The course aims at providing the necessary skills in order to grasp a modern philosophical text. To this purpose, the course provides students with the necessary tools in order to:

- elaborate an appropriate historical-social contextualization of a modern philosophical text;

- identify the prior philosophical streams setting up the framework of a given philosophical work and be confident with the text’s features that make them identifiable (by focusing in particular on the traits of lexical permanence, on the recursion of argumentative methods, on shared philosophical objectives).

- pick out the original features that characterize a single work of modern philosophy within its philosophical tradition;

- be able to grasp the stratified character of a philosophical text and to subsequently, possibly identify its weaknesses;

- identify the weak points of a philosophical text also concerning logical fallacies (e.g. incoherence between assumptions and consequences; begging the question; semantic vagueness);

- identify the possible weaknesses of a philosophical work that are due to the simultaneous presence of divergent and incoherent philosophical traditions within the text (that may also stand beyond the explicit author’s purposes).

To tell the truth has not (always) been easy: for centuries, censorship has forced authors of works of art, literary, scientific and philosophical texts to devise "oblique" and "coded" forms of communication. One of these - perhaps the most powerful - is that of disguising the truth in the form of "paradox", i.e. a literary genre in which the author denies what he or she is asserting, thus shielding himself or herself from the attacks of Authority.

This practice has fostered developments that have philosophical significance precisely in relation to the concept of 'truth'. In fact, telling the truth "by the wayside" may imply a redefinition of its "concept", which is transformed from a fixed category into something that is constructed in the course of its search, thus losing any fixed character, "relativising" itself and becoming more open and problematic.

On the basis of an examination of the different traditions that have valued an "oblique" conception of truth, it will be shown how it can take on a philosophical significance, involving also theological, metaphysical and political issues of great importance.

Topics:

1. Truth and paradox, paradoxical truth

2. Theoretical background and traditions: Menippean satire, paradoxical encomium, cynical diatribe, comic and carnivalesque genre.

3. The oscillation between rhetorical artifice and philosophical dimension.

4. The "skilful artifice of colourful and deceptive fiction": politics and dissimulation in Alberti's Momus.

5. "Tota res in diversum": Erasmus of Rotterdam's Sileni Alcibiadis and Praise of Folly.

6. The 'holy' asinity in the Brunian Cabala.

7. The prison of truth and ironic evasion in Giacomo Leopardi's Operette morali.

8. Four models of the obliquity of truth: god in exile, madness, asinity, humour.

Knowledge and understanding

- Acknowledgment of the importance of the political-social context for the elaboration of philosophical theories of the contemporary age;

- Ability to detect the peculiar features among alternative forms of philosophical argumentation within a shared philosophical, political and cultural tradition.    

 Applying knowledge and understanding

- The student will be able to master the essential theoretical and lexical tools in order to gain the ability to autonomously read and interpret a philosophical work of the contemporary age;

- The student will be able to appreciate the important role of a correct socio-historical contextualisation for an adequate understanding of the texts of the contemporary age.      

 Making judgements

- The student will develop an appropriate critical ability in order to identify the eventual discrepancies between single philosophical texts and their philosophical tradition;

- The student will develop an autonomous capacity in order to properly evaluate the contradictions and the weak reasoning of a philosophical argumentation.   

 Communication skills

- The student will be provided with the necessary skills in order to present to an audience, even not a specialized one, the core issues of a contemporary philosophical text, by focusing in particular on the historical context, on the lexical and argumentative peculiarities within a given philosophical tradition, on the contradictions, weakness and shortcomings from a logical-argumentative point of view.

 Learning skills

- At the end of the course the student will be provided with the necessary tools for an autonomous study of a philosophical text of the contemporary age;

- The student will understand the meaning and importance of the philosophical lexicon, and of extra-philosophical materials, that are essential in order to gain a deep insight of the political-cultural context of a text. This knowledge will allow the student to autonomously approach to the appropriate bibliographical researches.

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

At the end of the course there will be 6 hours of tutorials in which a topic from the lectures will be explored in seminar form.

Dr Giorgio Grimaldi will hold a seminar on Giordano Bruno's 'De umbris idearum' and 'Il candelaio'.

Teaching

Lectures, tutorials (8 h.), and a seminar given by Dr. Giorgio Grimaldi.

Course books

M. Mori, Storia della filosofia moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007, chap. 1-4.

Monographic part:

Pages from:

L. B. Alberti, Momo, o Del principe, a cura di R. Consolo, Genova, Costa & Nolan, 1992

Erasmo da Rotterdam, I Sileni di Alcibiade, in Id., Adagia. Sei saggi politici in forma di proverbi, a cura di S. Seidel Menchi, Torino, Einaudi,1980

Erasmo da Rotterdam, Elogio della follia, a cura di C. Carena, Torino, Einaudi, 1997

G. Bruno, Cabala del cavallo pegaseo, a cura di N. Badaloni, Palermo, Sellerio, 1992 (or a cura di F. Meroi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2003; or a cura di S. U. Baldassarri, Napli, Liguori, 2002).

G. Leopardi, Operette morali, a cura di C. Galimberti, Napoli, Guida, 1998 (or a cura di A. Prete, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2014).

Critical literature:

M. Bachtin, Dostoevskij. Poetica e stilistica, trad. it. di G. Garritano, Troino, Einaudi, 2002, cap. 4.

N. Ordine, La cabala dell'asino. Asinità e conoscenza in Giordano Bruno, Milano, La Nave di Teseo, 2017.

Further study materials will be made available on the Moodle platform ' blended.uniurb.it

Assessment

The examination consists of an oral exam. Students are required to read and comment on single passages of the two texts. Students are expected to be able to grasp the main theoretical features of the examined passages and to be able to contextualize them within the text, eventually with reference to the secondary literature.

Particular attention is given to oral exposure’s capacity through the proper terminology.

Students are expected to be able to develop a critical approach to the theories they studied. In the evaluation, particular attention will be given to the student’s ability to autonomously reformulate the materials they dealt with and to their ability to make comparisons between the authors they studied.

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

Not attending students will have to study the texts listed under "Course books". To replace the lesson hours (36), not attending students will study another book of critical literature, in addition to what is established for the attending students. In addition, they will have to write a short text (between 10,000 and 20,000 characters) based on the study of Mori's book, Storia della filosofia moderna, on one of the following topics:

    1) The new Platonism of the fifteenth century: Cusano, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola.

    2) The new metaphysics of Telesio, Bruno and Campanella

    3) Political thought: Machiavelli, Campanella, Bodin

    4) Astronomy, Metaphysics, Theology: Kepler, Copernicus, Cusano, Bruno

    5) Nature and mathematics: Galileo Gailei

    6) Francis Bacon and the project of a scientific encyclopedia.

The text should be sent to the teacher well in advance of the exam date.

Attendance

Not attending students are required to contact the teacher well in advance of the exam date.

Course books

M. Mori, Storia della filosofia moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007, chap. 1-4.

Monographic part:

Erasmo da Rotterdam, Elogio della follia, a cura di C. Carena, Torino, Einaudi, 1997

G. Bruno, Cabala del cavallo pegaseo, a cura di N. Badaloni, Palermo, Sellerio, 1992 (ovvero a cura di F. Meroi, Milano, Rizzoli, 2003)

Critical literature:

N. Ordine, La cabala dell'asino. Asinità e conoscenza in Giordano Bruno, Milano, La Nave di Teseo, 2017.

Two books to choose from:

M. Ciliberto, Giordano Bruno, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005

A. Ingegno, La sommersa nave della religione. Saggio sulla polemica anticristana del Bruno, Napoli, Bibliopolis, 1985

A. Ingegno, Regia pazzia. Bruno lettore di Calvino, Urbino, Quattro Venti, 1988

F. Papi, Antropologia e civiltà nel pensiero di Giordano Bruno, Napoli, Liguori, 2006

F. Papi, La costruzione delle verità: Giordano Bruno nel periodo londinese, Udine, Mimesis, 2010

F. A. Yates, Giordano Bruno e la tradizione ermetica, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010.

Assessment

Oral examination (70% of the vote), and a written paper (30% of the vote).

The examination consists of an oral exam. Students are required to read and comment on single passages of the two texts. Students are expected to be able to grasp the main theoretical features of the examined passages and to be able to contextualize them within the text, eventually with reference to the secondary literature.

Particular attention is given to oral exposure’s capacity through the proper terminology.

Students are expected to be able to develop a critical approach to the theories they studied. In the evaluation, particular attention will be given to the student’s ability to autonomously reformulate the materials they dealt with and to their ability to make comparisons between the authors they studied.

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.

At the student's request, the course bibliography can also be provided - and the exam taken - in English, Spanish, French and German.