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).

Giordano Bruno's European experience is marked by two decisive stages, Paris and London, where he published some of his most important and undoubtedly his best-known works.

In Paris, Bruno started a philosophical itinerary of extraordinary modernity. With "De umbris idearum", he inserts Neo-Platonism and the art of memory into the circuit of contemporary philosophical debate in a new form, making them functional to the construction of a conception of the world organised around a conception of 'truth' in which theory and praxis, contemplation and action are unified in a project for the overall renewal of civilisation and a way out of the overall 'crisis' in which Europe is imprisoned. In the play Candelaio, published in Paris, this conception is partly outlined. In it, the 'theatre' coincides with the 'world' in all its complexity, and the chaos of the present era is reflected in the multiple perspectives of the protagonists. With "La cena de le ceneri", the first dialogue published in London, this conception of truth is presented in all its parts: from the critique of the old world springs the proposal of new forms of life and experience: a new gnoseology, a new ontology and a new cosmology, and a new ethics, welded together by an idea of truth as a plural construction of a unitary and absolute discourse.

1. Giordano Bruno. Life and personality

1.1. The itinerary of Giordano Bruno

1.2. The Neapolitan Period

1.3. The Wandering Life

1.4. Prosecution and death

2. Paris 1581-82: De umbris idearum, Candelaio. The seminal themes of the 'nolana philosophy'

2.1. De umbris idearum: the theme of 'umbratility'. Towards a 'philosophy of the body'

2.2. Candelaio: the obscene, truth, vicissitudinal mutation

3. London 1583-85: the Italian dialogues

4. The Cena de le ceneri

4.1. Proemiale epistle

4.2. First Dialogue. The Overture: Themes of the "nolana filosofia"

4.3. Dialogue Two. The polemical status of philosophy

4.4. Dialogue Four/a. "Truth" and "Law"

4.5. Dialogue three. Cosmology, then metaphysics

4.6. Dialogue four/b. Metaphysics/I

4.7. Dialogue Five. Metaphysics/II.

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

The course will be complemented by a seminar by Dr. Giorgio Grimaldi on De umbris idearum.

Teaching

The course will combine lectures with innovative teaching and learning methods. In a first part of the course the teacher will deliver a series of lectures. In a second part, students will be divided into groups and while one group will present a study topic, two other groups will take turns as discussants.

Innovative teaching methods

Teaching methods

The course includes:

    * lectures
    * group work and written work
    * oral presentations
    * participatory lectures in which the work presented will be discussed.

Course books

General section:

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

Monographic course:

Giordano Bruno, Candelaio, a cura di Isa Guerrini Angrisani, Milano, Rizzoli.

Giordano Bruno, La cena de le ceneri, in Id., Dialoghi metafisici, a cura di Giovanni Gentile, Roma, Pigreco.

Critical literature:

F. Papi, La costruzione delle verità. Giordano Bruno nel periodo londinese, Milano-Udine, Mimesis.

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

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 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

General section:

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

Monographic course:

Giordano Bruno, Candelaio, a cura di Isa Guerrini Angrisani, Milano, Rizzoli.

Giordano Bruno, La cena de le ceneri, in Id., Dialoghi metafisici, a cura di Giovanni Gentile, Roma, Pigreco.

Critical literature:

F. Papi, La costruzione delle verità. Giordano Bruno nel periodo londinese, Milano-Udine, Mimesis.

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

Two books to choose from:

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. 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 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.