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

God's freedom. Guide to modern metaphysics (I)

 Beginning with the crisis of Aristotelian thought that had sustained the whole edifice of the medieval world, modern philosophy again invests the question about the rational concept of God and the nature of what tradition calls substantia, or what literally "lies beneath" and which constitutes the very reality of things. Differently defined in the light of modern science, the notion of substance assumes a pivotal role for the history of metaphysics as well as for the destinies of the history of Western thought. The course offers a path of historical-philosophical reflection through the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Europe, in order to understand the philosophical reasons that led to a real philosophical battle around what belongs to the name of substance.

Although conceived independently, the courses in Filosofia della Storia I (or Filosofia morale 1 for the corso di laurea in Lettere) of the third period and Filosofia della Storia II of the fourth period, nevertheless form a unique path. The student can therefore follow both, or limit himself to only one of the two courses, taking the exam related to the one chosen.

Office hours

See the website of Lorenzo Vinciguerra