27280 - Seminars (1) (G.A)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the seminar students will be able to interpret issues related to specific historical phenomena in a diachronic and transversal perspective, thought the elaboration and synthesis of the data coming from the analysis of written records and material sources and from the collective debate originated from the contact with other people. They will be able to formulate autonomously and in an organized way a research path or an intellectual work, using the specific acquired tools with methodological rigour, precision and accuracy.

Course contents

This year's seminar will focus on conceptual history, its application to the history of political thought and political philosophy, and its contemporary reinterpretation.


After an initial introduction, there will be sessions dedicated to reading and discussing key texts that define this approach. There will also be sessions in which scholars who have used and developed this approach through their research will share their perspectives.


The specific schedule of the activities will be announced in the coming weeks.

Readings/Bibliography

The following publications can be used by the students as common basic texts in order to be prepared for the first meetings:

- R. Koselleck, Futuro passato: per una semantica dei tempi storici, Genova, Marietti, 1986 (o altre edizioni).

- C. Galli, La «macchina» della modernità: Metafisica e contingenza nel moderno pensiero politico, in Id. (a cura di), Logiche e crisi della modernità, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1991.

- G. Duso, La logica del potere: storia concettuale come filosofia politica, Milano, Polimetrica, 2007, capitoli 1-3.

- G. Duso, Introduzione a Id. (a cura di), Il potere: per la storia della filosofia politica modera, Roma, Carocci, 1999, pp. 11-28.

- M. Richter, La storia dei concetti politici e sociali, Soveria Mannelli : Rubbettino, 2022

- L. Scuccimarra, Modernizzazione come temporalizzazione. Storia dei concetti e mutamento epocale nella riflessione di Reinhart Koselleck, "Scienza&Politica", vol. XXVIII, no. 56, 2016, pp. 91-111.

Further bibliographical references will be made available during the seminar, both in relation to the specific topics of the seminar sessions and to the specific issues related to participants' final papers.

Teaching methods

The meetings will include moments of frontal exposition of the issues presented by the different speakers as well as moments of collective discussion. Students will be encouraged to take an active part during the seminars, to make appropriate comments and questions, and to develop their own contributions in preparing and eventually discussing their final papers.

Assessment methods

The credits for this activity cannot be obtained as non-attending students.
In order to receive credits for the seminar, students must attend a minimum of 24 hours out of 30. Attendance will be recorded by signature.

Each participant will also have to write a short paper (approximately 15,000-20,000 characters), which may consist of a reasoned discussion of one or more of the lectures attended during the seminar, or a personal elaboration on one of the topics chosen in agreement with the instructors who will chair the sessions. The students' papers must include the author's first name, surname, student number and institutional e-mail. The final papers must be submitted no later than one month after the end of the seminar.

Students will also be encouraged to present their work in one or more special sessions to be scheduled at the end of the meeting programme.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Individual speakers may choose to use specific teaching tools (e.g. slides, electronic whiteboards, images or materials available online).

Office hours

See the website of Raffaele Laudani