The course aims to provide the necessary skills to engage with a philosophical text belonging to the history of political thought. To this end, it aims to provide students with the tools for

- an adequate socio-historical contextualisation of a modern and contemporary philosophical-political work;

- identify the philosophical and intellectual currents that preceded the one in which the work is to be inscribed, and how to identify them (in particular by focusing on lexical permanence, the recursiveness of argumentative methods and shared philosophical goals)

- Identify the features of originality that distinguish a single philosophical-political work within the tradition to which it belongs;

- to grasp the stratified character of a philosophical work and, consequently, to identify its critical points;

- identify any critical points in a philosophical work that depend on logical-argumentative fallacies (e.g. inconsistency between assumptions and consequences; repetition of principles; excessive semantic vagueness);

- identify possible criticalities related to the co-presence within a work of different philosophical traditions that are not fully coherent with each other (even beyond the author's explicit intentions).

Karl Marx from Liberalism to Communism

The years between 1843 and 1848 were decisive for Karl Marx: during these five years, the young philosopher and liberal journalist became a political agitator, persecuted by various governments, committed himself to communism and, together with Friedrich Engels, wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The course will reconstruct the main stages of this itinerary, focusing in particular on the confrontation with the theory of political emancipation, the question of freedom, sovereignty and power, and the discovery of the class struggle as the hidden core of the development of forms of civilisation.

1. The Jewish question: political emancipation and human emancipation

2. The Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right: The Proletariat and Revolution

3. Between Practice and Apparent Community: The German Ideology and the Theses on Feuerbach

4. The Manifesto of the Communist Party. The spectre of communism.  "The history of every society that has ever existed is the history of class struggles. Ode to the bourgeoisie. Proletarians and communists. Proletarians, workers and nations. Communists and socialists. Revolution, dictatorship of the proletariat, abolition of private property. Another civilisation.

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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

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Teaching

Lectures

Attendance

Study of M. Ricciardi, Rivoluzione, Bologna, il Mulino

Course books

General Section

M. Ricciardi, Rivoluzione, Bologna, il Mulino

Monographic Section

Karl Marx, La questione ebraica e altri scritti giovanili, a cura di U. Cerroni, Roma, Editori Riuniti

Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels, Manifesto del partito comunista, a cura di E. Donaggio e P. Kammerer, Milano, Feltrinelli

N. Merker, Karl Marx. Vita e opere, Roma-Bari, Laterza

S. Petrucciani, Marx, Roma, Carocci.

Depending on the needs of each student, further critical texts will be identified and agreed.

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

Assessment

The assessment of learning will consist of a written examination. The examination consists of a guided commentary on individual passages from the examination texts. The student must demonstrate that he/she can grasp the fundamental theoretical issues of each passage and contextualise them within the work, including reference to secondary literature.

Particular attention is given to 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 reformulate the materials they dealt with autonomously 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

 In order to enable non-attending students to compensate for the lectures through self-study, the following materials are provided, based on the same syllabus content, to promote full understanding: K. Marx, Antologia. Capitalismo, istruzioni per l'uso, a cura di E. Donaggio e P. Kammerer, Milano, Feltrinelli.

Not attending students must study the texts listed under "Course books". To replace the lesson hours, students who do not attend will have a short text (between 10,000 and 20,000 characters including spaces; written in MS Word or equivalent, in an editable document - not pdf; line spacing 1, Times New Roman, body size 12, paragraph alignment; title in italics and author's name at the top of the first page; chapter titles, if any, in italics) based on the study of Ricciardi's book Rivoluzione on one of the following topics:

1. Revolution in the ancient and early modern world (Chapters I and II)

2. The world of Leviathan (Chapter III)

3. The American Revolution (Chapter IV)

4. The French Revolution (Chapter V)

5. The Restoration and National Revolutions (Chapters V and VI)

6. From Toqueville to Marx (Ch. VIII)

7. The Russian Revolution (Chapter IX)

8. The Colonial Revolution and the New Social Movements (Ch. X).

Attendance

Study of M. Ricciardi, Rivoluzione, Bologna, il Mulino

Course books

General Section

M. Ricciardi, Rivoluzione, Bologna, il Mulino

Monographic Section

Karl Marx, La questione ebraica e altri scritti giovanili, a cura di U. Cerroni, Roma, Editori Riuniti

Karl Marx-Friedrich Engels, Manifesto del partito comunista, a cura di E. Donaggio e P. Kammerer, Milano, Feltrinelli

N. Merker, Karl Marx. Vita e opere, Roma-Bari, Laterza

S. Petrucciani, Marx, Roma, Carocci.

Assessment

Written exam (70% of the grade), and a written paper (30% of the grade).

The assessment of learning will consist of a written examination. The examination consists of a guided commentary on individual passages from the examination texts. The student must demonstrate that he/she can grasp the fundamental theoretical issues of each passage and contextualise them within the work, including reference to secondary literature.

Particular attention is given to 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 reformulate the materials they dealt with autonomously 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.