10059 - Moral Philosophy (1)

Learning outcomes

This course will mainly address issues in applied ethics. At the end of the course students will be expected to grasp the distinction of individual and public ethics; to know the chief lines of recent debates in this field; to appreciate the relations between various approaches in moral philosophy (normative, virtue and care ethics); to understand the multiple connections between moral reflection and cultural studies, political science, and humanities. Students shall be able to make sense of the relevant literature and to properly use the technical language of this field, and they will have studied in depth at least one topic in applied ethics and the seminal texts related to it.

Course contents

What is vertigo? In his 1961 essay “Appropriation et aliénation”, philosopher and historian of ideas Robert Klein writes: vertigo is a loss of the consciousness centre or ego's “here”, which falls down “there”. Therefore, vertigo is the strong temptation to reach this centre and, at the same time, fear to give into that temptation and tumble. In other words, acrophobia represents for Klein a pathology of ego's concrete identity and continuity (habitus): the paradox of something unappropriable “within” consciousness, referring “necessarily to the paradox of inter-subjectviity”.

The course will analyze this theory in detail seeking to highlight its eminent role in contemporary philosophy, and will also explore its theoretical background reconstructing Klein’s confrontation with Husserl, Heidegger and moral philosophy (such as V. Jankélevitch).

Course contents are explanation and comments of some Klein's essays as well as some central chapters of Husserl's Cartesian Meditations and Heidegger's Being and Time. Topics includes ipseity, completeness, empathy, alterity, spatiality, “being-with” or community.

Readings/Bibliography

Obligatory readings:

M. Heidegger, Essere e tempo, edited by P. Chiodi, Milano 1976 (2005): § 9; §§ 23-24; §26; §§ 46-48; §50; §§52-53; §§ 60-62; §§ 64-65; §68; §70.

E. Husserl, Meditazioni Cartesiane, edited by F. Costa, Milano 2009: §§ 30-33; § 42-56; § 62.

R. Klein, Pensiero, confessione, finzione. A proposito della “Saison en enfer”; Appropriazione e alienazione; I limiti della morale trascendentale, saggi contenuti in La forma e l'intelligibile, Torino 1975, (chapter: “Etica”), pp. 498-536.

Further readings recommended for not attendings:

G. Brand, Mondo, io e tempo: nei manoscritti inediti di Husserl, Milano 1960.

Further optional readings:

R. Bernet, I. Kern, E. Marbach, Edmund Husserl, Bologna 1999, cap. 7, pp. 253-277.

G. Brand, Mondo io e tempo nei manoscritti inediti di Husserl, Milano 1960, § 4; §§ 20-26, pp. 54-61; 181-237.

E. Husserl, Idee per una fenomenologia pura e per una filosofia fenomenologica, II, Torino 2001, §§ 22-29, pp. 102-124.

R. Klein, Il tema del pazzo e l'ironia umanistica, in La forma e l'intelligibile cit., pp. 477-97.

E. Melandri, Logica ed esperienza in Husserl, Bologna 1960, cap. VI, pp. 180-213.

M. Merleau-Ponty, Sulla fenomenologia del linguaggio, in Segni, Milano 1967 (2015), pp. 117-134.

J.-P. Sartre, L'essere e il nulla, Milano 1965 (2014): § 5. L'origine del nulla, pp. 56-81.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons. The course will mainly consist of comments on texts, and teacher-led discussions. Students' comments and active participation are encouraged.

Assessment methods

Oral test: verification of specific philosophical knowledge and of the level of assimilation and processing critical-conceptual content. Students are recommended to bring the texts when examining.

Students who have attended lectures may agree on exams (whether written or oral) devoted to specific topics.

 

Assessment criteria and thresholds of evaluation:

30 cum laude - Excellent as to knowledge, philosophical lexicon and critical expression.

30 – Excellent: knowledge is complete, well argued and correctly expressed, with some slight faults.

27-29 – Good: thorough and satisfactory knowledge; essentially correct expression.

24-26 - Fairly good: knowledge broadly acquired, and not always correctely expressed.

21-23 – Sufficient: superficial and partial knowledge; exposure and articulation are incomplete and often not sufficiently appropriate

18-21 - Almost sufficient: superficial and decontextualized knowledge. The exposure of the contents shows important gaps.

Exam failed - Students are requested to show up at a subsequent exam session if basic skills and knowledge are not sufficiently acquired and not placed in the historical-philosophical context.

Teaching tools

Lectures.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Cavalletti