HISTORY OF METAPHYSICS
cod. 1006274

Academic year 2015/16
1° year of course - Second semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Storia della filosofia (M-FIL/06)
Field
Storia della filosofia e istituzioni di filosofia
Type of training activity
Basic
72 hours
of face-to-face activities
12 credits
hub:
course unit
in - - -

Learning objectives

1- Knowledge and comprehension skill
Goal of the course: knowledge of the philosophical link “idealism-realism” within the modern and contemporary philosophy.

2- Applied knowledge and comprehension skill
Application of the methodologies and topics of the modern and contemporary philosophy in relationship to the problem of the reality of the world.

3-4-5- Autonomy of judgment, communication and apprehension skills
Development of autonomous as well as critical judgment through oral communications and a paper on one lesson of the course.

Prerequisites

none

Course unit content

Idealism’s Reality

The main purpose of this course is to establish in which sense idealism and realism are not opposite concepts. If idealism entails the necessary interconnection between consciousness and world, then one can speak of realism only as a theoretical position that determinates how the idealistic relation of subject and object must be comprehended. In spite of the variety of the epistemic strategies which have been adopted to demonstrate the truth of idealism—transcendental constitution of the world, metaphysical immanence, intentionality etc.—it must be shown that what all these approaches have in common is the assumption that reality does not designate an independent realm of objects, but rather a quality of their position before human reason.

Full programme

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Bibliography

Bibliography

a) Textbook

• Aldo Masullo, Metafisica. Storia di un’idea, Roma, Donzelli 1996.

b) Monographic Part

• R. Cartesio, Meditazioni metafisiche, in: Id., Opere filosofiche, vol. 2, Roma-Bari, Laterza 1990 (o successivamente), pp. 17-83;

• I. Kant, Critica della ragion pura, a cura di P. Chiodi, Torino, Utet 1986, pp. 246-260: «I postulati del pensiero empirico in generale» e «Confutazione dell’idealismo» (B 265-287);

• G. W. F. Hegel, Fenomenologia dello spirito, Firenze, La Nuova Italia 1996, pp. 1-57, 147-153, 219-269: «Prefazione», «Introduzione», «Ragione», in particolare: «Certezza e verità della ragione» e «L’attuazione della coscienza razionale mediante se stessa»;

• G. Gentile, Teoria generale dello spirito come atto puro, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1987, capp. I-VIII, pp. 3-111;

• E. Husserl, Idee per una fenomenologia pura e per una filosofia fenomenologica, vol. 1, Torino, Einaudi 2002, pp. 181-382.

Teaching methods

Lectures.
Lecture and analysis of texts.
Active interaction between the teacher and the students in form of discussion of individual problems of the course.

Assessment methods and criteria

The final exam consists in an paper on one lesson of the course and in the oral discussion, about a textbook as well as about the bibliographical sources and the official notes of the monographic part. The student must show the ability to develop in a sinthetic way a coherent as well as in-depth discussion of a philosophical question. The paper will be evaluated in “trentesimi”.
The oral examination will focus on the texts of the bibliography. The final grade represents the average of the grade of the paper and the grade of the oral examination. The oral examination aims especially at verifying: 1. the knowledge of the history of metaphysics; 2. the comprehension of philosophical texts; 3. the ability to think in a philosophical way and apply the learned concepts to specific problems; 4. the appropriate use of the philosophical terminology.

Other information

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