The course aims to focus, from a theoretical point of view, the main ethical-political implications of the topics covered by trying to encourage the acquisition of specific disciplinary language and to stimulate the ability to read, understand and comment on a philosophical text by addressing the fundamental conceptual issues

The unfinished Political Treatise, published posthumously in 1677 a few months after the author's death, represents Spinoza's second political work. Because of the realism and lucidity of its analysis of human nature and the passions, the (sometimes explicit, sometimes silent) presence of Machiavelli and Hobbes, whose thought was certainly well known to the Dutch philosopher, can be felt in the text.

Starting with the reading and commentary of the text, the following topics will be addressed during the course in the order below:

1) Introduction to Spinoza. The characteristics of the Political Treatise in the corpus of Spinozian writings

2) Politics as a science

3) The ‘acute’ Machiavelli

4) Ethics and politics: the nature of ‘affects’ and ‘passions

5) Natural law and the iura communia

6) Nature and reason

7) The ‘power of the ‘multitude'

8) The ‘metus solitudinis'

9) Indignation and fear

10) The forms of the State

11) Peace, war, security

12) Ulysses and the Sirens

13) The ‘fear of the masses'

14) The imperium democraticum

15) Women and servants: the ‘aporias’ of Spinozian democracy

16) Realism and utopia in Spinoza's ethico-political project

17) Freedom and Democracy

18) Conclusion of the course and discussion of the examination bibliography.

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The graduates must be able to:

- comprehend and illustrate elementary and intermediate philosophical material;

- deal with classical problems from history and theory of philosophy, ethics and politics;

- use bibliographical and informational instruments that are relevant to the subject;

- clearly communicate ideas, problems, solutions

- demonstrate autonomy of judgement in evaluating the data collected and the ability to personally rework the content learned

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

Activities are planned in collaboration with the permanent Seminar "Spinoza and modern philosophical thought". 

Teaching

Lectures, debate and seminars.

Innovative teaching methods

- Debate

Attendance

It is required a regular attendance to the course (equal to AT LEAST 2/3 of the lectures). If the student does not attend to the course, he must refer, for the course material, to the "NO attendance" section.

Course books

A.  Philosophical texts:

- B. Spinoza, Trattato politico, ed. by di P.Cristofolini, ETS, Pisa 2011

B. Critical literature

- E. Balibar, Spinoza e la politica, Manifestolibri, Roma 1995 (also available in English)

- F. Cerrato, Un secolo di passioni e politica. Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, DeriveApprodi, Rome 2012

In addition to the above, there will be the reading of an article of your choice from those that will be uploaded onto the ‘blended’ platform during the course.

Further bibliographical indications will be provided during the course

Assessment

The evaluation criteria for the examination will be the following:

-  Relevance and effectiveness of the responses with reference to the contents of the course’s program;

-  Complexity of the responses;

-  Adequacy of the technical language of the discipline.

The final evaluation will be expressed in thirtieths according to the following scale: 30 and praise = excellent; 30 = very good / excellent; 27-29 = good; 24-26 = discrete; 21-23 = sufficient; 18-21 = just enough. The exam is not passed when the essential knowledge is not acquired, the understanding and re-elaboration of the learned contents is poor and the disciplinary lexicon is not proper. 

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

Individual study and use of the material available on Moodle.

Attendance

It is required that the student makes contact with the lecturer AT LEAST two months in advance.

Course books

In order to give non-attending students the opportunity to compensate for what has been done during the lectures with independent study, the the following study texts (referring to the same contents of the syllabus) have been indicated in order to promote their full understanding.

In addition to (A) and (B) above, non-attending students will therefore add (C):

E. Giancotti, Baruch Spinoza. La ragione, la libertà, l’idea di Dio e del mondo nell’epoca della borghesia e delle nuove scienze, ed. by D. Bostrenghi, Mimesis (“Spinoziana 40”), Milano 2024 [first edition, Rome 1985]

Assessment

Oral exam on all the material at point (A), (B) and (C). Optional essay which has to be agreed upon with the lecturer in advance.

The evaluation criteria for the examination will be the following:

-  Relevance and effectiveness of the responses with reference to the contents of the course’s program;

-  Complexity of the responses;

-  Adequacy of the technical language of the discipline.

The final evaluation will be expressed in thirtieths according to the following scale: 30 and praise = excellent; 30 = very good / excellent; 27-29 = good; 24-26 = discrete; 21-23 = sufficient; 18-21 = just enough. The exam is not passed when the essential knowledge is not acquired, the understanding and re-elaboration of the learned contents is poor and the disciplinary lexicon is not proper. 

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.