General Objective: 

Using a specific theme (melancholy), 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:

In Seventeenth Century England we find different disciplinary aproaches to the theme of melancholy, that even in medical thought is considered in various perspectives (or paradigms: galenic, iatro-chemical and empiricist). The scholar Mauro Simonazzi asks the question: "(...) why an apparently purely medical problem rised a debate among physicians, theologists, writers, philosophers amd moral thinkers?"; he answers: "the theme of melancholy is a central one in early modern English culture, since it involves all the most debated themes of the period: the role of medicine as a science and its relationship with religion and magic, the body and soul relationship, the function of the passions and the possibility to exercize control over them through reason, the relationship between progress and civilization and the nevrotic diseases". Reading and commenting the most important pages written in this period, the course will reconstruct a debate that stands as a foundation of today's scientific spirit.

Themes addressed and hours:

1. introduction to the themes of the course (two hours);

2. psuké e melancholy in ancient thought: Plato and Aristotle (four hours);

3. the Hyppocratic theory and Galen's De indolentia (two hours);

4. Timothie Bright's medical work A treatise of Melancholie (1586) (two hours);

5. disease of the soul and the therapy od prayer: The Passions of the Minde in generall by Thomas Wright (1601) (two hours);

6. William Shakespeare and literary melancholy in Hamlet (two hours);

7. Robert Burton and the Galenic paradigm in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) (six hours);

8. Thomas Hobbes, melancholy as dejection of the mind and "poltical" medicine in Leviathan (1651) (eight hours);

9. Thomas Willis, the science of the brain in Cerebri Anatome (1664) e the iatro-chemical paradigm (two hours);

10. Thomas Sydenham and the empiricist paradigm of clinical observation in the Observationes Medicae (1685) (two hours);

11. Bernard Mandeville and the "psychological" cure of the dialogue in A treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases (1711) (four hours).

Ten hours will be taught in English.

An adequate knowledge of the English language.

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

1. Aristotele, Problema XXX,1. Perché tutti gli uomini straordinari sono melanconici, a cura di Bruno Centrone, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2018;

2. Robert Burton, Anatomia della malinconia, introduzione di Jean Starobinski, Marsilio, Venezia, 2020;

3. Thomas Hobbes, Leviatano, a cura di Arrigo Pacchi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2020, pp. 1-68 (chapters I-IX);

4. Mauro Simonazzi, La malattia inglese. La melanconia nella tradizione filosofica e medica dell'Inghilterra moderna, il Mulino, Bologna 2004.

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

1. Aristotele, Problema XXX,1. Perché tutti gli uomini straordinari sono melanconici, a cura di Bruno Centrone, Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2018;

2. Robert Burton, Anatomia della malinconia, introduzione di Jean Starobinski, Marsilio, Venezia, 2020;

3. Thomas Hobbes, Leviatano, a cura di Arrigo Pacchi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2020, pp. 1-68 (chapters I-IX);

4. Mauro Simonazzi, La malattia inglese. La melanconia nella tradizione filosofica e medica dell'Inghilterra moderna, il Mulino, Bologna 2004.

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.