The course will focus on a theoretical investigation of the main ethical and political implications of all the arguments that will be addressed. The objective is to acquire technical language and enhancing reading, comprehension and commentating abilities of philosophical material. The student will acquire the knowledge useful to deal with fundamental conceptual conundrums.

Continuing a project already started earlier, the lectures will focus on the different conceptions of “tolerance”, term that political language inherited from religion modifying its meaning, time-by-time, until it acquired the positive acceptation of “respecting” different point of views in the pluralist world of values. According to the description given to it in Cesare Ripa’s Nova Iconologia, where tolerate means “bear some load, concealing the its weight for a just purpose”, the original meaning of the term – intended as bearing the sin – lent it a negative acceptation. Nonetheless, over the centuries, the term gradually changed its semantical content, acquiring a more and more positive meaning, that of acknowledging a right to someone. In this regard, the pages of Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise, alongside with Voltaire’s Treatise on Tolerance will offer to students ideas for reflections on a problem that is still actual and debated, increasingly fundamental in the light of the recent happenings.

Knowledge and understanding:

The graduates must be able to:

comprehend and illustrate elementary and intermediate philosophical material; deal with classical problems from history and theory of philosophy, ethics and politics; use bibliographical and informational instruments that are relevant to the subject; know the problems of the subject with critical regard.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

It is expected an active collaboration with both the permanent seminar "Spinoza e il pensiero filosofico moderno" and the course in History of Philosophy. 

Teaching

Lectures and seminars.

Attendance

It is required a regular attendance to the course (equal to AT LEAST 2/3 of the lectures). If the student does not attend to the course, he must refer, for the course material, to the "NO attendance" section.

Course books

A.     Philosophical material

Spinoza, Trattato teologico-politico, Prefazione e capp. XVI-XX, traduzione e commenti di A. Droetto ed E. Giancotti Boscherini, Postfazione di P. Totaro, Einaudi, Torino 2007

Voltaire, Trattato sulla tolleranza, tr. it.Feltrinelli, Milano 2014 

Id., See  “Tolleranza” in Dizionario filosofico. 

B.     Critical materials

- L. Lanzillo, Tolleranza, Il Mulino (“Lessico della politica”, 8), Bologna 2001.

An essay chosen from the following:

- D. Bostrenghi, Le ragioni della tolleranza in Spinoza, in «Isonomia», rivista online di Filosofia, Università degli Studi di Urbino “Carlo Bo” (sez. Storica 2018), http://isonomia.uniurb.it/le-ragioni-della-tolleranza-in-spinoza/

- F. Mignini, Emancipatio, ovvero Servitus e Libertas in Spinoza, «Pólemos», X, 1, 2017, pp. 13-41. 

Further references will be provided during the course. 

Assessment

It is required a regular attendance to the course (equal to AT LEAST 2/3 of the lectures). If the student does not attend to the course, he must refer, for the course material, to the "NO attendance" section.

The evaluation criteria for the examination will be the following:

-  Relevance and effectiveness of the responses with reference to the contents of the course’s program;

-  Complexity of the responses;

-  Adequacy of the technical language of the discipline.

The final evaluation will be expressed in thirtieths according to the following scale: 30 and praise = excellent; 30 = very good / excellent; 27-29 = good; 24-26 = discrete; 21-23 = sufficient; 18-21 = just enough. The exam is not passed when the essential knowledge is not acquired, the understanding and re-elaboration of the learned contents is poor and the disciplinary lexicon is not proper. 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Attendance

It is required that the student makes contact with the lecturer AT LEAST two months in advance.

Course books

All the material reported at point (A) and (B) in the section "course material" plus (C). 

N. Bobbio, L'età dei diritti, Torino, 2014. 

Assessment

Oral exam on all the material at point (A), (B) and (C). Optional essay which has to be agreed upon with the lecturer in advance.

The evaluation criteria for the examination will be the following:

-  Relevance and effectiveness of the responses with reference to the contents of the course’s program;

-  Complexity of the responses;

-  Adequacy of the technical language of the discipline.

The final evaluation will be expressed in thirtieths according to the following scale: 30 and praise = excellent; 30 = very good / excellent; 27-29 = good; 24-26 = discrete; 21-23 = sufficient; 18-21 = just enough. The exam is not passed when the essential knowledge is not acquired, the understanding and re-elaboration of the learned contents is poor and the disciplinary lexicon is not proper. 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.