MORAL PHILOSOPHY II
cod. 1006607

Academic year 2021/22
2° year of course - Second semester
Professor
- Andrea Sebastiano STAITI
Academic discipline
Filosofia morale (M-FIL/03)
Field
Discipline filosofiche
Type of training activity
Characterising
30 hours
of face-to-face activities
6 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Integrated course unit module: moral philosophy (integr)

Learning objectives

By the end of the class the student will be able to:
-Knowledge and understanding: Identify and recognize the conceptual and methodological structure of the most current moral theories;Know and analyze ethical problems, as well as their development in the history of ethics and in the contemporary debate;Discuss in a logical and articulate fashion the philosophical texts assigned in class.
-Applying knowledge and understanding: Apply the acquired theoretical foundations to contemporary moral, social and educational issues; Answer in a clear and articulate manner a written open question assignment. orient herself in interdisciplinary areas of inquiry.
-Making judgements; Communication skills: Argue orally in a clear manner her critical reflections;engage rationally different positions.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of the materials of the first unit (Filosofia Morale I) is a prerequisite.

Course unit content

The second unit of this class aims at deepening the phenomenological and ontological presuppositions of moral philosophy. We will read some foundational texts of the phenomenological tradition and ask upon what conditions it is possible to uphold a non-reductionist conception of the human being and her world, in order to be able to sustain the ideal of morality.

Full programme

In the second book of Ideas, Husserl proposes a phenomenological description of the cultural world, thereby highlighting its constitutive difference from the natural world explored by the sciences. The possibility of moral agency is entirely contingent upon the possibility to articulate a conception of the world in which the subject is not a mere appendix of physical nature, but rather a free agent, who is capable of taking a stance on her goals and objectives. Parallel to Husserl, other thinkers in the phenomenological tradition, such as Alexander Pfänder, Moritz Geiger, and Edith Stein developed analyses of fundamental phenomena such as psychical motivation (as opposed to natural causality), higher-order persons (such as institutions, communities, States, etc.) and the relationship between conscious and unconscious will. All these topics are presuppositions for a philosophically robust discourse on good and evil. We will then focus on these texts with particular attention to the vocabulary and the method of phenomenological inquiry.

Bibliography

1) Edmund Husserl, Idee per una fenomenologia pura e una filosofia fenomenologica - Libro secondo: Ricerche sulla costituzione (Einaudi: Torino 2002).

2) R. De Monticelli (a cura di), La persona: apparenza e realtà (Raffaello Cortina: Milano 2000)

Teaching methods

Frontal lecture, seminar-style discussion, discussion with invited international experts.

Assessment methods and criteria

Oral examination:

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.
22-23: 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.

Other information

The course consists of two parts (Moral Philosophy integrated):
First part - Moral Philosophy I (for students "Studi Filosofici" and "Scienze dell'educazione")
Second part - Moral Philosophy II (for students "Studi Filosofici")