General Objective: 

Using a specific theme (dreams), the course is aimed at providing the historical-critical tools required to know and understand the fundamental stages of the development of scientific thought from classical antiquity to the 17th  century (historically contextualizing them, but also knowing how to evaluate the durable impact on contemporary thinking). Furthermore, it also aims to refine the philological-hermeneutic competences required for analyzing philosophical texts, observing the most important theoretical aspects and comparing them to those of other authors, also in a interdisciplinary perspective.

Specific objectives:

1. to be able to understand the specific vocabulary of the discipline on a specialistic level;

2. to acquire full awareness of the historical development of the philosophy of science;

3. to acquire knowledge and awareness of the epistemological complexity of the different theories taken into account;

4. to know how to read and understand a philosophical-scientific text;

5. to know how to historically contextualize the text examined;

6. to be able to interpret and analyze the text in question on a specialistic level, identifying the underlying theories and arguments used by the author to support them;

7. to know how to compare the text in question with other related texts, identifying similarities and differences in theories and topics;

8. to be able to recognize any incongruity and inconsistency in the argumentative flow and in the ideas expressed by the author;

9. to be able to reason in a transdisciplinary sense; 

10. to know how to formulate an autonomous opinion on the theories that emerged from the analysis of the text and whether they have a significance or not in today’s world.

Description:

The inner world of dreams has always fascinated men and has been interpeted as a priviledged sphere of reality for the communication with the divine (one can think of the reveiling and deceitful dreams sent by the gods to the charachters in Homer’s poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey). With the birth of philosophical thinling, dreams have been placed in a speculative dimension crossing philosophical reason and scientific reason and have been analyzed by the gratest Greek philosophers, from a “psychological” perspective (in book IX of the Republic, Plato examins the dreams shaking the tyrant, which derive from his hidden desires) as well as from a “physiological” perspective (as in Plato’s Tiameus, in the three treatises on sleep and dreams of Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia and in the medical works of Hippocrates and Galen). Important texts of oniromancy were written by Antiphontes the Sophist (V century b.C.) and by Artemidorus (II century a.C.) – the book of the latter was translated into English in 1606 with the title The Interpretation of Dreams, and exerted a huge influence in the anglophone world. In Seventeenth century Britain, Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) used again the artistotelian physiological argument for explaining dreams and he fought against Descartes’s conception, criticizing him for the use of a sceptical argument - in the first Meditation – already found in Plato.

Themes addressed (and hours):

1. Introduction to the themes of the course (one hour);

2.  Plato, dreams in Repubblic, IX e Timaeus, 45B-46A (three hours);

3. Aristotle, the two treateases on dreams in the Parva Naturalia (five hours);

4. Artemidorus, Oneirocritica (selection) (two hours);

5. Boetius, On dreams (two hours);

6. Thomas Aquinas, Summa (one hour);

7. William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Hamlet e A Midsummer night’s dream (selection) (four hours);

8. Thomas Hill, A little treatise of the interpretation of dreams (selection) (one hour);

9. The alchemical drea: medicine and alchemy (Padua physicians in England) (two hours);

10. Thomas Tryon, A treatise of dreams &visions (selection) (two hours);

11. Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (selection) (two hours);

12. Margareth Cavendish, Grounds of Natural Philosophy (two hours);

13. Hobbes, Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, chapter III (on dreams) (two hours);

14. Hobbes, Leviathan (chapters I-XVI) (eight hours).

Ten hours will be taught in English.

None.

1. Knowledge and the ability to comprehend: to have acquired, on a specialistic level, the content foreseen by the program, understanding the fundamental lines and the particular aspects, even in a comparative perspective.

2. Application of knowledge and the ability to understand: know how to apply the concepts, ideas, theories and methodologies learned, even in contexts other than the original one; to be able to also extend across a transdisciplinary level.

3. Autonomy of judgments: reflecting and thinking about the various contents learned, developing a critical, autonomous, and flexible thought; being “open-minded”: open to the complexity of what is real, with an exploratory and investigative attitude; being able to question the theories of others and also one’s own.

4. Communicative skills: to demonstrate that we have acquired a mastery of the vocabulary of discipline and to know how to use it within a speech that is internally coherent and logically structured, according to a correct sequence of topics; the argumentative capacity must be in the use of analysis and synthesis, of inductive and deductive processes, as well as in the application of rhetorical techniques, up to the remodulation of the subject according to the supposed interlocutor.

5. Learning skills: knowing how to use complementary resources available in addition to study texts – the materials entered by the lecturer in the Moodle platform, but also search engines on the web, bibliographic tools, etc. – to create a personal in-depth course.

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

Seminars.

Materials published in the e-platform Moodle: blended.uniurb.it

Teaching

Traditional lectures; however, students will be engaged as often as possible.

Attendance

It's not compulsory.

Course books

A. Primary sources:

1. Boezio di Dacia (Boetius), Sull'eternità del mondo. Sui sogni. Sul sommo bene, a cura di Luca Bianchi, La Vita Felice, Milano 2017;

2. Thomas Hobbes, Leviatano, edited by Arrigo Pacchi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2011 (or previous editions): only pp. 1-135 (chapters I-XVI);

3. A Selection of texts (to be found in the Blended platform): two authors chosen by the student

Hyppocrates, On dreams (Regimen IV); Plato, Repubblic, IX e Timaeus, 45B-46A; Antifontes the Sophist, On the interpretation of dreams (fragments); Artemidorus, Oneirocritica (selection); Lucretius, De rerum natura (selection); Boetius, On dreams (selection); Thomas Hill, A little treatise of the interpretation of dreams (selection); Sir John Davies, Nosce Teipsum (selection); William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Hamlet and A Midsummer night’s dream (selection); Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (selection); Descartes, Metaphysical meditations (first meditation – answer to the objections); Hobbes, Objections (objection to the first Meditation of Descartes) e Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, chapt. III (on dreams); Thomas Tyron, A treatise of dreams & visions (selection).

B. Literature:

5. Anthony A. Long, La mente, l’anima, il corpo. Modelli greci, a cura di M. Bonazzi, Einaudi, Torino 2016.

5. Bruce K. Alexander & Curtis P. Sheldon, “Materialism: Thomas Hobbes and the human machine”, Chapter 5 in A History of Psychology in Western Civilization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York 2014, pp. 194-256.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Further literature (to be read and/or studied only if you want to):

Giancarlo Movia, “Psicologia” in Guida ad Aristotele. Logica, Fisica, Cosmologia, Psicologia, Biologia, Metafisica, Etica, Politica, Poetica, Retorica, a cura di Enrico Berti, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1997, pp. 143-172.

Giovanni Reale, Corpo, anima e salute. Il concetto di uomo da Omero a Platone, Raffaello Cortina editore, Milano 1999.

Alfredo Ferrarin, Artificio, desiderio, considerazione di sé. Hobbes e i fondamenti antropologici della politica, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2001.

Lyndal Roper & Daniel Pick (eds.), Dreams and History: The Interpretation of Dreams from Ancient Greece to Modern Psychoanalysis, Routledge, London-New York 2004.

Janine Rivière, Dreams in Early Modern England: “Visions of the Night”, Routledge, London-New York 2017.

James F. Brennan & Keith A. Houde, “Psychological Foundations in Ancient Greece”, Chapter 3 in History and Systems of Psychology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York 2018, pp. 32-52.

Assessment

Oral exam.

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.

Teaching

Didactic materials available on the Moodle platform (see above).

Attendance

It's not compulsory.

Course books

A. Primary sources:

1. Boezio di Dacia (Boetius), Sull'eternità del mondo. Sui sogni. Sul sommo bene, a cura di Luca Bianchi, La Vita Felice, Milano 2017;

2. Thomas Hobbes, Leviatano, edited by Arrigo Pacchi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2011 (or previous editions): only pp. 1-135 (chapters I-XVI);

3. A Selection of texts (to be found in the Blended platform): two authors chosen by the student

Ippocrate, I sogni (Regimen IV); Platone, Repubblica, IX e Timeo, 45B-46A; Antifonte Sofista, Dell’interpretazione dei sogni (frammenti); Artemidoro, Oneirocritica (parti scelte); Lucrezio, De rerum natura (versi scelti); Boezio di Dacia, Sui sogni (parti scelte); Thomas Hill, A little treatise of the interpretation of dreams (parti scelte); Sir John Davies, Nosce Teipsum (versi scelti); William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Hamlet e A Midsummer night’s dream (versi scelti); Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (parti scelte); Cartesio, Meditazioni metafisiche (prima meditazione – risposta alle obiezioni); Hobbes, Objections (obiezione alla prima Meditazione cartesiana) e Elementi di legge naturale e politica, cap. III (sui sogni); Thomas Tyron, A treatise of dreams & visions (parti scelte).

B. Literature:

Anthony A. Long, La mente, l’anima, il corpo. Modelli greci, a cura di M. Bonazzi, Einaudi, Torino 2016.

Bruce K. Alexander & Curtis P. Sheldon, “Materialism: Thomas Hobbes and the human machine”, Chapter 5 in A History of Psychology in Western Civilization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York 2014, pp. 194-256.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Further literature (to be read and/or studied only if you want to):

Giancarlo Movia, “Psicologia” in Guida ad Aristotele. Logica, Fisica, Cosmologia, Psicologia, Biologia, Metafisica, Etica, Politica, Poetica, Retorica, a cura di Enrico Berti, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1997, pp. 143-172.

Giovanni Reale, Corpo, anima e salute. Il concetto di uomo da Omero a Platone, Raffaello Cortina editore, Milano 1999.

Alfredo Ferrarin, Artificio, desiderio, considerazione di sé. Hobbes e i fondamenti antropologici della politica, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2001.

Lyndal Roper & Daniel Pick (eds.), Dreams and History: The Interpretation of Dreams from Ancient Greece to Modern Psychoanalysis, Routledge, London-New York 2004.

Janine Rivière, Dreams in Early Modern England: “Visions of the Night”, Routledge, London-New York 2017.

James F. Brennan & Keith A. Houde, “Psychological Foundations in Ancient Greece”, Chapter 3 in History and Systems of Psychology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York 2018, pp. 32-52.

Assessment

Oral exam.

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.

For the oral exam students are free to choose their preferred language: Italian, English or French.