History of Europe from Napoleonic Age to the end of the Cold War

An high school textbook of your choice of Contemporary History (on the period from 1815 to the present day). It must be published after 2010.

Two books to be chosen from the following:

A. Basciani – E. Ivetic, Italia e Balcani. Storia di una prossimità, Il Mulino;
R. Brizzi – M. Marchi, Storia politica della Francia repubblicana (1871-2011), Le Monnier;
F. Chabod, Storia dell’idea d’Europa, Laterza;
U. Gentiloni Silveri, Storia dell’Italia contemporanea, Il Mulino;
G. Ieranò, Arcipelago. Isole e miti del Mar Egeo, Einaudi;
R. Morozzo della Rocca, Passaggio a Oriente. La modernità e l’Europa ortodossa, Morcelliana.
S. Merlo, La costruzione dell’Ucraina contemporanea. Una storia complessa, Il Mulino
I diritti umani e la trasformazione delle culture politiche e cristiane nel tardo Novecento, Viella

The course focuses on the main themes of early modern history and modern history (from XV century to XIX century), with particular attention to the historiographic categories, the use of sources and the interpretative approaches of the historians. The different political, cultural, social, economic and religious aspects of the modern age will be studied from a local and global outlook, with a certain regard to the relations between the Italian peninsula, the European continent and extra-European realities.
The second part of the course focuses on the conceptual (and methodological) aspects that revolve around the historiographic category of the Renaissance. Against the background of the political events that have characterised the European history from the first half of the fifteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century, the course also focuses on the main cultural, artistic, religious and social issues of the time.

Testi di riferimento
1) R. Bizzocchi, Guida allo studio della Storia moderna, Roma-Bari, Laterza

2) C. Capra, Storia moderna (1492-1848), Firenze, Le Monnier

3) E. Garin, L’umanesimo italiano, Roma-Bari, Laterza

4) O. Niccoli (a cura di), Rinascimento al femminile, Roma-Bari, Laterza

5) Un testo a scelta tra i seguenti:
- E. Bonora, Aspettando l’imperatore. Principi italiani tra il papa e Carlo V, Torino, Einaudi
- E. Cassirer, Individuo e cosmo nella filosofia del Rinascimento, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri
- G. Fragnito, Rinascimento perduto. La letteratura italiana sotto gli occhi dei censori (sec. XV-XVII), Bologna, il Mulino
- P. Murray, L’architettura del Rinascimento italiano, Roma-Bari, Laterza
- E. Panofsky, Rinascimento e rinascenze nell’arte occidentale, Milano, Feltrinelli
- M. Pellegrini, La crociata nel Rinascimento. Mutazioni di un mito 1400-1600, Firenze, Le Lettere
- G. Ricci, Appello al Turco. I confini infranti del Rinascimento, Roma, Viella

Mind and I, between humans and animals: Descartes to Kant

R. Chiaradonna, P. Pecere, Vivere la conoscenza, Mondadori Education, Milano, 2021, vol. 2, tutte le unità dal Rinascimento a Kant

R. Descartes, L'uomo, in Opere postume, Bompiani (o altre edizioni)
R. Descartes, Meditazioni metafisiche, in Opere, Bompiani (o altre edizioni)
I. Kant, Sull'organo dell'anima, Hoepli 2022

P. Pecere, La natura della mente, Carocci 2022, capitoli 1-4, § 6.6
P. Pecere, "L’io senza soggetto e il soggetto senza io. Questioni kantiane tra logica e antropologia", in "Paradigmi", 15/3(2022), pp. 503ss.

Title: Catastrophe and Progress in the Age of Enlightenment
The course will explore the new conception of nature and history inaugurated by the 18th century, focusing on two key concepts that enable us to understand the spirit of the Enlightenment: catastrophe and progress. Didactic Unit 1 will be devoted to the analysis of a series of short texts - by Voltaire, Rousseau and Kant - on a catastrophic natural event that had an enormous resonance in Europe at the time: the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Didactic Unit 2 will focus on the analysis of some short texts by Kant and Condorcet, which outline a philosophy of history based on the idea of progress. At the end of the course, there will be a space for reflection on the relevance of the questions raised by the Enlightenment about man's misuse of nature and progress as an effect of democratic governance of power and property.

Programme for Erasmus Students:
1. Voltaire, Poem on the Lisbon Desaster (1755) All editions
2. Rousseau, Letter to Voltaire (in reply to the Voltaire's Poem on the Lisbon Desaster (1756) All editions
3. José O. AMARQUES, The Paths of Providence: Voltaire and Rousseau on the Lisbon Earthquake in «Cadernos de História e Filosofia da Ciência». Campinas: CLE-Unicamp, Série 3, v.15, n.1, jan-jun. 2005, p. 33-57 (http://www.unicamp.br/~jmarques/pesq/modern.htm) free access
4. I. Kant, What is Enlightenment? (1784) All editions
5. I. Kant 'A renewed attempt to answer the question: "is the human race continually improving"? (1798) All editions
6. Condorcet, 10th Epoch. Future Progress of Man (1796) (Final chapter of Condorcet's Outlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind) All editions
7. J.B. Bury: The Idea of Progress: an Inquiry Into its Origin and Growth, 1932 or R. Nisbet, The History of the Idea of Progress, Routledge, 1994 (especially the parts on Einlightenment)

A:
Knowledge in Plato: the Meno (weeks 1-6)
The search for knowledge, Socrates' elenchos, knowledge, belief, and recollection.

B: Knowledge in Plato: the Phaedo (weeks 7-12)
Soul and recollection, Forms and knowledge: the "second sailing", the method from hypothesis.

Students are asked to prepare parts A+B to get 12 ECTS points credited.

A

[1] B. Centrone, Prima lezione di filosofia antica, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2015.
R.Chiaradonna e P. Pecere, Vivere la Conoscenza, Mondadori Education, Milano, 2022, Volume 1A: Dalle origini ad Aristotele.
R. Chiaradonna, Platonismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017.

[2] Platone, Menone, testo greco a fronte, a cura di F. Ferrari, Rizzoli, Milano 2016.
F. Trabattoni, Platone, Carocci, Roma 2009.

[3] Students are required to prepare a paper (2500 words) regarding the texts listed in [1].

B

[1] B. Centrone, Prima lezione di filosofia antica, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2015.
R.Chiaradonna e P. Pecere, Vivere la Conoscenza, Mondadori Education, Milano, 2022, Volume 1A: Dalle origini ad Aristotele.
R. Chiaradonna, Platonismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017.

[2] Platone, Fedone, testo greco a fronte, Einaudi, Torino 2011.
F. Trabattoni, Platone, Carocci, Roma 2009.

[3] Students are required to prepare a paper (2500 words) regarding the texts listed in [1].

Theme of this year's course: Making home.

Ways and forms of how people "build" their lives.
Biographical paths, individual paths and collective exchanges.
Individual strategies and social organization.
Perfomative systems: from subjectivity to community.

1. A textbook for the general part:
Ugo Fabietti, Elementi di antropologia culturale, Milano, Mondadori, 2015.
Stefano De Matteis, Il dilemma dell'aragosta. La forza della vulnerabilità, Milano, Meltemi 2021.

2. The monographic part includes:
Stefano De Matteis, Gli sciamani non ci salveranno.
Andrea Staid, Essere natura. Uno sguardo antropologico per cambiare il nostro rapporto con l'ambiente, UTET, 2022.

Programme of the module 1 (for those who must acquire only 6 CFU/ECTS and for those who must acquire 12 CFU/ECTS)

Basic principles in geographical systemic reading, with particular reference to the concepts of environment, ecosystem, territory, region, landscape, with reference to the cultural organization of space - population, migration, settlement, languages, religions, economic exploitation, development, scale, trans-scalarity etc.
It is essential for all the systematic use of an updated school atlas.


Programme of the module 2 (+ 6 CFU/ECTS: for those who must acquire 12 CFU/ECTS)

Application of the principles of geocultural analysis to the production and reading of literary, film and artistic representations in general, both educated and popular. Identification of geocultural elements in the forms of the anthropic landscape, in the symbolic valorisation of the territory, in the toponomastics etc.

In the absence of a basic knowledge in geography, the study of a school textbook of general geography and geography of the States of the world is strongly recommended.
The systematic use of an updated school atlas is essential for all students.

Texts for the module 1 (6 CFU/ECTS)
1) A.L. GREINER, G. DEMATTEIS, C.LANZA, Geografia umana. Un approccio visuale, Torino, UTET, 2023
2) G. DEMATTEIS, Geografia come immaginazione. Tra piacere della scoperta e ricerca di futuri possibili, Roma, Donzelli, 2021
3) M. d’ERAMO, Il selfie del mondo. Indagine sull’età del turismo, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2022




Texts for the module 2 (+6 CFU/ECTS: for those who must acquire 12 CFU/ECTS)
1) B. CHATWIN, Le vie dei canti, Milano, Adelphi, 1995 (o altra edizione)
2) I. CALVINO, Le città invisibili, Torino, Einaudi, 1972 (o altra edizione)
3) I. CALVINO, Palomar, Torino, Einaudi, 1983 (o altra edizione)

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.

1) Friedel Weinert The March of Time. Evolving Conceptions of
Time in the Light of Scientific Discoveries Springer 2022
(per chi non legge l'inglese questo testo è sostituito da P. Redondi, Brevi storie del tempo, Laterza)

2) N. Huggett, 1999, Space from Zeno to Einstein, MIT PRESS

Kant and Enlightenment:
we will examine the textes of Immanuel Kant "Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784), "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?", "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (1795), The Conflict of the Faculties (second part, 1798), "On the Old Saw: That May be Right in Theory But It Won't Work in Practice" (1793).

I. Kant “On History,” The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1963.

The course introduces the voices and problems of political thought.
It provides a focus on the different forms of conflict in politics in the history of political thought and in contemporary debates.

- Handouts (ED. 23/24)
- F. Castelli, F. Giardini, F. Raparelli, Conflitti. Filosofia e politica, Le Monnier, 2020
- N. Loraux, The Divided City: On Memory and Forgetting in Ancient Athens, Zone Books, 2002

For those not attending we recommend the reading of F. Giardini, L’alleanza Inquieta. Dimensioni politiche del linguaggio, Le lettere, Firenze 2010.

The course of ethics and cognitive sciences aims to present and discuss some basic ethical notions, focusing on the contemporary debate and on the relationship between moral philosophy and the cognitive sciences. The course includes two parts. In the first part, we will discuss some key notions in the interdisciplinary ethical debate at the interplay between moral philosophy and the cognitive sciences. Among the themes that will be discussed: free will and moral responsibility, neurolaw, the role of emotions and reasons in moral judgments, social cooperation. In the second part, we will focus on the role of unconscious psychological mechanisms in driving human behaviours.

Written exam, please check "Moodle-Annunci" for info and get in touch with the instructor in case of doubts
FOR STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1 – M. De Caro, M. Marraffa (2016). Mente e morale. Una piccola introduzione, Luiss University Press
2 – Parts from: G. Gigerenzer (2015). Imparare a rischiare. Come prendere decisioni giuste, Cortina; R.H. Thaler & C. Sunstein, Nudge. La spinta gentile, Feltrinelli

Written exam, please check "Moodle-Annunci" for info and get in touch with the instructor in case of doubts
FOR STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1 – M. De Caro, M. Marraffa (2016). Mente e morale. Una piccola introduzione, Luiss University Press
2 – G. Gigerenzer (2015). Imparare a rischiare. Come prendere decisioni giuste, Cortina (whole text);
3 - R.H. Thaler & C. Sunstein, Nudge. La spinta gentile, Feltrinelli (whole text)

The course will present and discuss some basic notions of philosophical anthropology, a discipline that focuses on the investigation of the central aspects of what it is to be human. The first part of the course aims at providing an overview of classic questions in philosophical anthropology. The second part will focus on the themes of personal identity and the relation with others in the contemporary debate.

Written exam - please, consult "Moodle-Annunci" or contact the instructor in case of doubts
FOR STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1. M. Montaigne (1580). “Of Coaches”, in M. Montaigne, Saggi, All editions
2. M. Montaigne (1580). “Of Cannibals”, in M. Montaigne, Saggi, All editions
3. T. Todorov (1984). The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other, All editions
4. I Kant (1798). Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, All editions
5. M. Scheler (1928). The Position Of Man In The Cosmos. All editions

Written exam - please, consult "Moodle-Annunci" or contact the instructor in case of doubts
FOR STUDENTS WHO DO NOT ATTEND THE COURSE, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TEXTS:
1. M. Montaigne (1580). “Of Coaches”, in M. Montaigne, Saggi, All editions
2. M. Montaigne (1580). “Of Cannibals”, in M. Montaigne, Saggi, All editions
3. T. Todorov (1984). The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other, All editions
4. I Kant (1798). Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, All editions
5. M. Scheler (1928). The Position Of Man In The Cosmos, All editions
6. C. Lévi-Strauss (1955). Tristes Tropiques, All editions

Title: Free Will, Intentionality, and Habits of Action.
The course aims to provide conceptual and historical tools around the philosophy of action, privileging the analysis of the relationship between free will, determinism, intentionality, daily life and habits of action. The first module is aimed at providing a synthetic framework of theories on free will and intentionality in correlation with contemporary debate. The second module will focus on the specificity of the habitual actions, on which only recently philosophy, also of analytical area, has resumed to deal, in a close dialogue with psychology, sociology and neuroscience. For this purpose, some doctrines will be examined that provide key elements for reflection on the relationship between action, freedom and habits, including Aristotelian and Pragmatist.

For Erasmus Students:
D.U. 1:
M. De Caro, Free Will and Free Rides. ACTA PHILOSOPHICA, 2018, pp. 15-25.
D.M. Wegner, Précis of the illusion of conscious will. Behav Brain Sci. 2004 Oct;27(5):pp. 649-59.

D.U. 2:
B. Pollard, “Habitual Actions”, in T. O’Connor, C. Sandis (ed. by), A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pp. 74-81
B. Pollard, “Identification, Psychology, and Habits”, in New Waves in Philosophy of Action, edited by J. Aguilar, A. Buckareff and K. Frankish, 8 New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 81–97
A. Noë, Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness. Hill and Wang, 2010 (limited to chap. V).

The course introduces the different forms of social and political relations.
Further focus will concern a specific issue or author.

F. Giardini, L'alleanza inquieta, capp. 1 e 5 (testo reperibile in rete)
F. Giardini, I nomi della crisi, capp. 1, 3, 4 (testo reperibile in rete)
M. Foucault, Sicurezza, territorio, popolazione (Lezioni del 11, 18 e 25 gennaio; 22, 29 marzo e 5 aprile)

The Philosophy of Literature course aims to explore the transdisciplinary intersection between philosophy and literature from a theoretical perspective, highlighting concepts and themes that testify how philosophical thought relates to literature in different ways, not so much as an object of analysis, rather in terms of their interaction and proximity.
The course will examine the link between philosophical enquiry and its pathological declination in the fiction and non-fiction of the American writer David Foster Wallace, highlighting some conceptual knots - solipsism, addiction, boredom, self-deception - that reveal the fascinating yet problematic interweaving between philosophizing and writing.
The programme will focus on the following topics:
- Introduction to the relationship between philosophy and literature.
- Introduction to the life and work of D.F. Wallace
- Critical analysis of the concepts of solipsism, alienation, boredom in their problematic intertwining of philosophy, literature and pathology
- Exposition of the relationship between addiction, self-deception, and logical paradoxes

Texts for examination

D.F. Wallace, The Empty Plenum: David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress, in Both Flesh and Not, Little, Brown and Co 2012.
D.F. Wallace, Good Old Neon, in Oblivion, Little Brown & Co 2004.
D.F. Wallace, The Planet Trillaphon as It Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing, in The Amherst Review, vol. XII (1984).
D.F. Wallace, The depressed person, in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Back Bay Books 2000.
D.F. Wallace, Suicide as a sort of present, in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Back Bay Books 2000.
G. Baggio, Filosofia e patologia in D.F. Wallace. Solipsismo, noia, alienazione… e altre cose (poco) divertenti, Rosenberg & Sellier 2022.
D. Laing, The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness, Penguin 2005 (first part).
C. Scarlato, Attraverso il corpo. Filosofia e letteratura in David Foster Wallace, Mimesis 2020 (primo capitolo)
M. Piazza, La scrittura dei filosofi e la filosofia degli scrittori, in «Bollettino Filosofico», n. 210, 2013.

The objective of the course is to acquire tools and analysis skills aimed, in particular, at the use of new IT tools. Today, all IT tools are central to many activities and digital "models" are increasingly confirming themselves as indispensable elements in modern society.
A first point of reference for us in this course is that offered by the AICA, with the best-known ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence).
In fact, some of the topics will focus on the need to contextualize training starting from the basics, thus starting to understand the ways in which digital machines work, their way of processing, storing and producing useful results. Alongside this, we will focus on other, more specific aspects, delving into the characteristics of IT tools and their ability to integrate into modern society, characterized by increasingly current and inevitable elements, such as, for example:
mobility - and hence the importance of building "responsive" content, capable of adapting to the different tools of use (smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc.);
the importance of continuous training, aimed at combating digital illiteracy (we will delve deeper into this aspect), the digital divide, etc.;
Internet (from web 1.0 to web 2.0), the cloud, security (malware, privacy), ML (machine learning);
the advent of digital in society, in its various articulations and its effects (social, work, economic).

History of ancient philosophy (weeks 1-6):
Logos and Knowledge (Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno)
Being and causes (Plato and Aristotle)
Knowledge and Persuasion (Protagoras, Gorgias, Socrates, Plato)
Knowledge and Nature (Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus)

Ancient Philosophy:

B. Centrone, Prima lezione di filosofia antica, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2015
R.Chiaradonna e P. Pecere, Vivere la Conoscenza, Mondadori Education, Milano, 2022, Volume 1A: Dalle origini ad Aristotele
R. Chiaradonna, Platonismo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2017

Reading and commentary on some classical texts of History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy.

Bibliography provided by the teachers during the lessons.

Historical overview of the main lines of thought of medieval philosophy.
The concept of nature in the metaphysics and theology of Thomas Aquinas.

E. Gilson, La filosofia nel Medioevo, Rizzoli, Milano, 2011.
R. Garrigou-Lagrange, La sintesi tomistica, Fede & Cultura, Verona, 2020.
S. L. Brock, Percorsi di sapienza naturale. Dodici lezioni sulla metafisica di San Tommaso, Edusc, Roma, 2022.
Tommaso d'Aquino, La somma teologica, V. XII, La legge, Casa editrice Salani, 1965.

The first part of the course introduces the most relevant theories of communication, with a specific focus on interpersonal communication. The following topics are considered: verbal and non-verbal communication, interaction rituals, framing practices, rules of conversation, the relation between communication and social identities, pathological forms of communicative interaction.
The second part of the course provides students with the tools for studying media, referring to media reception and theoretical perspectives in the sociology of media. A focus will be on forms of symbolic pollution and, in particular, on media images and soundscapes. Finally, the social changes led by digital media in the contemporary society and the medial representations of identities will be considered.

a) Anna Lisa Tota, 2020, Ecologia della Parola. Il piacere della Conversazione, Einaudi, Torino.
b) Anna Lisa Tota, 2023, Ecologia del pensiero. Conversazioni con una mente inquinata, Einaudi, Torino.
c) Moreover, the following readings:

1) José Van Dijck, Thomas Poell, Martijn de Waal (2019), Platform Society. Valori pubblici e società connessa, edizione italiana a cura di G. Boccia Artieri e A. Marinelli (only the introduction, “Per un’economia politica delle piattaforme” and the first chapter, “Platform Society: un concetto controverso”), Guerini, Milano, pp. 9-21 e 35-74.
2) Giovanni Boccia Artieri, Fausto Colombo, Guido Gili (2022), Comunicare. Persone, relazioni, media (only the chapter 5, “Dall’intelligenza artificiale al papiro (e ritorno)”), Laterza, Roma-Bari, pp. 132-163.
3) Stuart Hall (1980), “Codifica e decodifica”, in Tele-visioni, a cura di A. Marinelli e G. Fatelli (2000), Meltemi, Roma, pp. 66-83.

In our society religion and religious issues have an important space, which can be recognized in different forms of belief.
This class offers an introduction to the principle themes and theories which emerge in the history of the studies about religion/religions. We will try to tackle the difficult question "What is religion? What are religions?". In particular, we will discuss different theories about religion, its essence, its function in the society, up to the last approaches which underline the imbrication of religion with cultures, politics and societies.
Key words and topics (body, gender, violence, space) will be discussed in a comparative and historical approach.
The history of religious studies is taught through a multidisciplinary perspective, which allows students to focus on different approaches such as history, anthropology, sociology, cognitive sciences. The historical study of tools and approaches in religious studies are as follows:
What is religion?
Religious diversity in Italy
Histories of religions
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 and readings indicated in the course (see online teaching materials and additional material to be distributed by the lecturer during lectures)

2. a book between:
N. Spineto, La festa, Laterza, Roma Bari, 2015 oppure
C. Ghidini, P. Scarpi, La Scelta Vegetariana, Ponte alle Grazie, Firenze 2019 OR
G. Filoramo, Manuale di storia delle religioni, Laterza, Roma Bari, 2005 OR
A. Vitullo, Religionauti. Studiare l'homo religiosus al tempo del web, Morcelliana Brescia, 2021
or a book discussed and agreed with Professor Giorda






Not attending students will study, in place of point number 1:
G. Filoramo, Manuale di storia delle religioni, Laterza, Roma Bari, 2005 OR
N. Spineto, Manuale di storia delle religioni 2023

2.
N. Spineto, La festa, Laterza, Roma Bari, 2015 oppure
C. Ghidini, P. Scarpi, La Scelta Vegetariana, Ponte alle Grazie, Firenze 2019 oppure
A. Vitullo, Religionauti. Studiare l'homo religiosus al tempo del web, Morcelliana Brescia, 2021
O un libro da concordarsi con la Professoressa.

Topics are broadly divided into two sets: 1) general physics, which is useful to develop the basic methodology, 2) modern research topics, which are useful to illustrate current research topics and the attitude of physics researches in dealing with open questions in the study of the natural world. Each part of the course is given in about 18 hours of classes, including exercises in class and at the blackboard. Classes will present general physics subject: classical mechanics, gravitation, electrostatics, physics of waves and light. In the part on modern physics will be presented the following subjects: microscopic theory of thermodynamics, special relativity, quantum mechanics, the nature of antimatter, the issue of the dark matter of the universe.
A detailed listing of all topics and textbooks chapters followed for each topics is available on the web at the address http://webusers.fis.uniroma3.it/franceschini/iff.html

Marion - Physics and the Physical Universe – Wiley (general and modern physics)
Feynman, Leighton, Sands - The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. 3 (quantum mechanics)
Born - Einstein's theory of relativity – Dover (mechanics, relativity)

Notes on the web http://webusers.fis.uniroma3.it/franceschini/iff.html

The subject of the course is science and technology from the ancient world to the industrial revolution. It will examine scientific theories and practices, their social, political and intellectual contexts, as well as the development of techniques and their economic implications and their impact on the environment and the living conditions of populations.
Particular attention will be paid to the exact and experimental sciences: mechanics, astronomy, pneumatics, magnetism, electricity. The course will focus in particular on the applications of science to activities such as military engineering, navigation, topography, hydraulics.

Testi e studi:
Antonio Clericuzio, Uomo e Natura, Carocci, 2022
Richard Holmes, The age of wonder, Harper Press, 2023
Galileo Galilei, Antologia di testi, a cura di M. Camerota, Carocci, 2017
Dava Sobel, Longitude, Fourth estate, 1995

Travelling, seeing, XXth Century and Beyond

a-b) two among next texts (or combinations of texts):

Carlo Emilio Gadda, Verso la Certosa, Milano, Adelphi, 2013 + I viaggi la morte, Milano, Adelphi, 2023; or

Guido Piovene, Viaggio in Italia, Milano, Bompiani, 2017; or

Pier Paolo Pasolini, La lunga strada di sabbia, Roma, Contrasto, 2014 + Id., L’odore dell’India, Milano, Garzanti, 2015; oppure

Giorgio Manganelli, Esperimento con l’India, Milano, Adelphi, 1992 + Id., La favola pitagorica, Milano, Adelphi, 2005 + Id., L’isola pianeta, Milano, Adelphi, 2006; oppure

Goffredo Parise, Guerre politiche, Milano, Adelphi, 2007 + Id., L’eleganza è frigida, Milano, Adelphi, 2008 + Id., Lontano, Milano, Adelphi, 2015; oppure

Alberto Arbasino, America amore, Milano, Adelphi, 2011; oppure

Gianni Celati, Narratori delle pianure, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2018 + Id., Verso la foce, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2018 + Id., Avventure in Africa, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2011; oppure

Vitaliano Trevisan, Tristissimi giardini, Bari-Roma, Laterza, 2010 [or Id., Black Tulips, Torino, Einaudi Stile Libero 2022] + Antonella Anedda, Geografie, Milano, Garzanti, 2020 + Con gli occhi aperti, a cura di Andrea Cortellessa, Roma, Exòrma, 2016

c) Luigi Marfè, Oltre la «fine dei viaggi». I resoconti dell’altrove nella letteratura contemporanea, Firenze, Olschki 2009

d) to give a context in 20th and 21st century italian literary history:
Giulio Ferroni, Storia della letteratura italiana, quarto volume: Il Novecento e il nuovo millennio, Milano, Mondadori Università, 2012

The course outlines the formation and development of the main capitalistic economies both in Europe and out of Europe between 19th and 20th centuries.

I. The first and second industrial revolution
- The preconditions for capitalist development in modern Eastern Atlantic, Centuries 17-18th.
- Expanded commercial agricultural revolution and industrial revolution in Britain in the eighteenth century.
- The process of capitalist concentration in the nineteenth century and the second industrial revolution.
II. Economic development in the 20th century
- Industry, trade networks, financial markets on the eve of the First World War.
- The economic cycles in the post-war period
- The crisis of 1929 and national policies in the '30s.

Attending students:

Michel Beaud, A History of Capitalism, 1500-2000, Monthly Review Press, New York 2002.

plus a further book:

Fernand Braudel, Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism, Johns Hopkins Univiversity Press, Baltimora 1979.

First and foremost, the course aims to provide an overview of the main aesthetic categories--from the beautiful to the ugly, from the interesting to the Kitsch, from the sublime to horror and terror--to assess their relevance in contemporary art practices.
In addition to this, it will explore - in general - the conception of the museum between past and present, tradition and innovation.

Francesca Iannelli: Dissonanze contemporanee. Arte e vita in un tempo inconciliato. Quodlibet 2010 (up p. 206).
Krzysztof Pomian: Il museo. Una storia mondiale. Vol. 2: affermazione europea, 1789-1850, only cap. 23: "La Germania", Einaudi 2022, pp. 231-299.
Evelina Christillin, Christian Greco: Le memorie del futuro. Musei e ricerca, Einaudi 2021.
Musei e media digitali, di Nicolette Mandarano, Carocci 2019

Information theory and coding, elaboration and data structuring.
Introduction to programming languages, in particular the Python language and the NLTK tool

slides and handouts available on the course webpage https://sites.google.com/view/intro-info-rm3/home

Desire for the other, mimetic desire, desire for the object: Hegel, Kojève, Lacan, Girard

The course intends to analyze the ways in which the question of desire has been addressed along a trajectory of contemporary thought that goes from Alexandre Kojève to Jacques Lacan up to authors such as René Girard and Judith Butler.

G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, IV section
A. Kojève, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, Cornell University Press
J. Lacan, Ecrits, WW Norton and Co
R. Girard, Violence and the Sacred, Bllomsbury USA Academic

Ethics, Aesthetics and Film

M. De Caro, E. Terrone, I valori al cinema. Una prospettiva etico-estetica, Mondadori Università
P. D'Angelo, Estetica, Laterza

Title: Music and Emotions
Throughout the course, the following issues will be examined:
How can we justify attribution of emotional qualities to music? What do we mean when we say, for example, that music is sad, joyful, melancholic?
How can music can arouse emotions (e.g. emotion, sadness, euphoria) in the listener?
How can we explain our emotional response to music?
Finally, what kind of emotions are those generated by music listening?

Hanslick, E., On the Beautiful in Music (any English edition) (chapters 1-3).
Langer, S., Philosophy in a New Key (any edition) (ch. 8: On significance in music).
Lentini, D., La musica e le emozioni. Percorsi nell’estetica analitica, Mimesis, Milano, 2014 (first part).
Kivy, P., An Introduction to the Philosophy of Music, Clarendon Press 2022 (chapters. 1-7).

Further readings:
Bertinetto, A., Il pensiero dei suoni. Temi di filosofia della musica, Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2012 (cap. 3: Una scienza emozionale, pp. 99-154)

During the course, students will deal with an excursus in different philosophers, focusing on the concept of eudaimonia.
Through the reading and analysis of texts, students deal with different theories and notions of happiness in the following authors:
1. Plato;
2. Aristotle;
3. Epicurus

Aristotele, Etica Nicomachea, libro I, a cura di C. Natali, Laterza, Bari 1999.

Platone, Repubblica,libro IV, trad. di F. Sartori, intr. di M. Vegetti, note di B. Centrone, Laterza, Bari 1999.

Epicuro, Scritti Morali, Lettera a Meneceo, a cura di Diano, C., BUR .

M. Vegetti, L’Etica degli Antichi, Laterza, Bari 1998

Module 1: Analysis of the tradition regarding the teaching of philosophy in Italy, from the Gentile reform, to the Brocca commission project, to the guidelines for upper secondary schools.
Module 2: analysis and comparison of the main teaching models of philosophy teaching.
Module 3: the centrality of the philosophical text in the teaching of philosophy: analysis, commentary, paraphrase.
Module 4: argumentative writing: the philosophical essay between demonstration and argumentation; main rhetorical arguments.
Module 5: assessing philosophical competences: which didactic methodologies for which competences.
Module 6: Classroom exercises.

Caputo A. (2019), Manuale di didattica della filosofia, Armando editore.
Gaiani A. (2020), Insegnare concetti. La filosofia nella scuola di oggi, Carocci.
Gambetti F. (2023) Teaching Philosophy in Italy. A Country Report, in «Journal of Didactics of Philosophy», 7, pp. 1-4, https://doi.org/10.46586/JDPh.2023.10400
Modugno A. (2014), Filosofia e didattica. Apprendimento e acquisizione di competenze a scuola, Carocci.

Magical thought, I and rationality in contemporary philosophy

1) E. Cassirer, "La forma del concetto nel pensiero mitico" (Mimesis 2021), only the first essay
2) T. Adorno, "Stelle su misura" (Einaudi)
3) E. De Martino, "Il mondo magico" (edizione Boringhieri o nuova ediz. Einaudi)
4) P. Rossi, "Il tempo dei maghi", Raffaello Cortina 2006: Premessa, capitoli 1, 8
5) P. Pecere, "Il dio che danza", nottetempo 2021

The course aims to provide students with a historical-conceptual and methodological introduction to cognitive science. This is the study of the mind through the effort of synthesizing contributions from research fields such as philosophy, artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology and social sciences. Its intellectual origins date back to the mid-1950s, when researchers from different disciplinary fields began to develop theories of mind based on the notions of representation and computation. Its institutional origins date back to the 1970s, when the Cognitive Science Society was founded and the publication of the journal Cognitive Science began. Since then more than one hundred universities in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia have established cognitive science programs, and many more have established cognitive science courses.

J. Bermudez, Cognitive Science. An Introduction to the Science of the Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2023 (4th edition).

This course provides an introduction to:
(1) the role played by reasoning in rational interaction (discussions, exchanges of theses), in the solution of problems of logic and mathematics, and the consequence of a lack of adequate reasoning procedures in these areas;
(2) rational argumentation and the logical structure underlying valid arguments;
(3) a rigorous approach to deductive reasoning, based on the formal tools provided by propositional and quantified (deductive) logic.
The course also wishes to alert participants of the consequences of a lack of a rational course in the context of mass communication, information society, and online interaction, while developing the ability to correctly apply the basic rules of reasoning that are distinctive of deductive reasoning.

The course will apply, as far as possible, a `bottom-up' approach: from reasoning problems, to the tools required to solve them, to the theories in which such tools are defined, understood, and discussed. The course is divided into two modules:

Module A: It will approach and discuss the definition of an argument and of a good argument, the role played by arguments in our reactions to disagreement and in rational discussions, and the rational strategies for reacting to disagreement. It will then focus on deductive reasoning and on propositional logic in particular. In this context the course will introduce and discuss the basic rules of reasoning of propositional logic and it will discuss the notion of derivability, introduce the procedures for building a formal language, it will explore the semantics of propositional logic, the notions of logical consequence and validity, and the possible connections between derivability, logical consequence, and validity.

Module B: It will introduce the notion of a system of rules and that of an axiomatics system, together with the notions of soundness and completeness, and it will then focus on natural deduction and its soundness and completeness with respect to the semantics of classical propositional logic. It will then present basic facts, notions, and definitions of set theory, which are indispensable when it comes to an understanding of quantified logic. After that, the course will focus on quantified logic, by explaining the way in which quantified logic 'reads' predicates and quantifiers (expressions like 'Every' and 'Some'), it will introduce basic rules for reasoning with the quantifiers, and it will introduce the semantics of quantified logic. The course will then discuss soundness and completeness of natural deduction for quantified classical logic with respect to the semantics of quantified classical logic. Russell paradox will also be introduced and discussed.

The achievement of 12 CFU requires presenting the program of both modules; achievement of 6 CFU requires presenting the program of one of the two modules only.

Textbook:

Francesco Berto. Logica. Da zero a Gödel, Laterza, Roma 2008.

Institutional part on the general history of the sciences of the mind:
I) History of science and history of psychology 1. Why study the history of the sciences of the mind 2. Historiography of science: continuism and scientific revolutions 3. Normal science and paradigms 4. Historiography of psychology and neuroscience
II) The long philosophical past 1. The first psychological problems 2. The psychology of classical thought 3. Psychology from classical thought to Christianity 4. From the Arabs to the Renaissance 5. The change in the conception of man with Humanism and renaissance 6. Descartes 7. Rationalism and empiricism 8. From Descartes to the "idéologues" 9. The Kantian Interdiction
III) The birth of experimental psychology: from Helmholtz to Wundt 1. The birth of experimental psychology 2. Helmholtz: specific nervous energy and unconscious inference 3. The phenomenological innatism of Ewald Hering 4. Wilhelm Wundt and physiological psychology 5. Titchener and North American structuralism
IV) The reaction to Wundt in Europe and America 1. Brentano and the Brentanians 5. American functionalism, between evolutionism and pragmatism
V) The psychology of Gestalt 1. The beginnings 2. The laws of Gestalt 3. Isomorphism 4. The field model 5. Rise and diaspora
VI) The psychodynamic perspective and psychoanalysis 1. Introduction 2. From the organic conception to the psychodynamic conception of mental illness 3. Janet's theory 4. Psychoanalysis from Freud to the 50s 5. Jung's theory 6. Adler's theory 7. Themes of psychoanalysis of the late twentieth century and new themes 8. Phenomenological psychiatry 9. Personality theories 10. Integrated models between health and pathology of the mind
VII) The behaviorist perspective I. Introduction 2. American psychology at the beginning of the century: structuralism and functionalism 3. Behaviorism from Watson to the 50s 4. Skinner and the behaviorist utopia 5. Operationism in psychology 6. Personality, psychopathology and social learning in the behaviorist perspective
VIII) The cognitive perspective 1. Introduction 2. The study of cognitive processes: from the Würzburg school to Bartlett 3. The theories of intelligence 4. Theories of psychic development 5. Piaget's theory 6. Probabilistic and ecological theories of mental processes 7. Cognitivism 8. Cognitive science
IX) The historical-cultural perspective 1. Introduction 3. The historical-cultural theory of the mind from Vygotsky to the 60s 4. The theory of activity 5. Social constructionism. Cultural psychology
X) The biological and neuroscientific perspective 1. Introduction 2. Animal and comparative psychology. Ethology 3. Research on brain functions at the beginning of the twentieth century 4. Bechterev's reflexology 5. Pavlov's theory of higher nervous activity 6. Holistic theories of the functioning of the mind and brain in the early twentieth century 7. The neuroconnectionism of Hebb 8. Research on brain function and behavior: 1950-70 9. The theory of brain functional systems of Lurija 10. Cognitive, affective and social neuroscience.
XI) The contemporary debate 1. Crisis of theories or crisis of psychology 2. Empirical verification in psychology 3. Psychology of common sense and alternative psychology 4. The primacy of neuroscience 5. The discomfort of psychotherapy 6. Psychology and contemporary society.

monograph part:
Mind, nature and emotions. History of philosophical and scientific thought on emotions
1) The concept of passion from ancient philosophy to empiricist thought
2) The invention of the modern psychological category of emotion
3) Early biological conceptions of emotions: evolutionism and Darwin
4) Somatic theories of emotions
5) Emotions in the psychodynamic perspective and psychoanalysis
6) The neurobiology of emotions
7) Emotions and disease, history of psychosomatics
8) Modulating emotions: history of psychopharmacology and neurotechnology for emotions

Luccio R. (2013). Storia della psicologia: un’introduzione. Roma- Bari: Laterza (capitoli: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 paragrafi 5.1 e 5.5; 6).
Mecacci L. (2019). Storia della psicologia dal Novecento a oggi. Roma- Bari: Laterza (capitoli: 3; 4; 5; 6 paragrafi 1,3,4,5; 7; 8).

The objective of the course is to acquire tools and analysis skills aimed, in particular, at the use of new IT tools. Today, all IT tools are central to many activities and digital "models" are increasingly confirming themselves as indispensable elements in modern society.
A first point of reference for us in this course is that offered by the AICA, with the best-known ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence).
In fact, some of the topics will focus on the need to contextualize training starting from the basics, thus starting to understand the ways in which digital machines work, their way of processing, storing and producing useful results. Alongside this, we will focus on other, more specific aspects, delving into the characteristics of IT tools and their ability to integrate into modern society, characterized by increasingly current and inevitable elements, such as, for example:
mobility - and hence the importance of building "responsive" content, capable of adapting to the different tools of use (smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc.);
the importance of continuous training, aimed at combating digital illiteracy (we will delve deeper into this aspect), the digital divide, etc.;
Internet (from web 1.0 to web 2.0), the cloud, security (malware, privacy), ML (machine learning);
the advent of digital in society, in its various articulations and its effects (social, work, economic).

The seminar addresses issues related to the territory and the city. The story of cardinal concepts such as cities, communities, habitats, nature, territory, landscapes, and projects will be presented, discussed and updated, from different perspectives: philosophy, art, political theory, sociology, history, geography, architecture, law, economics, political ecology, communication.

A selection of readings will be suggested.

1. General neuroscience principles for understanding self-control and emotions.
- Brain and mind. Between biological evolution, heredity, environment and experience
- The maturation of brain circuits of emotion and voluntary control of behavior
- Attention, working memory, self-control
Exercises:
- How do you feel? Description of affective states and emotional literacy
- The experience of (dis)control of the mind

2. We become what we repeatedly do: the plasticity of the brain and behavior
- How the neuron and neurotransmission work
- Neuroplasticity and learning
- The different types of associative learning
- Construction and fixation of habits and automatisms
Exercises:
- Exploring memory
- Training attention with breathing

3. What is an emotion?
- Emotions as adaptive programs/ Emotions as constructs
- The main theories of emotion
- Human history and the evolutionary mismatch of emotional programs
Exercises:
- Basic meditation
- Remembered wellness and reactivated wellness

4. The regulation of emotions
- Introdutciont to the psychobiology of emotions
- Emotions and language, Recognizing and naming an emotion as implicit emotional regulation
- The different possible strategies of emotional regulation, adaptive/ dysfunctional
- Learning and modification of emotional response styles
Exercises:
- Naming emotions (Strengthening emotional vocabulary)
- Introduction to body scan
- STOP technique - Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Proceed

5. Emotions and stress
- Brief history of the concept of stress, from pathophysiology, to the cognitive dimension of emotions
- The mechanisms of stress
- The impact of chronic stress on the brain and cognitive and executive functions
Exercises:
- Measuring perceived stress
- Relaxation training
- Gratitude journal


6. Cognitive training and contemplative practices. Mindfulness-based practices: scientific evidence and general introduction
- What is Mindfulness
- Risks and consequences of chronic distraction and mind wandering
- Mind wandering and negative mood
- Mindfulness and emotion regulation
- Mindfulness and neuroplasticity
Exercises:
- Basic Mindfulness Meditation
- Meditation in motion


7. Voluntary control of behavior: how it works, how it discharges, how it is enhanced
- The neural basis of self-control
- Attention and self-control
- Self-control and ego depletion (Ego depletion)
Exercises:
- Self-affirmation;
- Implementation of intentions


8. Voluntary control of behavior: how to enhance it
- Self-control can be trained and enhanced
- Physical exercise as a form of training self-control
- Ego depletion, Mindfulness and other exercises to train the "muscle" of self-control
Exercises:
- Basic Mindfulness Meditation
- Mindfulness meditation on emotions

9. Prosocial behaviors, cognitive empathy
- Prosocial behaviors, executive functions and self-control
- Prosocial behaviors, health and psychological well-being
- What is empathy 1: Cognitive empathy and brain correlates
Exercises:
- The Reflective Listening Technique;
- Cultivating loving kindness


10. Prosocial behaviors, affective empathy and compassion
- What is affective empathy and its brain correlates
- Empathy as an embodied simulation of others' emotions
- Neuroplasticity and the prosocial brain
Exercises:
- Compassion meditation
- Feeling connected

Stefano Canali, Regolare le emozioni. Teorie e metodi per lo sviluppo e il potenziamento dell’autocontrollo. Carocci, Roma, 2021