The course aims to provide students with the critical-hermeneutical tools to understand and interpret:

a) the main modern philosophical-political theories;

b) the main modern political categories, reflecting in particular on the processes of victimization, stereotyping and racial discrimination in contemporary society.

These tools of analysis and philosophical-political study are aimed at facilitating the understanding and treatment, in the professional sphere, of complex and recurring social phenomena of labeling, marginalization or discrimination.

The course is divided into two parts. The first part (36 hours) aims to provide prior knowledge and offers an overview of the foremost Western philosophical-political theories, from classical antiquity to today. The second part (36 hours) deals with the theme of political evil, with specific reference to the relationship between life and power, the construction of social order and the main modern political-philosophical categories (sovereignty, property, freedom). The considerations developed are contextualised 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.

The first part (36 hours)

01 - Theories

01.01 - Plato and the perfect city

01.02 - Aristotle and the forms of democracy

01.03 - Machiavelli: principalities and republics over time

01-04 - Hobbes and the politics of the moderns

01.05 - The liberalism of Locke and Mill

01.06 - Rousseau and contractualism

01.07 - Kant and cosmopolitan philosophy

01.08 - Marx and the criticism of liberalism

01.09 - Max Weber. An anomalous political realism

01.10 - Rawls, Habermas and democratic theory

02 - Topics

02.01 - Postcolonialism

02.02 - Gender and political theory

02.03 - Multiculturalism: concepts and policies

The second part (36 hours)

03 - Theories of the construction of the political order

03.01 - The victim paradigm of René Girard

03.02 - The concept of power in Elias Canetti

04 - The community and political immunity

04.01 - The immune paradigm in Roberto Esposito

04.02 - Will to power and will to life in Friedrich Nietzsche

04.03 - Theories of compensatio: Helmut Plessner and Arnold Gehlen

05- The immune political categories of modernity: sovereignty, property, liberty

06 -  Sovereignty and bere life

06.01 - Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben.

06.02 - Walter Benjamin and Franz Kafka

07 - The characteristics of power in democracy

08 - Michel Foucault

08.01 - The insane, the delinquent and the abnormal

08.02 - Archaeology and genealogy

08.03 - The biopolitics and politics of sexuality

09 - Nazi tanatopolitics

09.01 Eugenics

09.02 - Antisemitism

09.03 - The origins of totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt

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

09.05 - The field as a biopolitical paradigm of the modern

10 - Genocidal policies in the twentieth century

None

To pass the exam, students must:

a) Demonstrate having understood the main contents of the course, by means of 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 analyzing 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 be 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 own 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

First part:

-Henry B., Loretoni A., Pirni A., Solinas M. (a cura di), Filosofia Politica, Mondadori, Milano, 2020.

-Bobbio N., L’età dei diritti, Einaudi, Torino, 2014.

Second part:

-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 interview at the end of the lessons (summer session 2024). The evaluation will focus on the knowledge of the contents of the textbooks of the first and second part of the course and of any other teaching materials provided by the teacher.
Students will optionally have the opportunity to take a partial exam (written test) at the end of the first part of the course (December 2023).

In this case, the exam will take place in two phases:
1. the assessment of the first part will take place, at the end of the first semester, through a written test with open answers (6 questions) and will take place in December 2023 (18/12-22/12 2023). The partial grade will be recorded in the student's online transcript.
2. the assessment of the second part will take place through an individual oral interview, at the end of the second semester of lessons (starting from the summer session). The score of the second part of the exam will be recorded in the student's online transcript.
The overall mark will be given by the average of the marks obtained by the student in the two partial exams.

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

First part:

-Henry B., Loretoni A., Pirni A., Solinas M. (a cura di), Filosofia Politica, Mondadori, Milano, 2020.

-Bobbio N., L’età dei diritti, Einaudi, Torino, 2014.

Second part:

-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 interview at the end of the lessons (summer session 2024). The evaluation will focus on the knowledge of the contents of the textbooks of the first and second part of the course and of any other teaching materials provided by the teacher.
Students will optionally have the opportunity to take a partial exam (written test) at the end of the first part of the course (December 2023).

In this case, the exam will take place in two phases:
1. the assessment of the first part will take place, at the end of the first semester, through a written test with open answers (6 questions) and will take place in December 2023 (18/12-22/12 2023). The partial grade will be recorded in the student's online transcript.
2. the assessment of the second part will take place through an individual oral interview, at the end of the second semester of lessons (starting from the summer session). The score of the second part of the exam will be recorded in the student's online transcript.
The overall mark will be given by the average of the marks obtained by the student in the two partial exams.

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.