No philosophical lesson seems to have remained after the pandemic. The health emergency revealed the contradictions of capitalist societies, exhausted by decades of neoliberal policies in the name of war on wages and the rights of subordinate classes, privatizations, deregulation and the dismantling of welfare; policies that have made them more and more inequal. Unable to imagine a different and certain model of society of its inacalfiable eternity, the West believed that the "Chinese virus" affected only the most backward or authoritarian countries and that it could never spread in the efficient and transparent liberal companies. Instead of taking seriously the experience of other realities that have managed the emergency better (thanks to the ability of the state and the policy to guide the economy and production and subordinating private interests to those of the majority), he denied them every recognition. To the point that it caused itself a fatal risk for excess of Hybris.

Also the philosophical debate has not escaped this suicidal inability to open up to the other: both the abstract human rights positions inspired by universalist liberalism, and the particularist and populist sovereignism - which of liberalism represents not the alternative but a conservative split - in fact share Western suprematism, with the refusal to elaborate a concrete universalism and to think of a different configuration of the relationship between the individual, civil society and the State but also of the relations between nations.

Two years later, it seems that the hope for a general change of the functioning of our societies and in the relationship between politics and economics, state and private interests, is completely failed. And the ongoing war, which transfers in Ukraine a gigantic conflict between blocks that will decide the trend lines of the new world, shows the persistence, on the economic and geopolitical soil, of the same dynamics that have brought to the edge of the abyss the old one. A new gigantic concentration of power is looming in the West, while international conflicts and the struggle for world power are tightened.

The course therefore proposes the following educational purposes:

- help students understand the fundamental concepts of the history of philosophy, with particular attention to their political and social implications (universal/particular; social classes; modern/antimodern/postmodern; right/left, recognition/discrimination; democracy/authoritarianism, etc. . etc.);

- to help them understand the complexity of the historical process that led to democratic institutional forms in the West and their incomplete expansion but also to understand the historical and political paths that led to the affirmation of political regimes other than the liberal ones;

- help them understand the deep material and cultural reasons for the current crisis of liberal democracy;

- help them orient themselves in the contemporary political-cultural context starting from the theoretical elements learned and applying them to today's communication contexts (TV, newspapers, social networks).

0.1. Philosophy and educational processes

0.2. From Greek Paideia to the formation of neoliberal man

I.1. Historical crises and capitalist naturalism

I.2. The ghost of "totally other": China and the West

I.3. Limiting the infection or taking a risk?

I.4. Building and criminalizing the enemy

I.5. Liberal democracies and "authoritarian regimes" in the state of exception

I.6. Democracy or democracies?

I.7. Liberal democracy and socialist democracy

I.8 Concrete and dialectic universalism of inclusion in Tianxia, ​​the "way to Heaven"

II.1. The Philosopher's Virus 1. Exception and repression

II.2. Philosophers' virus 2. Immunization and exclusion

II.3. The Philosopher's Virus 3. The individual and the other

II.4. The Philosophers' Virus 4. Liberalism and "Great Lord Anarchism"

II.5. Misery of the criticism of biopolitics

II.6. Nihil sub sole novum?

II.7. So that everything changes

II.8. So that nothing changes in the essential. A new economic looting?

II.9. So that nothing changes in the essential. A further concentration of power?

III.1. Which sort of "return of the state"?

III.2. Jones and Brennan: criticism of modern democracy, end of universal suffrage and epistocratic monopoly of power

III.3. Restoration of particularistic liberalism and organized capitalism: towards an "authoritarian statism"

III.3.a. Milanović: «liberal meritocratic capitalism» against «political capitalism»

III.3.b. Mearsheimer: end of the illusion of liberal humanist universalism and revival of particularistic realism

III.3.c. Aresu: "political capitalism" or transfiguration of the revolt of the ruling classes?

III.4. Sovereignty and communitarianism

III.5. Communitarian "socialism"

III.6. Outsourcing the conflict. "Beyond left and right"

III.7. Liberalism and "sovereignism", universalism and particularism

III.8. Rebuilding modern democracy or overcoming it towards post-modern forms of democracy?

IV. The crisis of the West and the world war on the horizon

None.

In relation to the specificities of the discipline, is required:

Knowledge and understanding:
- Knowledge of the fundamental themes of the History of philosophy exposed in class and deepened in the textbooks and understanding of its fundamental concepts in their social and political consequences (see Educational objectives);
- Knowledge of the historical, cultural and socio-political dynamics exposed in class and deepened in the textbooks and understanding of the processes that have innervated them;
- Understanding of the foundations of modern democracy and of the left / right and top / bottom axes;

Applied knowledge and understanding:
- Ability to orientate oneself in contemporary cultural and political debate and to understand the elements that today can strengthen or weaken modern democracy.

Making judgments:
- Ability to take an independent position with respect to the main historical-political and cultural issues of contemprary debate and contemporary conflicts (ex.: centralization and spectacularisation of power; migration; "conflicts of civilizations", etc. etc.)

Communication skills:
- Ability to communicate what has been learned in the appropriate forms for a university-level study; ability to transmit and communicate the fundamental aspects and values of democratic politics (freedom/equality; recognition/exclusion...) also in basic educational work.

Ability to learn
- Starting from the knowledge acquired through the lessons, the student must be able to independently build in-depth cutural paths and to understand which readings and experiences can help his autonomous growth.

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

Seminar by dr. Emiliano Alessandroni (10 hours). In the second half of the semester, a formative assessment test can be carried out online, useful for students in order to become aware of the level of understanding.

Teaching

Frontal lessons and seminar.

Attendance

At the beginning of the course a verification of the initial preparation of the students inherent to the main historical-philosophical problems may be carried out. On this basis, students will attend an intensive seminar to strengthen their skills.

Course books

- Stefano G. Azzarà: Il virus dell'Occidente. Universalismo astratto e sovranismo particolarista di fronte allo stato d'eccezione, Mimesis, Milano 2020: pp. 7-94, 121-251, 299-375.

- Emiliano Alessandroni: Dittature democratiche e democrazie dittatoriali. Problemi storici e filosofici, Carocci, Roma 2021 (except chapters 3, 5, 8).

A book of your choice between:

- Noam Chomsky: Perché l'Ucraina, Ponte alle Grazie, Milano 2022.

- Sergio Romano: La scommessa di Putin, Longanesi, Milano 2022

Assessment

The final exam aims to ascertain student's understanding and knowledge of the educational purposes of the lessons and his ability to present them in argued way: it will therefore be an 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

Non -attending students will have to study the same program as attending people, referring in particular to the materials available on the Moodle platform and coordinating with the teacher and his assistants:

Attendance

None.

Course books

As for attending students.

- Stefano G. Azzarà: Il virus dell'Occidente. Universalismo astratto e sovranismo particolarista di fronte allo stato d'eccezione, Mimesis, Milano 2020: pp. 7-94, 121-251, 299-375.

- Emiliano Alessandroni: Dittature democratiche e democrazie dittatoriali. Problemi storici e filosofici, Carocci, Roma 2021 (except chapters 3, 5, 8).

A book of your choice between:

- Noam Chomsky: Perché l'Ucraina, Ponte alle Grazie, Milano 2022

- Sergio Romano: La scommessa di Putin, Longanesi, Milano 2022

Assessment

As for attending students. For non -attending the test, however, will refer exclusively to the texts scheduled and not to the lessons. However, obtaining the notes of the lessons is still useful for their understanding.

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.