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Teacher
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PIAZZA MARCO
(syllabus)
The course has its focus in the analysis of the doctrine of personal identity presented by Hume in his "Treatise on Human Nature", showing its relevance in the contemporary debate. The first teaching module focuses on Humean doctrine, which, by radically rejecting any form of substantialism, radicalizes Locke’s position, questioning not only the continuity in time of the self or person, but even its unity in a given moment of time. Hume thus reduces the «Self» to a «bundle of perceptions», that is to a series of perceptions distinct from each other and without continuity in time, in fact proposing to conceive the ego as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of the mind, albeit preserving its unity as the object of the mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral field. Belief in personal identity is therefore a useful tool for effectively directing practical life. The second didactic module shows how Hume’s perspective has a remarkable vitality in the field of recent philosophy of mind. To this proposal will be illustrated some emblematic positions such as those of Derek Parfit, Thomas Metzinger and Julian Baggini.
(reference books)
1. David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with original english text, Milan, Bompiani, 2001, passim (in particular: book 1, part IV, sect. VI).
2. Lorenzo Greco, L’identità personale in David Hume: dalle passioni all’etica, in «Thaumàzein», 2, 2014, pp. 247-264 (available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.13136/thau.v2i0.26.g27).
3. One text form the following list:
- Derek Parfit, Ragioni e persone, Part Three, It. tr., Milan, Il Saggiatore, 1984, pp. 257-444.
- Thomas Metzinger, Il tunnel dell'io, Chap. 1-3, It. tr., Milan, Raffaello Cortina, 2010, pp. 1-132.
- Juian Baggini, The Ego Trick, Part I-II, London, Granta, 2011, pp. 1-175.
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Università Roma Tre