History of Early Modern Philosophy Ii
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with a thorough knowledge of the history of early modern philosophical thought. The course will encourage the students' disposition to investigate new topics, thus increasing their knowledge and competence. Students will also develop a comprehension of the many interdisciplinary perspectives that characterise early modern thought.
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of the course, students will:
- to present in detail the development of the history of modern Western philosophy, with particular reference to the topics addressed in the course;
- understand the relationships connecting the history of philosophy to the history of science, politics, society, culture, theology, and religion;
- understand the concepts and lines of argument used by the authors analysed;
- know the basic methodological tools of the historical-philosophical investigation.
Moreover, students will be able to:
- apply the knowledge acquired in framing early modern authors and texts historically;
- apply the understanding of the historical relationships between philosophy and other doctrines to the analysis and discussion of texts and problems;
- apply the understanding of concepts and argumentative forms to the analysis of complex texts and problems.
- to present in detail the development of the history of modern Western philosophy, with particular reference to the topics addressed in the course;
- understand the relationships connecting the history of philosophy to the history of science, politics, society, culture, theology, and religion;
- understand the concepts and lines of argument used by the authors analysed;
- know the basic methodological tools of the historical-philosophical investigation.
Moreover, students will be able to:
- apply the knowledge acquired in framing early modern authors and texts historically;
- apply the understanding of the historical relationships between philosophy and other doctrines to the analysis and discussion of texts and problems;
- apply the understanding of concepts and argumentative forms to the analysis of complex texts and problems.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
The life of the mind. Hobbes, Condillac, Rousseau
Descartes imposes on the modern philosophers a new image of the mind as 'res cogitans', a thinking thing. This insistence on the act of thinking leads them to abandon the ancient and medieval doctrine of the faculties of the soul and to consider rather the processes that shape the mind and enable it to perform a series of operations. Still in the wake of Descartes, who had affirmed both the real distinction between mind and body and their radical union in man, philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries strongly emphasised the role that passions and needs play in directing our mental activities. It thus becomes possible to ask how thought arises and what its embryonic forms are. Psychology is replaced by a history of the mind that accounts for both its capacities and limitations.
This course will analyse the work of three authors who devote very detailed investigations to the life of the mind.
Assuming a strictly materialist perspective, opposite to that of Descartes, Hobbes provides a dynamic analysis of the mind as a mental discourse based on the establishment of series of thoughts and deduces the totality of the passions from the interaction between external objects and the vital movement of the human body.
With the mental experiment of the statue, Condillac adopts an internal perspective on the mind. In doing so, he succeeds in thematising the genesis of our sensitive faculties and in providing a highly original phenomenology of the body as a place of emergence of the subject.
Finally, it is up to Rousseau, again within the framework of a mental experiment, that of Emile's education, to show how the physical and mental (and moral) dimensions are inextricably linked.
Descartes imposes on the modern philosophers a new image of the mind as 'res cogitans', a thinking thing. This insistence on the act of thinking leads them to abandon the ancient and medieval doctrine of the faculties of the soul and to consider rather the processes that shape the mind and enable it to perform a series of operations. Still in the wake of Descartes, who had affirmed both the real distinction between mind and body and their radical union in man, philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries strongly emphasised the role that passions and needs play in directing our mental activities. It thus becomes possible to ask how thought arises and what its embryonic forms are. Psychology is replaced by a history of the mind that accounts for both its capacities and limitations.
This course will analyse the work of three authors who devote very detailed investigations to the life of the mind.
Assuming a strictly materialist perspective, opposite to that of Descartes, Hobbes provides a dynamic analysis of the mind as a mental discourse based on the establishment of series of thoughts and deduces the totality of the passions from the interaction between external objects and the vital movement of the human body.
With the mental experiment of the statue, Condillac adopts an internal perspective on the mind. In doing so, he succeeds in thematising the genesis of our sensitive faculties and in providing a highly original phenomenology of the body as a place of emergence of the subject.
Finally, it is up to Rousseau, again within the framework of a mental experiment, that of Emile's education, to show how the physical and mental (and moral) dimensions are inextricably linked.
Prerequisites for admission
None.
Teaching methods
The course includes lectures with the possibility of discussion.
Teaching Resources
Common course of 6 and 9 CFU:
- Hobbes, Leviathan, I, chap. I-VIII. Varie edizioni italiane disponibili: Leviatano, a cura di R. Santi, Bompiani, Milano, 2004 (con testo latino e italiano a fronte); Leviatano, a cura di A. Pacchi, con la collaborazione con A. Lupoli, Laterza, Roma-Bari, più volte ristampato.
- Condillac, Traité des sensations.
- S. Landucci, Una cosa che pensa, Mondadori, Milano, cap. III e IV.
Programma da 9 CFU
- Rousseau, Émilio, books I, II, III, IV (until the "Profession de foi").
One book from this list (two books for non attending students):
- L. Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: its Basis and its Genesis, OUP, 1936.
- A. Ferrarin, Artificio, desiderio, considerazione di sé. Hobbes e i fondamenti antropologici della politica, Pisa, ETS, 2001.
- Rita Fornari, Condillac. Ontologia ed empirismo, Roma, Aracne Editrice, 2015.
- Isabel F. Knight, The geometric spirit: the Abbé de Condillac and the French Enlightenment, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968.
- David Gauthier, Rousseau: the sentiment of existence, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2006.
- Jean Starobinski, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, la transparence et l'obstacle, Paris, Plon, 1957.
- Teaching proposal for non-attending students: 2 lessons dedicated to non-attending students in videoconference (Teams). The lectures will be recorded and made available in the online environment. The dates will be published in the course's MyAriel space.
- Validity of the course: 1 academic year, as per the teaching regulations of the degree course.
- Hobbes, Leviathan, I, chap. I-VIII. Varie edizioni italiane disponibili: Leviatano, a cura di R. Santi, Bompiani, Milano, 2004 (con testo latino e italiano a fronte); Leviatano, a cura di A. Pacchi, con la collaborazione con A. Lupoli, Laterza, Roma-Bari, più volte ristampato.
- Condillac, Traité des sensations.
- S. Landucci, Una cosa che pensa, Mondadori, Milano, cap. III e IV.
Programma da 9 CFU
- Rousseau, Émilio, books I, II, III, IV (until the "Profession de foi").
One book from this list (two books for non attending students):
- L. Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: its Basis and its Genesis, OUP, 1936.
- A. Ferrarin, Artificio, desiderio, considerazione di sé. Hobbes e i fondamenti antropologici della politica, Pisa, ETS, 2001.
- Rita Fornari, Condillac. Ontologia ed empirismo, Roma, Aracne Editrice, 2015.
- Isabel F. Knight, The geometric spirit: the Abbé de Condillac and the French Enlightenment, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968.
- David Gauthier, Rousseau: the sentiment of existence, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2006.
- Jean Starobinski, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, la transparence et l'obstacle, Paris, Plon, 1957.
- Teaching proposal for non-attending students: 2 lessons dedicated to non-attending students in videoconference (Teams). The lectures will be recorded and made available in the online environment. The dates will be published in the course's MyAriel space.
- Validity of the course: 1 academic year, as per the teaching regulations of the degree course.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The oral examination will focus on understanding the texts in the syllabus and the problems and concepts developed in the course. Students will be assessed for their ability to discursively organise knowledge and for their ability to critically reason about the study carried out; the lecturer will take into account the quality of the exposition, the correct use of specialised vocabulary, and the linearity of the exposition. The final grade will be expressed in thirtieths.
Professor(s)
Reception:
Wednesday from 15 to 18 p.m. Contact the professor to schedule an appointment.
Dipartimento di Filosofia, Cortile Ghiacciaia, Ist floor.