Learning outcomes

The course aims at introducing and discussing some of the major issues concerning political philosophy, especially those related to the contemporary global challenges that interest this field of research.

Program

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge in the History of Philosophy

Syllabus: Myths of violence: from Thomas Hobbes to Carl Schmitt

Through the reading of Hobbes’ Leviathan the course aims at analyzing the anthropological premises of modern political theory and the epistemological foundations of political rationalism. Consequently, by reading Carl Schmitt’s famous interpretation of Hobbes, we will try to define the role of violence in the shaping of the notion of ‘the political’ and its myth. The course aims also at proposing a critical and deconstructive approach to the typically modern notion of politics as space of violence and domination (Herrschaft).

Bibliography:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviatano, Bur 2011.
Carl Schmitt, Il Leviatano nella dottrina dello Stato di Thomas Hobbes, in Scritti su Thomas Hobbes, Giuffrè, Milano 1986, pp. 61- 133.
Id., Il concetto di ‘politico’, in Le categorie del ‘politico’, il Mulino, Bologna 1972, pp.101-165.
(Photocopies of Schmitt’s texts will be available at the “Copisteria La Rapida”
Bernini Lorenzo, Farnesi Camellone Mauro, Marcucci Nicola, La sovranità scomposta. Sull’attualità del Leviatano, Mimesis, Milano 2010.

Teaching methods: Lectures based on reading and interpretation of the texts.

Examination Methods

Oral examination