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.

On the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Emilia Giancotti (1930-1992), an internationally renowned scholar of Spinoza, a long-time lecturer at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Urbino, where she carried out her entire university career, the course will have for object the thought of the Dutch philosopher, well known for his strenuous defense of freedom of thought and expression. The pages of the famous Theological-Political Treatise, translated by her, bringing to completion the work of Antonio Droetto (Turin, 1972), together with the reading and commenting on some key passages of her translation of the Ethics (Rome, 1988), will offer students the tools to identify the characteristics of Spinozian democracy and focus on the ethical-political scope of the philosopher's thought, understood by Emilia Giancotti as a “perspective of liberation”.

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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

Activities are planned in collaboration with the permanent Seminar "Spinoza and modern philosophical thought" and the "Societas Spinozana". In the spring of 2022 there will be a study day dedicated to “Emilia Giancotti translator and interpreter of Spinoza” to which the students of the course are invited to participate.

I

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

- B. Spinoza, Trattato teologico-politico, traduzione e commenti di A. Droetto ed E. Giancotti Boscherini, Postfazione di P. Totaro, Einaudi, Torino 2000 (1° ed. 1972).

Some passages from B. Spinoza, Ethics, edited by Emilia Giancotti, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1988 will also be read and commented on in class (in this case the anthology of the selected pages will be made available on Moodle).

The chapters of the Theological-political treatise under specific study and comment will be indicated in class.

B. Critical materials

- E. Giancotti, Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Editori Riuniti, Roma 1988 (in particular Part I and II);

   or    

- E. Balibar, Spinoza e la politica, tr. it. Manifestolibri, Roma 1996 (ed. orig. Spinoza et la politique, Puf, Paris 1985 (ed. orig. Spinoza et la         politique, Puf, Paris 1985, now also available in English and Spanish translation).

To the texts indicated above will be added the reading of an article chosen from those collected in:

-   E. Giancotti, Studi su Hobbes e Spinoza, a cura di D. Bostrenghi e C. Santinelli, Bibliopolis, Napoli 1995

    or, by the same author, a contribution chosen from among those appearing in:

-   D. Bostrenghi – C. Santinelli (a cura di), Pagine sul Seicento, “Quaderni dell’Istituto di Filosofia”, n. II, Centro Stampa dell’Università di     Urbino, Urbino 1994, in part. pp. 45-57 (Sui concetti di potenza e potere in Spinoza) o 59-73 (Individuo e Stato nelle prime teorizzazioni dello Stato moderno. Hobbes e Spinoza a confronto).

For further details, see the volume by

D. Collacciani, B. Gramusset, P.-F. Moreau, F. Toto, Philosophie, religion, pouvoir, Lectures du "Traité théologico-politique", Harmattan, Paris 2021.

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.

Teaching

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Attendance

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

Course books

Please refer to the points (A) and (B) above and to the specific point (C).

For the Theological-political treatise (tr.it. Einaudi, Turin), the study of the Preface and of the chapters I, II, VI, VII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XIX, XX, as well as the Introduction by Giancotti herself (pp. XI-XXXVI will be required.

As regards Ethics, please refer to the passages made available on Moodle (see above).

Non-attending students will add to points (A) and (B) of the exam program indicated above for those attending the reading of (C):

M. Iannucci, Libertà politica e religione in Spinoza. Saggio sul «Trattato teologico-politico» e sul «Trattato politico», Mimesis, 2019 (expecially Preface, Introduction and II Part, ch. I-V).

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.