrede, Vorrede zur 2. Auflage; Einleitung; “Die transscendentale Ästhetik”.

IV. H. Bergson, Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience: I-II

V. W. James, Essays in Radical Empiricism: 1, 5, 8.

N.B. For the exam, the student will choose only four of the texts indicated.

SEMINARS

As part of the course, two seminars will be organized, the first that declines the concept of experience as a scientific experience in seventeenth-century science, the second that examines its emergence in Cartesian metaphysics and phenomenology.

SEMINAR I. Experience, experiment and reason

The following text will be read (parts):

2. I. Newton, Naturalis Philosophiæ Principia Mathematica: L. III: Regulæ Philosophandi; Scholium Generale.

SEMINAR II. Experience and subject

The following text will be read(parts):

R. Descartes, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia: II, III, VI

N.B. During the seminars, the teacher will provide English translations of the Italian, Latin and German texts. The student is required to take the texts of only one seminar to the exam.

GENERAL INFORMATIONS

Lectures and seminars of the course will be in presence and will be recorded and made available to students. The program is unique, for attending and non-attending students.

The exam is only oral and is held in the Department of Philosophy and Communication, Via Zamboni, 38. Registration for the exam is done through the ALMAESAMI website.


LESSONS AND RECEPTION TIMETABLE
Lessons are held in the second semester, III period, according to the following schedule:
Monday h. 15-17 (room IV, Via Zamboni, 38); Tuesday h. 15-17 (room IV, Via Zamboni, 38); Thursday h. 15-17 (room C, Via Zamboni, 34).
Classes will begin on January 30, 2022
Teacher receives students on Thursday, 10.00 am.

Readings/Bibliography

For the texts of lectures see the programm belove.

Teaching methods

The lectures concern specific themes, and intend to analyze them in reference also to the peculiarities of historical contexts, the diversity of cultures and of philosophical problems, and, finally, the determination of intellectual options of individual philosophers. The predominantly seminar format of the lessons involves students in an independent and shared research, conducted with bibliographic tools and discussed in dialogic forms of scientific communication.

Assessment methods

he exam is oral.

The oral examination tends to verify:
1. historical and philosophical knowledge acquired through the class attendance, the study of the texts and bibliography, contextualising them in historical and philosophical traditions;
2. the level of critical assimilation of conceptual contents;
3. the property and the adequacy of linguistic expression;
4. the knowledge of the main lines of classical interpretations.

The examination provides an opportunity for further discussion and further dialogue with the professor. In this sense, students are also invited to examine particular subjects close to the topics of the lectures.

Assessment criteria and assessment thresholds:
30 cum laude: Excellent, excellent solidity of knowledge, excellent expressive properties, excellent understanding of the concepts.
30: Very good, complete and adequate knowledge, well-articulated and correctly expressed.
27-29: Good, satisfactory knowledge, essentially correct expression.
24-26: Fairly good knowledge, but not complete and not always correct.
21-23: Generally sufficient knowledge but superficial. Expression is often not appropriate and confused.
18-21: Sufficient. The expression and articulation of the speech show important gaps.
<18: Insufficient knowledge or very incomplete, lack of guidance in discipline, expression seriously deficient. Exam failed.

Teaching tools

The lectures aim to examine classical texts, which are available in Italian and English translation, but with many references to the original language.

Seminars offer the reading of significant texts of philosophical debate around the subject of the lectures course, extending it with references to some other authors. The student is required to follow and to prepare for the exam only one seminar (I or II). The seminar format engages students in active participation, which mobilizes the acquired knowledge and transforms it into questioning the texts and discussing the topics.
The student may propose reading other texts or writing papers agreed with the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Mariafranca Spallanzani