This course aims to probe the ethical import of a personological view of self-narrativism that is well-entrenched in a naturalistic context. Against the backdrop of William James’ theory of the duplex self, the claim that we constitute ourselves as morally responsible agents (as ‘Lockean persons’) by forming and using autobiographical narratives is combined with Dan McAdams’ view of narrative identity as a layer of personality. During personality development, internalised and evolving stories of the self layer over other layers of personality, and this process of layering may be integrative. The process of self-representation originated from the I/Me dialectic, then, takes the form of what Jung identified as “individuation”, namely, a striving towards the unity of the various strata of personality. Such a process has an ethical dimension that is reminiscent of the ideal of eudaimonia, the discovery and actualization of one’s own unique potentials and talents.

A. Kind, Persons and Personal Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge 2015.

Michel Foucault: Governmentality and Biopolitics.
The course aims to analyse the categories of "governmentality" and "biopolitics" as Michel Foucault treated them, particularly in his courses at the Collège de France in the second half of the 1970s. The aim of the course is to reconstruct and define the use of these categories - which today often recur in the most current debates - within the thought of Foucault, who was the first to conceive and consider them.

- M. Foucault, ″Society Must Be Defended″, Picador.
- M. Foucault, Security, Territory, Population, Picador.
- M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, Picador.
- M. Foucault, Right of Death and Power over Life, in The Will to Knowledge. History of Sexuality, Vol. I, Penguin.

The developement of Benedetto Croce's Aesthetics

B. Croce, La storia ridotta sotto il concetto generale dell'arte, Laterza
B. Croce, Estetica come scienza dell'espressione e linguistica generale, Adelphi
B. Croce, Contributo alla critica di me stesso, Adelphi
P. D'Angelo, Il problema Croce, Quodlibet

The course intends to present the main conceptual nodes that innervate the so-called Philosophies of Habit, that is the philosophical reflections on habit from modernity onwards, with particular attention to the development that this theme assumes especially from the nineteenth century, also in correlation with others issues that affect the debate between philosophy and psychology, such as madness and certain developments in neurophysiology, given that the debate on habit has rediscovered its vivacity in contemporary cognitive sciences.The first teaching unit (3 CFU) will be reserved for an overview of the philosophies of habit by Aristotle until the middle of the nineteenth century. The second teaching unit (3 CFU) will focus on the following philosophies of habit, with particular attention to the debate of the late nineteenth century, influenced by the evolutionary paradigm, thanks also to the reading and commentary of passages from the texts of Léon Dumont (1876) Victor Egger (1880), and William James (1887) on habit.

Unit 1:
1. Marco Piazza, Creature dell’abitudine. Abito, costume, seconda natura da Aristotele alle scienze cognitive, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018
2. Denise Vincenti, Abitudine e follia. Studi di storia della filosofia e della psicologia, Milan, Mimesis, 2019 (execpt chapter I).
Unit 2:
3. Léon Dumont, L'abitudine, ed. by D. Vincenti, Milan, Mimesis, 2020
4. Victor Egger, La nascita delle abitudini, ed. by S. Sandreschi, Milan, Mimesis, 2021
5. William James, Le leggi dell’abitudine, ed, by D. Vincenti, Milan, Mimesis, 2019 - original English text available online at the URL = https://archive.org/details/popularsciencemo30newy/page/n449
6. Goodman, Russell, "William James", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/james/

The thought of Thomas Aquinas in the contemporary philosophical debate.

Tommaso d’Aquino, L’ente e l’essenza, Bompiani, Milano, 2002.
A. Kenny, Aquinas, MacMillan LTD, London, 1969.
B. Miller, Dall'esistenza a Dio, Carocci, Roma, 1992.
M. Micheletti, “IL CONTRIBUTO DEL TOMISMO ANALITICO ALLA FILOSOFIA CONTEMPORANEA. DALL'ANTROPOLOGIA ALLA TEOLOGIA NATURALE E AL DIBATTITO SULL'ONTOLOGIA.” Divus Thomas, vol. 117, no. 2, 2014, pp. 110–175.
M. Marassi, “IL PROBLEMA DEL FONDAMENTO NEI CONTRIBUTI DELLA «RIVISTA DI FILOSOFIA NEO-SCOLASTICA»: A MARGINE DELLA PIÙ FAMOSA DISPUTA.” Rivista Di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, vol. 101, no. 1/3, 2009, pp. 323–348.
D. Sacchi, “LA PRESENZA DI GUSTAVO BONTADINI SULLA «RIVISTA DI FILOSOFIA NEO-SCOLASTICA» NELLA SECONDA METÀ DEL NOVECENTO.” Rivista Di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, vol. 101, no. 1/3, 2009, pp. 217–284.

Corruption between politics and economics

Through the course, students will address one of the dominant themes in the contemporary public debate, particularly but not only in Italy: corruption. The topic will be addressed looking at two domains defined on the basis of two distinct - though intimately intertwined - roots of the phenomenon: politics and economics. As far as the relationship between politics and corruption is concerned, the republican orientation will be taken into consideration, from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. As for the relationship between economics and corruption, the contrasting approaches of the 18th and 19th centuries, utilitarianism and materialism, will be examined. Finally, some characteristic features of corruption in economic and political globalization will be investigated.

Machiavelli N., Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (ed. BUR), Libro primo, Proemio, capitoli 1-7, 16-18, 24-30, 34, 37, 43-45, 53, 55, 58; Libro secondo, Proemio, capitolo 5; Libro terzo, capitoli 1, 16, 25;
Saint-Just L.A., Frammenti sulle istituzioni repubblicane (ed. Einaudi o Sugar);
Arendt H., Cos’è l’autorità? (VI paragrafo) e Cos’è la libertà?, in Tra passato e futuro (ed. Garzanti; pp. 184-192; pp. 193-227);
Mandeville B., La favola delle api o Vizi privati, benefizi pubblici, in La polemica sul lusso nel Settecento francese (ed. Einaudi; pp. 7-22);
D’Holbach P.H.D., La politica naturale o Discorso sui veri principî del governo, in La polemica sul lusso nel Settecento francese (ed. Einaudi; pp. 425-433);
Marx K., Manoscritti economico-filosofici del 1844 (ed. Einaudi; Terzo manoscritto, Denaro, pp. 151-157); Lineamenti fondamentali di critica dell’economia politica (ed. Einaudi), passi scelti sul denaro dei Quaderni I e II.

AFTER THE COLD WAR: EUROPE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD
The course starts from the 1989-1991 transition, with the end of the Cold War and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. The analysis of the dynamics and causes of these events introduces the study of the main events that marked European history in the 1990s and in the first decades of the 21st century. In particular, the following processes will be focused: the recomposition of the relationship between the various areas of the European continent; the enlargement of the European Union and NATO; the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s; the transition in Central-Eastern Europe; the evolution of the situation in Russia and in other former Soviet states; the relationship between Russia and the West of Europe. The interaction between European events and globalization processes will be a constant reference of the course.

1. Ian Kershaw, Roller-Coaster: Europe, 1950-2017, Allen Lane 2018
2. Jacques Rupnik, Senza il muro. Le due Europe dopo il crollo del comunismo, Donzelli, Roma 2019
3. Stephen, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000, (updated edition), Oxford University Press, 2008
4. Nicola Antonetti e Paolo Pombeni (a cura di), Da Versailles (1919) a Berlino (1989). La lunga storia dell’Europa nel secolo breve, il Mulino, Bologna 2020

Contemporary political spaces - the course aims to provide analytical tools to think about the spatial referent of politics, altogether with the need to redefine the scope of politics itself.

S. Sassen, Territorio, autorità, diritti: assemblaggi dal Medioevo all'età globale, Bruno Mondadori 2008

one between the following:
- H. Lefebvre, La produzione dello spazio, Pgreco 2018
- C. Galli, Spazi politici, Il Mulino 2001

Suggested readings:
F. Giardini, "Assemblaggio.Una mappatura", reperibile on line
F. Giardini, "Cosmopolitiche. Ripensare la politica a partire dal chosmos", reperibile on line
F. Giardini, Città stellari, in La Libertà è una Passeggiata. Donne e spazi urbani tra violenza strutturale e autodeterminazione, a c. di C. Belingardi, F. Castelli, S. Olcuire, IAPh Italia, Roma 2019, pp. 55-60 (pdf disponibile on line)

Never as in recent years has Europe been at the center of public debate: for some the only lifeline against nationalisms and wars, for others the ultimate cause of all our problems and malaises, especially from an economic point of view. In the political discourse Europe is automatically identified with the community bodies; nevertheless, it is a concept which possesses an extraordinary historical depth, the knowledge of which imposes itself as an essential necessity in order to correctly insert the events of our continent in the framework of world history and also in order to avoid falling into clichés and generalizations deriving from the flattening of the perspective solely on the events of the last seventy years. The course aims to analyze the evolution of the notion of "Europe" over the very long period, by deepening on the one hand its role in global history (colonialism, decolonization, etc.), on the other the conceptualization of its internal articulations, and in particular the Mediterranean sector, traditional and fundamental area of ​​contact, communication and clash with the Arab and Ottoman world.

First unit: "History of Europe, World History" (6 ECTS)

Books:
Lucien Febvre, L’Europa. Storia di una civiltà, Roma, Donzelli.
Federico Chabod, Storia dell’Idea d’Europa, Roma-Bari, Laterza.
Serge Gruzinski, La macchina del tempo. Quando l’Europa ha iniziato a scrivere la storia del mondo, Milano, Raffaello Cortina Editore.

Second unit: "The Mediterranean: corsair wars, slavery, religious conversions"

Books:
Salvatore Bono, Guerre corsare nel Mediterraneo. Una storia di incursioni, arrembaggi, razzie, Bologna, Il Mulino.
Giovanna Fiume, Schiavitù mediterranee. Corsari, rinnegati e santi di età moderna, Milano, Mondadori.

Students not attending the course will have to study, for this unit, the following additional book:
Bruno Pomara Saverino, Rifugiati. I moriscos e l'Italia, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2018 (Open Access, free download: https://www.fupress.com/catalogo/rifugiati/3516)

The course will present and discuss some fundamental questions of contemporary moral philosophy. The course is divided into four parts, respectively focusing on themes in (1) moral psychology (investigating how people make moral decisions and judgments); (2) ethics (investigating what ought to be done from a moral point of view); applied ethics (investigating how general moral principles ought to be applied to specific areas of practical life); (4) metaethics (investigating the nature and meaning of moral belies and values).
Among the themes that will be discussed: free will and moral responsibility, moral luck, objectivism and relativism of morals, normativity, end of life issues. The goal of the course is that students learn to easily navigate the contemporary debate in moral philosophy, gaining an in-depth knowledge of some of its most important topics and methods.

FOR STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1. Mario De Caro, Sergio Filippo Magni, Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (2021), Le Sfide dell'etica, Mondadori Università.
2. Booklet provided by the instructor with short excerpts from various essays and articles, including: H. Frankfurt (1969), Possibilità alternative e responsabilità morale; T. Nagel (1979), Sorte morale; D. Davidson (1970), Com'è possibile la debolezza della volontà?

FOR STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1. Mario De Caro, Sergio Filippo Magni, Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (2021), Le Sfide dell'etica, Mondadori Università.
2. Booklet provided by the instructor with short excerpts from various essays and articles, including: H. Frankfurt (1969), Possibilità alternative e responsabilità morale; T. Nagel (1979), Sorte morale; D. Davidson (1970), Com'è possibile la debolezza della volontà?
3. Luca Fonnesu (2018), Storia dell'etica contemporanea, Carocci (parts listed by the instructor).

The new borders of realistic narration
(First Semester)

A. Mazzarella, Politiche dell'irrealtà, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2011
W. Siti, Il realismo è l'impossibile, nottetempo, Roma 2013
L. Sciascia, L'affaire Moro, Adelphi, Milano 1994

The course deals especially with a series of texts directly or indirectly linked to the theme of philosophical or aesthetic education in Western philosophy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – from Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche to Arendt, Lyotard and Danto – in order to compare them with the particular attitude of conceiving philosophy as a way of life in China and Japan. The theoretical texts will be accompanied by eight films that problematize some great questions about education, existence and freedom of thought.

a)
- I. Kant: Che cosa significa orientarsi nel pensiero? Mimesis, Milano 2015.
- G.W.F. Hegel: La Scuola. Discorsi e relazioni, Norimberga 1808-1816, Ed. Riuniti, Roma 1993, pp. 43-98.

b)
- F. Nietzsche: Schopenhauer come educatore, Adelphi, Milano 1985.
- H. Arendt, Socrate, Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2015.

c)
- J. F. Lyotard, Pourquoi philosopher? Presses Universitaires de France 2015
- A.C. Danto: "The Artworld," Journal of Philosophy 61 (1964), 571-584.

d)
- F. Jullien, De l'Être au vivre, Lexique euro-chinois de la pensée, Gallimard, 2015, (students may choose three chapters)
- D. Richie, A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics, Stone Bridge Press, 2007.

Students (whether attending or not) should choose one text from each session (a, b, c, d) for a total of four texts. In addition, the attending students will have to choose one of the following texts (both compulsory for the non attending students):


E. Morin, Enseigner à vivre. Manifeste pour changer l'éducation, Actes Sud Editions, 2014.

or

M.C. Nussbaum: Cultivating Humanity. A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Harvard University Press 1998.


The following films will be shown in the classroom, followed by a debate and accompanied by a critical reflection questionnaire (which must also be watched by non-attendants):

Interstellar (2014) by Christopher Nolan
Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (1974) by Werner Herzog
A torinói ló (2011) by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky
Hannah Arendt (2013) by Margarethe von Trotta
The Tree of Life (2011) by Terrence Malick
The square (2017) by Ruben Östlund
Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise (2002) by Dai Sijie
An (2015) by Naomi Kawase

the politics of technology

Philosophy of technology is a relatively recent discipline that deals with relationships between Technology, knowledge and society.
The course wants to answer to the following questions:
What is technology?
Is it possible to think about science without a reflexion on technology in the present technoscientific environment?
Which are the relationships between society and technology?
Which are the relevant changes introduced by technology in living styles?
Is it possible to consider technology as neutral and value and ideology free?
Technology has a relevant and permanent influence on science and on knowledge building in general but also on the definition of society and its working assets. Technical artefacts produce changes on society and are influenced by social choices, political constraints and economical investments.
In this course we will discuss the importance of philosophy of technology for philosophy itself, if we accept the idea that philosophy is a research for understanding and for acting on present. If we accept this perspective we cannot ignore the importance of technology.
Technology is created according to projects, objectives and standards on which society has no direct control, but technical objects have relevant consequences on the functioning of social practices including the epistemological ones.
Technology is a normative discipine (different from science). Its object is not the study of how things are in the world. it imposes an organization on the world in order for its devices to work correctly. It proposes and orders a regulation for society and it is in need that society imposes a regulation on its implementation: not all that it is feasible technically it is allowed.

Parini E. G. e Pellegrino G.(eds) (2009) S come scienza T come tecnica e riflessione sociologica, Liguori Ed., Milano, pp. 120-264.
Stiegler B.(2019) La società automatica, Mimesis, Milano.
VEspignani A. (2019) L'algoritmo e l'oracolo, Il saggiatore, Milano.

This course will provide students with an introduction to some of the main topics in philosophy of mind. The course will be broken down into two parts. In the first part, we will look mostly at recent versions of “functionalist” theories of mind. On the basis of that introduction and overview, we shall then discuss a series of very recent debates in the philosophy of mind that centre around the view that the mind is a physical and naturally evolved computational device.

J.L. Bermúdez - Cognitive Science. An Introduction to the Science of the Mind - Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020 (III ed.).
S. Dehaene - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts - Viking Press, New York 2014.
D. Wegner - The Illusion of Conscious Will - MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 2017 (II ed.).

The course will investigate the principal understandings of the notion of authenticity in contemporary debates in aesthetics and the philosophy of art as regards visual arts and music.
Throughout the course, the following issues will be addressed:
Why do we care so much about the authenticity of the objects of our aesthetic appreciation?
On what ground can we reject forgery, plagiarism, and other forms of artistic counterfeiting?
What is the relationship between an object’s authenticity and its aesthetic value?
What is the value of authenticity in different art forms?
What is an authentic musical performance?

1. *Compulsory texts*

Danto, A.C., The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 1981, ch.1-2.
Davies, S., Themes in the Philosophy of Music, Oxford University Press, Oxford, ch. 5.
Dodd, J., Being True to Works of Music, Oxford University Press, Oxford, ch. 1,2,4,5.
Dutton, D. ‘Authenticity in Art’, in J. Levinson (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, New York, Oxford University Press 2003, pp. 324-343.
Goodman, N., Languages of Art, Indianapolis, The Bobbs Merrill Company 1968, ch. 3.
Kivy, P. Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance, Ithaca (NY), Cornell University Press 1995, ch. 1,2,5.
Stalnaker, N., Fakes and Forgeries, in B. Gaut and D.L. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics (3d Edition), London-New York, Routledge 2013, pp. 395-407.

2. *Recommended texts*
Select at least one paper from each of the following sections:

2.1
Lessing, A., ‘What is Wrong with a Forgery?’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 23, 1965, pp. 461-471.
Jaworski, P.M., ‘In Defense of Fakes and Artistic Treason: Why Visually-Indistinguishable Duplicates of Paintings Are Just as Good as the Originals’, Journal of Value Inquiry 47, 2013, pp. 391-405.
Farrelly-Jackson, S. (1997), ‘Fetishism and the identity of art’, The British Journal of Aesthetics, 37, 2, 1997, pp. 138-54.

2.2
Sagoff, M., ‘On Restoring and Reproducing Art’, The Journal of Philosophy 75, 1978, pp. 453-470.
Dutton, D., ‘Artistic Crimes’, The British Journal of Aesthetics, 19, 4, 1979, pp. 302-341.
Kosmeyer, C., ‘Aesthetic Deception: On Encounters with the Past’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 6, 2008, pp. 117-127.
Sagoff, M., ‘Art and Authenticity: A Reply to Jaworski’, Journal of Value Inquiry 48, 2014, pp. 503-515.

2.3
Shiner, L., 'Primitive Fakes, Tourist Art, and the Ideology of Authenticity', The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52, 1994, pp. 225-234.
Young, J.O., ‘Art, Authenticity and Appropriation’, Frontiers of Philosophy in China 3, 2006, pp. 455-476.
Bowden, R., ‘What is Wrong with an Art Forgery? An Anthropological Perspective’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57, 1999, pp. 333-343.

The class will focus on the notions of soul, intellect, and body in medieval and late medieval thought, and particularly on the discontinuity/continuity with the Cartesian mind-body dualism. The course will address the accounts of Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Francisco Suárez, whose views and doctrines will be analyzed in light of their metaphysical/theological premises and analyzing their texts.

Selezione di testi da Tommaso d’Aquino, Duns Scoto e Francisco Suárez
• S. Guidi, L’angelo e la macchina. Sulla genesi della res cogitans cartesiana, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2018 (solo i primi due capitoli, pp. 41-214).
• M. Lenzi, Alberto e Tommaso sullo statuto dell’anima umana, «Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge», 74 (2007), pp. 27-58.
• Ch. Bazán, The Human Soul: Form and Substance? Thomas Aquinas’ Critique of Eclectic Aristotelianism, «Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age», 64 (1997), pp. 95-126.
• R. Cross, Philosophy of Mind, in Th. Williams (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus, Cambridge 2006, pp. 263-284.
• R. Cross, Plurality of Forms, in Id., The Physics of Duns Scotus. The Scientific Context of a Theological Vision, Cambridge 1998, pp. 47-76.
• J. South, Suárez, Immortality, and the Soul’s Dependence on the Body, in C. Leijenhorst, Suárez on Self-Awareness, in Hill B., Lagerlund L., The Philosophy of Francisco Suárez, Oxford 2012, pp. 121-136.

Per i non-frequentanti vi è un testo aggiuntivo dalla bibliografia, a scelta tra:
• R. Pasnau, Thomas Aquinas on human nature: a philosophical study of Summa Theologiae I, 75-89, Cambridge 2008.
• M. Lenzi, Anima, forma, sostanza. Filosofia e teologia nel dibattito antropologico del XIII secolo, CISAM, Spoleto 2011.

The course aims to present an updated and comprehensive picture of medieval culture (fifth-fifteenth century), framing Italy within a broader Euro-Mediterranean context. Taking into account the most recent historiographical debates and acquisitions, lessons will try to bring students closer to different aspects concerning cultural phenomena, starting from definitions and categories such as "culture", "written culture" and "intellectual" to analyze then school practices, literacy, production and circulation of texts in their relations with society, politics, economics and religion. More precisely, the lessons will focus on the following aspects: "culture" as a historiographic problem between theoretical debates and research; written sources: qualitative and quantitative aspects; the problem of literacy and school in the early Middle Ages; book culture in the early Middle Ages; documentary culture in the early Middle Ages; the eleventh and twelfth centuries between juridical renaissance, textual discoveries and school transformations; book culture of the late Middle Ages; documentary culture of the late Middle Ages; language: Latin and vernacular in the late Middle Ages; the fourteenth century and the relationship between crisis and cultural production; Humanism. Lessons will alternate between frontal explanations and direct exercises on the sources or on specific bibliography.

Program for non attending students:
- Ronald Witt, "L’eccezione italiana. L’intellettuale laico nel Medioevo e l’origine del Rinascimento", italian translation by Anna Carocci, Roma, Viella, 2017 (original edition Cambridge 2012)

Program for attending students:
- Lectures notes, articles and sources discussed during the lesson.

The course discusses the epistemic dynamics that result in new beliefs and new knowledge when new information is released. In particular, we discuss the effect of information release – be such information truthful or not – on the community of epistemic agents that receive the information and can mutually engage in communication exchanges. To this purpose, the course will introduce the formal representation of (individual and collective) notions of knowledge and belief, the formal representation of information release dynamics (public observation, private or semi-public observation, testimony by other agents), and it will discuss how the connection within a given group of agents (or among different groups of agents) can be relevant in the way opinions are spread within given societies of epistemic agents.
In order to do so, the course will introduce one formal framework for representing (and reasoning about) the phenomena above: Dynamic Epistemic Logic, which extends the static framework of Epistemic Logic. In addition, the course will discuss some basic aspects of Judgement Aggregation Theory, Belief Merging and Network Epistemology.
The approach is ‘bottom-up’: we start from puzzles, problems of reasoning, and specific phenomena we need to understand, we go to tools designed to solve or approach them, and then we move further to the theories in which such tools are defined and discussed. The course will be taught in English.

Textbook:

van Ditmarsch H. and Kooi B., One Hundred Prisoners and a Lightbulb, Springer, Berlin, 2015.

van Benthem J., Logical Dynamics of Information and Interaction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Chapters 1 – 4, 7, and 12 – 13.

The course will provide:

i) an overview of the historical development of physics since Aristotle;
ii) an introduction to the fundamental elements of classical physics (Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism) and contemporary physics (special and general relativity, quantum mechanics), also touching on the open questions physicists are currently dealing with;
iii) a detailed discussion of specific philosophical issues connected to current physical theories.

As a general indication, the first half of the course (Module A) will offer a reconstruction of the historical development of physics and an introduction to its essential concepts and features; and the second half (Module B) will be devoted to more specific philosophical aspects of physics in general, and of relativity theory and quantum mechanics more specifically.

Matteo Morganti, Filosofia della fisica, Carocci.
Carlo Cosmelli, Fisica per filosofi, Carocci.
Paolo Pecere (a cura di), Il libro della natura, Carocci, vol. 2, chapters 1-9.
W. Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, Penguin/Harper.

Possible additional (short) readings will be indicated during the course.

P. Virno, Appunti su Marx filosofo della mente e del linguaggio (dispensa per il corso). Disponibile in fotocopia.
K. Marx, Tesi su Feuerbach. Disponibile in fotocopia.
K. Marx, F. Engels, L’ideologia tedesca, Editori Riuniti, limitatamente alle pp. 4-39. Disponibile in fotocopia.
K. Marx, Il Capitale, libro primo, limitatamente ai capp. IV (“Trasformazione del denaro in capitale”) e XI (“Cooperazione”). Disponibile in fotocopia.
K. Marx, Lineamenti fondamentali della critica dell’economia politica, La Nuova Italia, 2 voll., limitatamente alle pp. 389-403 del 2° volume (p. 389 da “Finché il mezzo di lavoro…”; p. 403 fino a “…processo di vita reale”). Disponibile in fotocopia.
V. N. Volosinov, M. Bachtin, Marxismo e filosofia del linguaggio, Piero Manni editore, limitatamente ai seguenti capitoli: Parte prima, cap. III; Parte seconda, capp. I, II, III, IV; Parte terza, capp. I e II. Disponibile in fotocopia.
L. S. Vygotskij, Pensiero e linguaggio, Laterza, limitatamente alle seguenti parti: Prefazione, cap. I, cap. II (fino a p. 60), cap. IV, cap. VII. Da acquistare.
A. Gramsci, Quaderni del carcere, Einaudi, limitatamente al Quaderno 29 Note sullo studio della grammatica. Disponibile in fotocopia.
F. Lo Piparo, Gramsci e Wittgenstein. Disponibile in in fotocopia.
L. Wittgenstein, Ricerche filosofiche, Einaudi, limitatamente ai §§ 1-32, 65-98, 198-207, 243-265. Da acquistare.
P. Virno, La decisione come applicazione di una regola (dispensa su Wittgenstein). Disponibile in fotocopia.
F. Rossi Landi, Il linguaggio come lavoro e come mercato, Bompiani, limitatamente alle pp. 61-104. Disponibile in fotocopia.

P. Virno, Lavoro e linguaggio, in A. Zanini e U. Fadini (a cura di), Lessico postfordista, Feltrinelli, pp. 181-5. Disponibile in fotocopia.

L. S. Vygotskij, Strumento e simbolo nello sviluppo del bambino, in Id. Il processo cognitivo, Bollati Boringhieri, pp. 35-51. Disponibile in fotocopia.

N. Chomsky, M. Foucault, Della natura umana. Invariante biologico e potere politico, Derive Approdi. Disponibile in fotocopia.

N. Chomsky, Linguaggio e libertà, in Id., Linguaggio e libertà. Dietro le maschere dell’ideologia, il Saggiatore Net, pp. 215-234. Disponibile in fotocopia.

P. Virno, Quando il verbo si fa carne. Linguaggio e natura umana, Bollati Boringhieri, limitatamente al cap. 6° (“Storia naturale”). Disponibile in fotocopia.

The course will focus on Aristotle’s account of substance and predication in Categories, 1-5.
Aristotle's text will be explained in detail and the following aspects will be considered:
1: The relations “dici de subiecto” / “esse in subiecto” and Aristotle's list of the categories
2: Aristotle’s account of substance
3: Aristotle’s logical essentialism in the Categories

[a] Aristotle, Categories, Translated with a Commentary by J. Ackrill, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2002, ch. 1-5, pp. 3-12 (text); 69-91 (Commentary).

[b] M. Vegetti – F. Ademollo, Incontro con Aristotele, Einaudi, Torino, 2016.
P. Studtmann, Aristotle’s Categories, “The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-categories/
G. Matthews, Aristotelian Categories, in G. Anagnostopoulos (ed.), A Companion to Aristotle, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2013, pp. 144-161.
F. Ademollo, The Anatomy of Primary Substance in Aristotle’s Categories, “Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy”, 2022
Ch. Rapp,, Aristotle on Things and Super-Things
https://www.academia.edu/38892953/Aristotle_on_Things_and_Super_Things
I. Angelelli, Studies on Gottlob Frege and Traditional Philosophy, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 1967, pp. 9-36 (cap. 1 “Ontology”)

[c] Students are required to prepare a paper in Italian or English (3.000 words) about one of the following topics:

[i] Logical essentialism in Aristotle’s Categories
Bibliography: texts of sections [a] e [b] should be supplemented with:
Ch. Rapp, Essentialism in Aristotle's Categories: Some Queries and Suggestions:
https://www.academia.edu/40326251/Essentialism_in_Aristotles_Categories_Some_Queries_and_Suggestions

[ii] Inherence and predication
Bibliography: texts of sections [a] e [b] should be supplemented with:
G.E.L. Owen, Inherence, “Phronesis”, 10, 1965, 97-105.
R. Heinaman, Non-substantial Individuals in the Categories, “Phronesis”, 26, 1981, 295-307.

[iii] Universals and secondary substances
Bibliography: texts of sections [a] e [b] should be supplemented with:
C. Perin, Substantial Universals in Aristotle’s Categories, “Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy” 33, 2007, pp. 125-144.
M. Loux, Aristotle on Universals, in in G. Anagnostopoulos (ed.), A Companion to Aristotle, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2013, pp. 186-196

The course aims to show the relationship between activity and passivity of consciousness analyzing the concepts of perception, affectivity, unconscious, interest, association, judgment in Husserl.

Edmund Husserl, Lessons on Passive Synthesis, La Scuola, 2016.
Edmund Husserl, Phenomenology of the Unconscious, Udine, Mimesis 2021

This module will provide an interpretation of the crisis of the Roman Republic. Students will read some of the major ancient sources relating to this period (Plutarch, Sallustius and so on). They will be introduced to the figure of Mario and the way in which he came into conflict with Lucio Cornelio Silla, a Roman "warlord", who after victories in the East eventually marched on Rome in 82 and assumed the office of dictator.

G.Geraci-A. Marcone- Storia Romana (editio maior), Le Monnier Università, Mondadori Education, Milano 2017.
G.Geraci-A. Marcone- Fonti per la storia romana, Le Monnier Università, Mondadori Education, Milano 2019.
Plutarco-Vita di Mario (qualsiasi edizione)
F. Santangelo- Gaio Mario, Jouvence Milano 2021.

“Love Knots”: gender identity e reciprocity in Catullus’ carmina docta: Setting in context, full reading, translation, and commentary of the poems 61, 62, 63, 64 and 68 in the Liber Catullianus: “bridal” aspirations and anxieties in the mirror of a lot of poetry fundamental for the latin literary tradition.

Gaio Valerio Catullo, Le poesie. Testo, traduzione e commento a cura di Alessandro Fo. Con Interventi di A. M. Morelli e A. Rodighiero, Torino (Einaudi) 2018 and subsequent reprints.

Further readings and materials relating to the texts in the syllabus will be indicated during the course and / or be made available on line.

The course deal with the birth of capitalism from the Middle Ages up to the contemporary age. It analyses the three main forms of capitalism: merchant, industrial and financial.

Attending students (all of them):

F. Braudel, Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimora 1977.
J. Kocka, Capitalism: A Short History, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016.
P. Bowles, Capitalism, Routledge, London-New York 2014

Non-attending students (plus one of the two below):

L. Pellicani, La genesi del capitalismo e le origini della modernità, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2013 (no the chapters 2, 3, 8 e 10).
L. Gallino, Finanzacapitalismo, Einaudi, Turin 2013.
G. Claeys, Marx and Marxism, Pelican Books, London 2018.
B. Milanovic, Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World, Harvard University Press, New York 2019.
G. Conte, Il credito di una nazione. Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2021.

An historical perspective on religions must take into consideration their multi-layered presence on the territory and must be able to analyze dynamics and strategies: since 2007 more than a half of the global population lives in urban areas and cities have become the privileged space of contestations, conflicts, negotiation of interests, creation of symbolic and capital resources concerning religions. In cities innovations, waves and tendencies concerning beliefs and religious practices are produced and reproduced. Italian and European cities were the space of creation and elaboration of social fears; in the last decades fear was related to economy, the environment, the pandemic crisis.
The fear, almost touchable in the streets of the cities, is related to religion in a double way; from one side every religion was born from the fear of the loose/impossibility of controlling life, death, illness, pain, the end and often it is an answer to this feeling and to worries
From the other side, religions produce fear, in the case of violence which arises in their name but also due to collective imaginaries which feed clichés, stereotypes, in particular towards minorities.
This course offers some historical examples of religion such as an antidote to fear and religion such as virus of fear, in particular related to the topic of social fear and religious answers, fears which were provoked or sublimated by religious fundamentalisms (on line – at school in prisons and in religious places)

Attending Students
1. Notes, Materials discussed during the course
2. M. Graziano Geopolitica della paura oppure Egea, Bocconi, Milano 2021 oppure
M. Bombardieri, M. Giorda, S. Hejazi, Capire l’Islam, Morcelliana Brescia 2019
3. Sessione monografica di Humanitas 2021 su “Ecologia e religioni” (curato da B. Nuti)

Not Attending Students
1. M. Graziano Geopolitica della paura oppure Egea, Bocconi, 2021
2. M. Bombardieri, M. Giorda, S. Hejazi, Capire l’Islam, Morcelliana Brescia 2019
3. G. Filoramo, R. Parrinello, Guarire dal contagio, Morcelliana Brescia 2020
AND Sessione monografica di Humanitas 2021 su “Ecologia e religioni” (ED. B. Nuti)

Life sciences from Descartes to Buffon

Antonio Clericuzio, Uomo e natura, Roma, Carocci, 2021 (forthcoming)


Charles Webster, The Great Instauration, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2002

Evoluzionismo e creazionismo: il dibattito da Linneo a Darwin. Antologia di testi, a cura di A. Ottaviani, Roma, Carocci, 2017

John C. Greene, The Death of Adam: Evolution and Its Impact on Western Thought, Iowa UP, 1983

Logic and Arithmetic: incompleteness

Part 1: Decidability and fundamental results of recursion theory. Primitive recursive functions and elementary functions: definitions and examples, elementary coding of the finite sequences of natural numbers, an alternative definition of the set of elementary functions. Ackermann's function and the (partial) recursive functions. Arithmetical hierarchy and representation (in N) of recursive functions. Arithmetization of syntax: coding of terms and formulas, satisfiability in N of Delta formulas is elementary, coding of sequence and derivations. The fundamental theorems of recursion theory. Decidability, semi-decidability, undecidability.

Part 2: Peano arithmetic. Peano's axioms and first order Peano’s axioms. The models of (first order) Peano arithmetic. The representable functions in (first order) Peano arithmetic. Incompleteness and undecidability: Church’s undecidability theorem, fixed point, Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem, Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem, final remarks on incompleteness, hints on incompleteness and second order logic.

V. Michele Abrusci e Lorenzo Tortora de Falco, Logica. Vol. 2 Incompletezza, teoria assiomatica degli insiemi, Springer, 2018

Emotions: definition, biological and social functions, types, regulation, expression and communication. Basic emotions, image, cognitive, social, moral emotions. Their relationships with interpersonal interaction and relations, on the job, in teaching and learning, politics, art, music, entertainment.
In-depth study and research on the psychological processes (cognitive, affective, relational) of communication in all of its modalities: verbal and body (words and sentences, prosody and intonation, gestures, facial expression, gaze, touch, posture, proxemics, music), and technological media. Analysis and detection of sincere and deceptive, cooperative and aggressive communication, and its uses in interpersonal interaction, at work, in education, politics, entertainment.

Teaching material for students who take the whole course, 12 Credits
The items to be studied for the oral exam are the following:

A. D’Urso V. e Trentin R.: Introduzione alla psicologia delle emozioni. Laterza, Bari 2006.
B. Poggi I. (a cura di): La mente del cuore. Armando, Roma 2008.

OR ELSE, in case book B is sold out:

Castelfranchi C.: Che figura. Emozioni e immagine sociale
+
3 papers downloaded from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi

C. Lotto L. e Rumiati R. (a cura di). Introduzione alla psicologia della comunicazione. Il Mulino, Bologna 2019 (nuova edizione): esclusi i capitoli 3, 4, 5, 10, 11.
D. Poggi I. e D’Errico F.: Comunicazione multimodale e influenza sociale. Il corpo e il potere. Carocci, Roma 2020.
E. Castelfranchi C. e Poggi I.: Bugie, finzioni, sotterfugi, per una scienza dell’inganno, Carocci, Roma 2012.
F. Un testo o insieme di testi, a scelta fra i punti del seguente elenco:

1. Castelfranchi C.: Che figura. Emozioni e immagine sociale. Il Mulino, Bologna 2005.
2. Nussbaum, M.: L’intelligenza delle emozioni. Il Mulino, Bologna 2013.
3. Matarazzo O. e Zammuner V. (a cura di): La regolazione delle emozioni. Il Mulino, Bologna 2012.
4. Ledoux J.: Il cervello emotivo. Baldini e Castoldi, Milano 2005.
5. Damasio A.R.: Emozione e coscienza. Adelphi, Milano 2010.
6. Miceli M. e Castelfranchi C.: Expectancy and Emotion. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013.
7. D’Amico A.: Intelligenza emotiva e metaemotiva. Il Mulino, Bologna. 2018.
8. Palvarini P.: Le emozioni che rendono forti. Il lavoro con le emozioni in psicoterapia. Alpes Italia.
9. Bazzanella C.: Linguistica cognitiva. Un’introduzione. Laterza, Bari 2014.
10. Levorato M.C.: Le emozioni della lettura. Mulino, Bologna, 1999.
11. Gallese V. e Guerra M.: Lo schermo empatico. Cinema e neuroscienze. Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2015.
12. Boulez P., Changeux J.P. e Manoury P.: I neuroni magici. Musica e cervello. Carocci, Roma 2016.
13. Mado Proverbio A.: Neuroscienze cognitive della musica. Il cervello musicale tra arte e scienza. Bologna, Zanichelli 2019
14. Cavalieri R. e Chiricò D.: Parlare, segnare. Introduzione alla fisiologia e alla patologia delle lingue verbali e dei segni. Bologna, Il Mulino.
15. Benedetti F.: L’effetto placebo. Breve viaggio tra mente e corpo. Roma, Carocci 2018.
16. Viale R.: Oltre il nudge. Libertà di scelta, felicità e comportamento. Bologna, Il Mulino.
17. Mortara Garavelli B. Il parlar figurato. Manualetto di figure retoriche. Bari, Laterza.
18. Bambini V. Il cervello pragmatico. Roma, Carocci.
19. Nobile L. e Lombardi Vallauri E.: Onomatopea e fonosimbolismo. Roma, Carocci.
20. Ferrari M e Paladino P.: L'apprendimento della lingua straniera. Roma, Carocci.

21. Both the following books:
Arielli E. e Bottazzini P.: Idee virali. Perché i pensieri si diffondono. Bologna, Il Mulino.
Riva G.: I social network. Bologna, Il Mulino

22. Both the following books:
Cavazza N.: Pettegolezzi e reputazione. Bologna, Il Mulino.
Riva G.: Fake news: vivere e sopravvivere in un mondo post-verità. Bologna, Il Mulino

23. 4 papers on emotions (different from those possibly chosen as to point B above) to download from the following links:
http://host.uniroma3.it/docenti/poggi/inglese2.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi

24. 4 papers on multimodal communication to download from the following links:
http://host.uniroma3.it/docenti/poggi/inglese2.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi



Other texts can be substituted for those at item F. upon agreement with the teacher.


Teaching material for students who only take the course of “Psychology of Emotions”, 6 Credits
The items to be studied for the oral exam are the following:

A. D’Urso V. e Trentin R.: Introduzione alla psicologia delle emozioni. Laterza, Bari 2006.
B. Poggi I. (a cura di): La mente del cuore. Armando, Roma 2008.
OR ELSE, in case book B is sold out:

Castelfranchi C.: Che figura. Emozioni e immagine sociale
+
3 papers downloaded from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi

C. One text or set of texts, chosen among the following:

1. Castelfranchi C.: Che figura. Emozioni e immagine sociale. Il Mulino, Bologna 2005.
2. Nussbaum, M.: L’intelligenza delle emozioni. Il Mulino, Bologna 2013.
3. Matarazzo O. e Zammuner V. (a cura di): La regolazione delle emozioni. Il Mulino, Bologna 2012.
4. Ledoux J.: Il cervello emotivo. Baldini e Castoldi, Milano 2005.
5. Damasio A.R.: Emozione e coscienza. Adelphi, Milano 2010.
6. Miceli M. e Castelfranchi C.: Expectancy and Emotion. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013.
7. D’Amico A.: Intelligenza emotiva e metaemotiva. Il Mulino, Bologna. 2018.
8. Palvarini P.: Le emozioni che rendono forti. Il lavoro con le emozioni in psicoterapia. Alpes Italia.
9. Levorato M.C.: Le emozioni della lettura. Mulino, Bologna, 1999.
10. Gallese V. e Guerra M.: Lo schermo empatico. Cinema e neuroscienze. Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2015.
11. Boulez P., Changeux J.P. e Manoury P.: I neuroni magici. Musica e cervello. Carocci, Roma 2016.
12. Mado Proverbio A.: Neuroscienze cognitive della musica. Il cervello musicale tra arte e scienza. Bologna, Zanichelli 2019

13. 4 papers about emotions (different from those possibly chosen as to point B above), among the following, to download from:
http://host.uniroma3.it/docenti/poggi/inglese2.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi


Other texts can be substituted for those at item C. upon agreement with the teacher.

Teaching material for students who only take the course of “Psychology of Multimodal Communication”, 6 Credits
The items to be studied for the oral exam are the following:


A. Lotto L. and Rumiati R. (a cura di). Introduzione alla psicologia della comunicazione. Il Mulino, Bologna 2019 (nuova edizione): except for chapters 3, 4, 5, 10, 11.
B. Poggi I. and D’Errico F.: Comunicazione multimodale e influenza sociale. Il corpo e il potere.. Carocci, Roma 2020.
C. Castelfranchi C. e Poggi I.: Bugie, finzioni, sotterfugi, per una scienza dell’inganno, Carocci, Roma 2012.
D. One text or set of texts, chosen among the following items:

1. Bazzanella C.: Linguistica cognitiva. Un’introduzione. Laterza, Bari 2014.
2. Gallese V. e Guerra M.: Lo schermo empatico. Cinema e neuroscienze. Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2015.
3. Boulez P., Changeux J.P. e Manoury P.: I neuroni magici. Musica e cervello. Carocci, Roma 2016.
4. Cavalieri R. e Chiricò D.: Parlare, segnare. Introduzione alla fisiologia e alla patologia delle lingue verbali e dei segni. Bologna, Il Mulino.
5. Benedetti F.: L’effetto placebo. Breve viaggio tra mente e corpo. Roma, Carocci 2018.
6. Viale R.: Oltre il nudge. Libertà di scelta, felicità e comportamento. Bologna, Il Mulino
7. Both of the following texts:
8. Arielli E. e Bottazzini P.: Idee virali. Perché i pensieri si diffondono. Bologna, Il Mulino.
9. Riva G.: I social network. Bologna, Il Mulino.
10. Mortara Garavelli B. Il parlar figurato. Manualetto di figure retoriche. Bari, Laterza.
11. Bambini V. Il cervello pragmatico. Roma, Carocci.
12. Nobile L. e Lombardi Vallauri E.: Onomatopea e fonosimbolismo. Roma, Carocci.
13. Ferrari M e Paladino P.: L'apprendimento della lingua straniera. Roma, Carocci.

14. Both the following texts:
Cavazza N.: Pettegolezzi e reputazione. Bologna, Il Mulino.
Riva G.: Fake news: vivere e sopravvivere in un mondo post-verità. Bologna, Il Mulino

15. 4 papers about multimodal communication, chosen among the following, to download from:
http://host.uniroma3.it/docenti/poggi/inglese2.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi


Other texts can be substituted for those at item C. upon agreement with the teacher.


Teaching material for students who take the course of “Psychology of Emotions and Multimodal Communication” for 6 credits only

A. D’Urso V. e Trentin R.: Introduzione alla psicologia delle emozioni. Laterza, Bari 2006.
B. Poggi I. (a cura di): La mente del cuore. Armando, Roma 2008.
OR ELSE, in case book B is sold out:

Castelfranchi C.: Che figura. Emozioni e immagine sociale
+
3 papers downloaded from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella_Poggi

C. Lotto L. e Rumiati R. (a cura di). Introduzione alla psicologia della comunicazione. Il Mulino, Bologna 2019 (nuova edizione): esclusi i capitoli 3, 4, 5, 10, 11.
D. Poggi I.: Le parole del corpo. Introduzione alla comunicazione multimodale. Carocci, Roma 2006.

Introduction and discussion of the main theories of dynamic psychology: Freud's classical psychoanalysis, ego psychology (A. Freud, H. Hartmann, R. Spitz, M. Mahler), Sullivan's interpersonal psychoanalysis, the object relations theory ( M. Klein), the independent group of the English school (W.R.D. Fairbairn, D.W. Winnicott, J. Bowlby), the identity and Self psychology (E. Erikson, H. Kohut), Freudian revisionism and theoretical debates.
The intersubjective basis of psychic life: mind-body relationship, trauma, and pathogenesis.

- Mitchell, S. A., & Black, M. J. (1995). Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought.

- Stolorow, R. D., & Atwood, G. E. (2014). Contexts of being: The intersubjective foundations of psychological life. Routledge. (Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

The course will investigate the analytic/ synthetic distinction in Immanuel Kant's theory of knowledge, and then analyse its reception and problematisation in Charles S. Peirce, Rudolf Carnap and Willard Van Orman Quine. Lastly, some recent theoretical proposals will be considered.

The programme will be developed as follows:
- Synthetic and analytic judgements in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
- Peirce's reception of Kantian theory of knowledge
- Carnap's interpretation of analyticity
- The rejection of Quine's analytic/synthetic distinction.
- Synthetic reasoning and gesture

I. Kant, Critica della ragion pura (preferibilmente edizione Bompiani, a cura di Costantino Esposito) [parti scelte].
C. S. Peirce, Scritti scelti, UTET, Torino 2008 [parti scelte].
R. Carnap, L’analiticità nel linguaggio osservativo e nel linguaggio teorico, in Analiticità, significanza, induzione, Il Mulino 1971.
W.V.O. Quine, Due dogmi dell’empirismo, in Da un punto di vista logico. Saggi logico-filosofici, a cura di P. Valore, Raffaello Cortina 2004.
G. Maddalena, Filosofia del gesto. Un nuovo uso per pratiche antiche, Carocci 2021.


Recommended texts

R. M. Calcaterra, G. Maddalena, G. Marchetti. Il pragmatismo. Dalle origini agli sviluppi contemporanei, Carocci 2015
F. Fistetti, Il Novecento nello specchio delle filosofie, Linguaggi, immagini del mondo, paradigmi, UTET 2021
J.-M. C. Chevalier, Peirce’s relativization of the analytic vs. synthetic dichotomy, in BLITYRI, IX, 2, 2020
R. Hanna, The Return of the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction, in “Paradigmi”, 2012, fascicolo 1, pp. 19-68.

The course focuses on language pathologies, with particular attention to the deficits related to the discursive communication. Among the cases discusses, there are the communicative deficits characterizing pathologies such as autism, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury. In such cases, as well as in many neuropsychological and psychopathological disorders, the communicative impairments mainly concern the level of discourse and depend on deficits that primarily involve the cognitive dimension, rather than the linguistic one. Thus, the study of discourse disorders is particularly useful to investigate a more general question that is extremely relevant from a theoretical point of view: the relationships between language and cognition.

1) Adornetti I. (2018) Patologie del linguaggio e della comunicazione. Carocci, Roma

2) Adornetti, I., Chiera, A., Deriu, V., Altavilla, D., Valeri, G., Marini, A., ... & Ferretti, F. (2020). L'elaborazione delle storie nel disturbo dello spettro autistico: il caso delle narrazioni visive. Sistemi intelligenti, 32(3), 623-647.

3) Li, X., Hu, D., Deng, W., Tao, Q., Hu, Y., Yang, X., ... & Zhang, X. (2017). Pragmatic ability deficit in schizophrenia and associated theory of mind and executive function. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 2164.

The messianism of Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin.

The course will examinate the messianic theory of Gershom Scholem in his peculiarities and the relation with the messianism of Walter Benjamin

G. Scholem, "The Messianic Idea in Judaism: And Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality", Schocken Books.
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Vol. 4, 1938-1940 First Edition

The course will deal with the concept of geophilosophy proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, highlighting its aspects related to aesthetics.

G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Rizoma, in Mille piani, Castelvecchi, Roma, 2014, pp. 48-73.
G. Deleuze, Che cos'è l'atto di creazione?, Cronopio, Napoli.
G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, Geofilosofia, in Che cos’è la filosofia?, Einaudi, Torino, pp. 77-107.
F. Guattari, Le tre ecologie, Sonda, Milano, 2019.

A novel by your choice by C. Lispector among:
Acqua viva, Adelphi, Milano.
Vicino al cuore selvaggio, Feltrinelli, Milano.

The course aims at giving the students the basic concepts of ethics and the fundamental notions regarding roboethics and the relation between ethics and communication (with a specific interest in film communication).

A part of the course will concern ethics and communication of economics and finance, with the participation of dr. Riccardo De Bonis, Head of the Finance Education of the Bank of Italy. A paper will exonerate the students from the first part of the volume "Le sfide dell'etica".

The goal of the course is that the students understand these fundamental issues of moral philosophy. At the end of the course, the students will be able to understand the essential features of these discussions.

FOR THE STUDENTS WHO WRITE THE PAPER (ON WHICH SEE THE SECTION "PROGRAMMA DELL'INSEGNAMENTO" AND WILL PASS THE PRE-EXAM)

1. Boden, L'intelligenza artificiale, Il Mulino
2. De Caro, Magni, Vaccarezza, Le sfide dell'etica, Mondadori (only the second part)
3. Massarenti, Stramaledettamente logico, Laterza

FOR THE STUDENTS WHO WILL NOT PASS THE PRE-EXAM
1. Boden, L'intelligenza artificiale, Il Mulino
2. De Caro, Magni, Vaccarezza, Le sfide dell'etica, Mondadori (interamente)
3. Massarenti, Stramaledettamente logico, Laterza

The course focuses on the relationship between language and narrative from a cognitive and evolutionary point of view. In contrast to the theories considering the sentence as the essence of language, the course suggests an interpretative hypothesis based on the priority of discourse over sentence; specifically, it is suggested that the ability to tell stories is the distinctive trait both of language and human nature.
The course includes experimental activities aimed at supporting the theoretical model proposed.

- Corballis M. (2020), La verità sul linguaggio, Carocci, Roma.
- Scott-Phillips (2017) Dì quello che hai in mente. Le origini della comunicazione umana, Carocci, Roma
- Ferretti F. (in stampa), L'istinto persuasivo. Carocci, Roma

We will read a number of texts on the relation between brain and consciousness.
The interpretation and comment of the texts will focus on the following points:
1) Concepts of mind in Cartesian philosophy and post-Cartesian debates on the soul of beasts (Bayle, Leibniz)
2) The revival of the problem of consciousness in contemporary cognitive science, with special regards to the problem of the mind of other animals

1) P. Godfrey-Smith, Metazoa. Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 2020
2) P. Pecere, Soul, Mind and Brain from Descartes to Cognitive Science. A Critical History, Springer, Cham 2020
3) A selection of short texts by Leibniz, Bayle and Joseph LeDoux, which will be indicated in classes (non attending students should contact the teacher)

The syllabus concerns the relationship between law and morals. After an introductory part, aimed at presenting the essential terms of this classical topic, a detailed insight is proposed, through the analysis of some of the most relevant fields of legal philosophy:
I. Philosophy of criminal law (crime's theory)
II. Theory of values (equality, liberty)
III. Theory of rights (legal rights structure, classification, justification and interpretation of rights)
IV. Bioethics (introduction to bioethics, relationship between individual dignity and autonomy, surrogacy)

Introductory part:
- H.L.A. Hart, Il positivismo e la separazione fra diritto e morale, in Il positivismo giuridico contemporaneo. Una antologia, (eds.) A. Schiavello, V. Velluzzi, Giappichelli, Torino, 2005, pp. 48-89;
- G. Pino, Diritto e morale, in Che cosa è il diritto. Ontologie e concezioni del giuridico, (eds.) G. Bongiovanni, G. Pino, C. Roversi, Giappichelli, Torino, 2016, pp. 3-30.
Part I:
- L. Ferrajoli, Quando proibire?, in Id., Il paradigma garantista. Filosofia e critica del diritto penale, 2a ed., Editoriale scientifica, Napoli, 2016, parte seconda, cap. II, pp. 91-108; P. Tincani, In difesa del principio del danno, in N. Riva (ed.), L'antipaternalismo liberale e la sfida della vulnerabilità, Carocci, Roma, 2020, pp. 13-32.
Part II:
- L. Ferrajoli, L’eguaglianza e i suoi nemici, in Teoria e pratica dell’eguaglianza. Prospettive di analisi critica, (ed.) F. Mastromartino, L’Asino d’oro Edizioni, Roma, 2018, pp. 197-223.
Part III:
- G. Pino, Il costituzionalismo dei diritti. Struttura e limiti del costituzionalismo contemporaneo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017, capp. III (La grammatica dei diritti), pp. 77-105.
Part IV:
- P. Donatelli, Bioetica, animali e ambienti, chap. VII of Id., La filosofia e la vita etica, Einaudi, 2020, only pp. 189-209;
- L. Ferrajoli, Dignità e libertà, in Dignità e autonomia tra bioetica e mercato, (eds.) F. Mastromartino, G. Pino, in “Rivista di filosofia del diritto”, 1, 2019, pp. 23-32;
- M. Sandel, Quello che i soldi non possono comprare. I limiti morali del mercato, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2012, Introduzione (Mercati e morale) and cap. 3 (Come i mercati allontanano la morale), respectively pp. 11-22 and pp. 95-130.

Baruch Spinoza's "Theological-Political Treatise" is both one of the most important texts of modernity and one of its greatest scandals.Anonymously published in 1670, it was the object of fierce criticism from the very beginning, but it continued to enjoy an important clandestine circulation, which allowed it to exert a great influence until the Age of Enlightenment. In the course we will proceed to a complete reading of the work and an analysis of its central themes: the critique of the theological imaginary (prophecy, law, vocation, miracles) as ideological support of non-democratic powers, the rethinking of the relationship between natural religion and historical religions, the naturalistic foundation of the legal-political sphere and the relationship between state and ecclesiastical power, the 'libertas philosophandi'.At the same time, an attempt will be made to highlight the heterogeneous theoretical positions held by the work, trying to frame them within the evolution that in Spinoza's thought is realized somewhere between the early works and the final drafting of "Ethics". In other words, it will be a matter of testing how in the very pages of the "Treatise" there is an imperceptible transition from a first position, in which good consists solely in the union of the mind with God guaranteed by intellectual knowledge and imagination and passions are therefore an obstacle to be freed from, to a second position, in which imagination and passions play a decisive role not only in politics but also in ethics.

Baruch Spinoza, Theological-political treatise (ed. by E. Curley)

- One of the following books:

Henri Laux, Imagination Et Religion Chez Spinoza: La Potentia Dans L'histoire, Paris, PUF, 1993
Vittorio Morfino, Il tempo e l'occasione. L'incontro Spinoza-Machiavelli, Milano, Led Edizioni universitarie, 2002
André Tosel, Spinoza, ou Le crépuscule de la servitude: Essai sur le 'Traité théologico-politique', Paris, Aubier, 1984
Theo Verbeek, Spinoza's 'Theologico-political Treatise': Exploring the Will of God, Routledge, 2003.
Stefano Visentin, La libertà necessaria. Teoria e pratica della democrazia in Spinoza, Pisa, ETS, 2001

a) Pier Paolo Pasolini, La Divina Mimesis, Milano, Mondadori, 2019

b) Pier Paolo Pasolini, Petrolio, edited by Walter Siti, Milano, Garzanti, 2022

c) Vedere, Pasolini, monographic number, edited by Andrea Cortellessa and Silvia De Laude, of «Engramma», 180, may 2021 (on line)

d) Andrea Cortellessa, Una ragione in più per andare all’Inferno, Roma, Contrasto, 2022

e) to give a context in 20th century italian literary history:
Giulio Ferroni, Storia della letteratura italiana, quarto volume: Il Novecento e il nuovo millennio, Milano, Mondadori Università, 2012

In general, the course will focus on the history and philosophy of space and time, giving particular emphasis to the relationship between physical and experiential time. Within this relationship, the nature of the present moment is particularly important: while physics can safely ignore such a moment, in our experience it separates an immutable past from a future that is not conceived deterministically or fatalistically but is rather regarded as open to our free decisions. We will read excerpts of classics authors in the history of philosophy that have dealt in particular with these questions. We will introduce the student to the deep link existing between chance and irreversibility

1. MAZUR: THE MOTION PARADOX, Dutton, 2007 (the first three chapters)
2. McTaggart J.,The unreality of time Mind 1908
3 Redondi Storie del tempo (second part), Laterza
4 Weatherall J. The physics of nothing. Yale University Press
5. Space from Zeno to Einstein, ed. by N. HUGGETT, The MIT PRESS, 200
6. Weatherall, The physics of void,
6. Callender C. Edney R. Introducing time, Icon Books and Totem Books, 2001

The course program concerns the relationship between conflicting values and fundamental principles. After an introductory section, aimed at presenting the fundamental terms of bioethics and biolaw, some of the most relevant and discussed topics of the subject will be examined, through a constant reference to case law:
I. Dignity and autonomy between bioethics and the market (surrogacy, prostitution)
II. Dignity and self-determination (end-of-life choices and informed consent)
III. Conscientious objection

Introductory section:
- P. Borsellino, Bioetica tra “morali” e diritto, Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 2018, cap. 1 (La bioetica. Problemi, sviluppi, prospettive), con esclusione del par. 9: pp. 21-57; M. Reichlin, Fondamenti di bioetica, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2021, cap. 2 (Tipi di etiche normative: pp. 29-47).

Thematic sections:
I
- L. Ferrajoli, Dignità e libertà, in Dignità e autonomia tra bioetica e mercato, a cura di F. Mastromartino, G. Pino, in “Rivista di filosofia del diritto”, 1, 2019, pp. 23-32; O. Giolo, Il giusfemminismo e le sfide del neoliberismo. A proposito di soggetti, libertà e diritti, in Teorie critiche del diritto, a cura di M.G. Bernardini, O. Giolo, Pacini, Firenze, 2017, pp. 207-230; F. Poggi, Dignità e autonomia: disaccordi semantici e conflitti di valore in Dignità e autonomia tra bioetica e mercato, a cura di F. Mastromartino, G. Pino, in “Rivista di filosofia del diritto”, 1, 2019, pp. 33-50; Sandel, Quello che i soldi non possono comprare. I limiti morali del mercato, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2012, Introduzione (Mercati e morale) e cap. 3 (Come i mercati allontanano la morale), rispettivamente pp. 11-22 e pp. 95-130

II
- L. d’Avack, Il dominio delle biotecnologie, cap. II (Scelte di fine vita e consenso informato), Giappichelli, Torino, 2018: pp. 69-159 (ma tenendo presente Riferimenti normativi e carte internazionali)

III
- F. Mastromartino, Esiste un diritto generale all’obiezione di coscienza?, in “Diritto e questioni pubbliche”, 1, 2018, pp. 159-181.

A) STRUCTURAL RULES INTERPRETED AS LOGICAL RULES: SEQUENT CALCULUS AND DERIVABILITY IN LINEAR LOGIC
B) POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NON-DETERMINISM: FOCUSED SEQUENT CALCULUS FOR LINEAR LOGIC AND PROOF SEARCH
C) IMPLICIT COMPLEXITY AND LINEAR LOGIC
D) GEOMETRY OF PROOFS: PROOF NETS IN LINEAR LOGIC
E) INVARIANTS AND DEVELOPMENT OF INTERACTION OF PROOFS: COHERENT SPACES, GEOMETRY OF INTERACTION

NOTES AND SLIDES AVAILABLE ON THE COURSE WEB PAGE
https://sites.google.com/view/lm510/

The course will present and discuss basic notions of neuroethics, an interdisciplinary research fields at the interplay between moral philosophy, moral psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. In particular, the course will focus on the topic of moral cognition, investigating the basis of moral reasoning, motivation, choice, and judgment.

Students will acquire:
- Capacity to read an analyze texts
- Capacity to navigate the contemporary debate on the bases and mechanisms of moral cognition
- Capacity to orally present and defend theses

FOR STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1 – A. Lavazza, G. Sartori (2011) Neuroetica: Scienze del cervello, filosofia e libero arbitrio, il Mulino
2 – M. Tomasello (2016) Storia naturale della morale umana, Raffaello Cortina Editore
3 – Booklet including short excerpts from various texts, including: F. Nietzsche (2017) Genealogia della morale, Adelphi; A. Damasio (1995) L’errore di Cartesio, Adelphi

FOR STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1 – A. Lavazza, G. Sartori (2011) Neuroetica: Scienze del cervello, filosofia e libero arbitrio, il Mulino
2 – M. Tomasello (2016) Storia naturale della morale umana, Raffaello Cortina Editore
3 – Booklet including short excerpts from various texts, including: F. Nietzsche (2017) Genealogia della morale, Adelphi; A. Damasio (1995) L’errore di Cartesio, Adelphi
4. A. Damasio (1995) L’errore di Cartesio, Adelphi.

Throughout the course, students will deal with an ancient philosophical work. Their knowledge will cover issues of ancient ethics and philosophy of action, also dealing with the scholarly debates. At the end of the course, students will acquire an in-depth knowledge of an ancient philosophical work and of the theoretical and historical background.
Student are expected to acquire:
- critical reading and analysis of ancient philosophical sources and of the relevant scholarly literature;
- In-depth critical thinking and historical methodology;
- Critical analysis and argumentation in oral form.

Aristotele, Etica Nicomachea, a cura di C. Natali, Laterza, Bari 1999, libro III, pp. 77-124

Natali, Carlo (2017), Il Metodo e il Trattato. Saggio sull’Etica Nicomachea, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura.

Bobzien, Susanne, (2014) «Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics 1113b7-8 and free choice», in Destrée P., Salles R., Zingano M. (eds.) ,What is up to us? Studies on Causality and Responsibility in Ancient Philosophy, Akademia Verlag, Sankt Augustin, 91-106.

Bobzien, Susanne (2014), «Choice and Moral Responsibility (NE III 1-5)». Polansky, Ronald, The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Cambridge University Press, New York, 81-109.
Bondeson, William (1974), «Aristotle on Responsibility for One's Character and the Possibility of Character Change», Phronesis, vol. 19 n. 1, 59-65.
Donini, Pierluigi (1989), «Volontarietà di Vizio e Virtù (Aristot. Eh. Nic. III 1-7)». Berti, Enrico; Napolitano Valditara; Linda M. (a cura di), Etica, politica, retorica : studi su Aristotele e la sua presenza nell'età moderna, L’Aquila, Japarde, 3-21.
Nielsen, Karen (2007), «Dirtying Aristotle’s Hands? Aristotle’s Analysis of ‘Mixed Acts’ in the Nicomachean Ethics III, 1», Phronesis, 52, 270-300.

Introduction to set theory: aggregates and sets, necessity of a theory, ordinals and cardinals, antinomies and paradoxes, main characteristics of axiomatic set theory. Zermelo’s axiomatic set theory and Zermelo-Fraenkel’s axiomatic set theory: preliminaries and conventions, Zermelo’s axioms, the replacement axiom and Zermelo-Fraenkel’s theory, extensions of the language by definition. Ordinals: orders, well-orders and well-foundedness, well-foundedness and induction principle, the ordinal numbers, well-orders and ordinals, ordinal induction (proofs and definitions), diagonal argument and limit ordinals, infinity axiom and ordinal arithmetic, hints on the use of ordinals in proof-theory. Axiom of choice: equivalent formulations (and proof of the equivalence), infinite sets and axiom of choice. Cardinals: equipotent sets and infinite sets, the cardinal numbers, cardinal arithmetic.

V. Michele Abrusci e Lorenzo Tortora de Falco, Logica. Vol. 2 Incompletezza, teoria assiomatica degli insiemi, Springer, 2018

Presentation of the essential notions of the typology, such as the relationship between typology and universals, the notion of 'type' at the various levels of analysis, and the relationship of typology with sociolinguistics, language teaching, areal and genetic comparison. Deepening of the mechanisms and explanations of linguistic change, also from the typological perspective. Special reflection on the concepts of grammaticalization and reanalysis. Case study on the diachronic typology of the perfect.

Grandi, N., 2003, Fondamenti di tipologia linguistica, Roma, Carocci.
Napoli, M., 2019, Linguistica diacronica, Roma Carocci.

Topic of the workshop are the literary genres: short story, novel, epic, lyric, "mystery", screenplays, etc. We will try to focus on the relationship between these forms of narration and the prevailing life forms. But above all to identify the possible relationship between the different literary genres and the different ways of conceiving and telling social and political history: in short, literary genres as a way of accessing the categories of the philosophy of history.

Enzo Melandri, I generi letterari e la loro origine, Quodlibet.
AaVv, I formalisti russi, Einaudi.
Viktor Sklovskij, Teoria della prosa, Einaudi.
Bertold Brecht, Sul romanzo giallo, Einaudi.
Anton Cechov, Né per fama né per denaro, Biblioteca editori associati.
Edgar Allan Poe, Filosofia della composizione e altri saggi, Guida.
Georg W. F. Hegel, Lezioni sulla filosofia della storia, La nuova Italia.

Structure and functions of the nervous system - Methods of investigation;
Neural correlates of emotional, cognitive and social processes: Objects and faces recognition, Memory and learning, Emotions, Cognitive control, Action - Mirror neurons, Empathy, Social cognition - Theory of Mind; Design and construction of an experimental task, electroencephalographic data (EEG) recording and analysis, data interpretation and discussion of scientific papers.

Gazzaniga, Ivry & Mangun (2015). Neuroscienze Cognitive. (Capp. 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13)

The course examines how the theme of "personal" identity is elaborated by Spinoza, Locke, Hume and James. trangely, in the Spinotian "Ethics" two answers to this problem seem to be traceable: in the first, the identity of the individual would be determined by its essence and therefore conceivable in its singularity "sub specie aeternitatis", while in the second it is determined only in duration, in function of what Spinoza calls "constitutio", and which consists of the whole of perceptions, imaginations, memories and affections from which it is taken in its own history. If the first answer risks assimilating the individual, which for Spinoza is only a mode, to the permanent substance of becoming, the second has difficulty in giving an account of the continuity in the alteration. Perhaps it is from this dilemma that Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Understanding", in a silent dialogue with Spinoza, can call into question the temporal continuity of the self or person, proposing to anchor personal identity to consciousness and no longer to substance, and that Hume, radicalizing the Lockean position, in the "Treatise on Human Nature", may even come to question its unity in a given moment of time, to reduce the «self» to a series of perceptions that are distinct from each other and are seamless in time, and thus to conceive it as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of mind, while preserving its unity as the object of mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral sphere. While elaborating a theory of consciousness that refers to this empirical and skeptical tradition, in the "Principles of Psychology" James makes a critique of Hume’s position on the «Self» as «bundle of perceptions», arguing that in experience there is no original distinction between impressions. On the contrary, there is a continuity of the "flow of thought", based on a constant appropriation of previous contents. Through the examination of the theories of these classics of modern and contemporary thought the course aims to familiarize the student not only with the ambivalence, the shifts, the second thoughts that are the subject of the history of philosophy, but also to put into perspective some of the central questions of contemporary philosophical reflection.

Baruch Spinoza, Etica, Milan, Bompiani (passim).
John Locke, Saggio sull'intelletto umano, Rome-Bari, Laterza (Book I, Chap. 4, Sect. 5 and Book II, Chap. 27)
David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with English text, Milan, Bompiani (Book I, Part IV, Sect. V-VI, Appendice, Books II and III, passim).
William James, Principi di psicologia, Milano, Principato (Chap. 6, 9, 10: in part).

The course examines how the theme of "personal" identity is elaborated by Spinoza, Locke, Hume and James. trangely, in the Spinotian "Ethics" two answers to this problem seem to be traceable: in the first, the identity of the individual would be determined by its essence and therefore conceivable in its singularity "sub specie aeternitatis", while in the second it is determined only in duration, in function of what Spinoza calls "constitutio", and which consists of the whole of perceptions, imaginations, memories and affections from which it is taken in its own history. If the first answer risks assimilating the individual, which for Spinoza is only a mode, to the permanent substance of becoming, the second has difficulty in giving an account of the continuity in the alteration. Perhaps it is from this dilemma that Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Intellect," in a silent dialogue with Spinoza, can call into question the temporal continuity of the self or person, proposing to anchor personal identity to consciousness and no longer to substance, and that Hume, radicalizing the Lockean position, in the "Treatise on Human Nature", may even come to question its unity in a given moment of time, to reduce the «self» to a series of perceptions that are distinct from each other and are seamless in time, and thus to conceive it as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of mind, while preserving its unity as the object of mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral sphere. While elaborating a theory of consciousness that refers to this empirical and skeptical tradition, in the "Principles of Psychology" James makes a critique of Hume’s position on the «Self» as «bundle of perceptions», arguing that in experience there is no original distinction between impressions. On the contrary, there is a continuity of the "flow of thought", based on a constant appropriation of previous contents. Through the examination of the theories of these classics of modern and contemporary thought the course aims to familiarize the student not only with the ambivalence, the shifts, the second thoughts that are the subject of the history of philosophy, but also to put into perspective some of the central questions of contemporary philosophical reflection.

Baruch Spinoza, Etica, Milan, Bompiani (passim)

John Locke, Saggio sull'intelletto umano, Rome-Bari, Laterza (Book I, Chap. 4, Sect. 5 and Book II, Chap. 27)

David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with English text, Milan, Bompiani (Book I, Part IV, Sect. V-VI, Appendice, Books II and III, passim).

William James, Principi di psicologia, Milano, Principato (Chap. 6, 9, 10: in part)

The course examines how the theme of "personal" identity is elaborated by Spinoza, Locke, Hume and James. trangely, in the Spinotian "Ethics" two answers to this problem seem to be traceable: in the first, the identity of the individual would be determined by its essence and therefore conceivable in its singularity "sub specie aeternitatis", while in the second it is determined only in duration, in function of what Spinoza calls "constitutio", and which consists of the whole of perceptions, imaginations, memories and affections from which it is taken in its own history. If the first answer risks assimilating the individual, which for Spinoza is only a mode, to the permanent substance of becoming, the second has difficulty in giving an account of the continuity in the alteration. Perhaps it is from this dilemma that Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Intellect," in a silent dialogue with Spinoza, can call into question the temporal continuity of the self or person, proposing to anchor personal identity to consciousness and no longer to substance, and that Hume, radicalizing the Lockean position, in the "Treatise on Human Nature", may even come to question its unity in a given moment of time, to reduce the «self» to a series of perceptions that are distinct from each other and are seamless in time, and thus to conceive it as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of mind, while preserving its unity as the object of mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral sphere. While elaborating a theory of consciousness that refers to this empirical and skeptical tradition, in the "Principles of Psychology" James makes a critique of Hume’s position on the «Self» as «bundle of perceptions», arguing that in experience there is no original distinction between impressions. On the contrary, there is a continuity of the "flow of thought", based on a constant appropriation of previous contents. Through the examination of the theories of these classics of modern and contemporary thought the course aims to familiarize the student not only with the ambivalence, the shifts, the second thoughts that are the subject of the history of philosophy, but also to put into perspective some of the central questions of contemporary philosophical reflection.

Baruch Spinoza, Etica, Milan, Bompiani (passim)
John Locke, Saggio sull'intelletto umano, Rome-Bari, Laterza (Book I, Chap. 4, Sect. 5 and Book II, Chap. 27)
David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with English text, Milan, Bompiani (Book I, Part IV, Sect. V-VI, Appendice, Books II and III, passim).
William James, Principi di psicologia, Milano, Principato (Chap. 6, 9, 10: in part)