The course aims to provide students with the critical-hermeneutical tools to understand and interpret the main modern political categories and to reflect on the processes of victimization, stereotyping and racial discrimination in contemporary society in the light of the historical examples analyzed. These tools of philosophical-political analysis are aimed at facilitating the understanding and treatment of complex and recurrent social phenomena of labelling, marginalization or discrimination, in the professional context.

The course deals with the theme of political evil, with specific reference to the relationship between life and power, the construction of the social order and the main modern political-philosophical categories (sovereignty, property, freedom). The considerations developed are contextualized in relation to the development of race theories and myths from the second half of the 18th century to Nazism. Critical reflection focuses on the processes of victimization and "construction" of deviant or abnormal otherness, as well as on the problem of obedience and mass consent.

Extended program.

01 - The theories of the construction of political order

01.01 - The victim paradigm of René Girard

01.02 - The concept of power in Elias Canetti.

02 - The community and political immunity.

02.01 - The immune paradigm in Roberto Esposito.

02.02 - Will to power and will to life in Friedrich Nietzsche.

02.03 - Theories of compensatio: Helmut Plessner and Arnold Gehlen.

03 - The political categories of modernity: sovereignty, property, liberty.

03.01 - Sovereignty: Thomas Hobbes.

03.02 - Property: John Locke.

03.03 - Liberty: Jean-Jeaque Rousseau and Immanuel Kant.

04 - Sovereignty and bere life

04.01 - Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben.

04.02 - Walter Benjamin and Franz Kafka.

05 - The characteristics of power in a democracy

06 - Michel Foucault

06.01 - The insane, the delinquent and the abnormal.

06.02 - Archeology and genealogy

06.03 - The biopolitics and politics of sexuality

07 - Nazi tanatopolitics

07.01 - Eugenics

07.02 - Antisemitism.

07.03 - The origins of totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt.

07.04 - The banality of evil and the modernity of evil: the problem of political responsibility and obedience.

07.05 - The concentration camp as a biopolitical paradigm of the modern.

08 - Genocidal policies in the twentieth century.

None

To pass the exam, students must:

a) Demonstrate having understood the main contents of the course, using a study that is not merely mnemonic. Demonstrate having acquired a critical view, through the ability to re-elaborate the main political-social categories and analyse with a diachronic perspective the historical transformations object of the program (knowledge and understanding).

b) Demonstrate discussing theoretical problems and knowing how to expose them with properties of language and argumentation. Being able to make interdisciplinary connections. Being able to extrapolate theoretical contents and practical examples presented a "situated" knowledge that can be related to professional experience (applying knowledge and understanding).

c) Demonstrate having the ability to autonomously integrate one's knowledge, and develop curiosity and a critical spirit, through active participation in debates with other students. Actively participating in the moments of reflection proposed by the teacher starting from stimuli presented in the classroom and being able to argue an anthological passage or other supporting teaching material (making judgments).

d) Knowing how to expose theoretical concepts effectively and clearly. Acquiring the technical language of the discipline (communication skills).

e) Be able to develop learning meta-skills and the ability to independently and critically evaluate one's study method. Learning from the relationship with the teacher and other students (learning skills).

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

Classroom group exercises

In-depth materials (e.g. anthological texts) will be made available on the blended platform

Teaching

-Frontal lessons.

-In-depth study with the reading of the anthological texts.

-Dialogue lessons and guided debates (Debate)

Innovative teaching methods

The face-to-face lessons will be supplemented by group laboratory activities (debates, reality tasks), also proposed through the Moodle platform, followed by collective discussion in the classroom.

Attendance

Attendance is not compulsory

Course books

-Castorina R., In relazione. Potere, vita, male politico, Mimesis, Milano, 2022.

-Esposito R., Immunità comune. Biopolitica all’epoca della pandemia, Einaudi, Torino, 2022.

Assessment

The assessment will take place through an individual oral exam. The assessment will focus on the knowledge of the contents of the textbooks and any other teaching materials provided by the teacher. The ability to re-elaborate and critically argue the topics and the property of language (mastery of the disciplinary technical language) will be particularly valued.

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

-Frontal lessons.

-In-depth study with the reading of the anthological texts.

-Dialogue lessons and guided debates (Debate)

Attendance

Attendance is not compulsory

Course books

-Castorina R., In relazione. Potere, vita, male politico, Mimesis, Milano, 2022.

-Esposito R., Immunità comune. Biopolitica all’epoca della pandemia, Einaudi, Torino, 2022.

Assessment

The assessment will take place through an individual oral exam. The assessment will focus on the knowledge of the contents of the textbooks and any other teaching materials provided by the teacher. The ability to re-elaborate and critically argue the topics and the property of language (mastery of the disciplinary technical language) will be particularly valued.

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.

The course is borrowed from the LM-85 Master's Degree in Pedagogy of 12 CFU. Lessons for Information Philosophy students will take place at the end of the first 36 hours. The teacher will communicate via email the start date and timetable of the course.