Teaching code

4S00985

Teacher

Nicola Turrini

Coordinator

Nicola Turrini

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

M-FIL/01 - THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY

Period

Sem. 1A dal Sep 25, 2023 al Nov 4, 2023.

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

Hermeneutics
The principal aim of the course is to give an adequate understanding of what philosophical hermeneutics properly is. Hermeneutics is usually understood as the discipline and art of interpretation. This type of hermeneutics arises from the exegesis of sacred and humanistic texts, which follows the rediscovery of Greek civilization with the Italian Renaissance and the free reading of the Bible with the German Reformation. The theory of interpretation is a variety of philological and religious hermeneutics, it is a tool for understanding the written text and the dogmatic subjectivity. Instead, properly philosophical hermeneutics is not a theory of interpretation and has nothing to do with text and language. Philosophical hermeneutics was born in the twentieth century with Husserl - which defines phenomenology as a “hermeneutics of conscious life” – and with Heidegger, for whom the exercise of philosophy is a “hermeneutics of facticity”, i.e. the understanding existence has of itself. Such hermeneutics is not “interpretation” but “explication” and “unfolding” (Auslegung), i.e. spontaneous articulation of being, an event that precedes language and in which Being unfolds and participates in all possible ways of being.
At the end of the course, students will be able to follow the twisting paths of 20th century hermeneutics with greater awareness and agility, thus enhancing their knowledge of contemporary philosophical debate. They will have the capacity to autonomously comprehend texts and subjects addressed during the course, to employ a proper philosophical terminology, to communicate philosophical topics with specialists and non-specialists, and the ability to to continue studies at a MA level.

Prerequisites and basic notions

No prerequisites are required.

Program

Orosemiotics and hermeneutic of catastrophe.
This year's course will be devoted to some new frontiers of semiotic and hermeneutic thought that can be gathered under the name of "orosemiotics" or "boundary semiotics". The programme will develop from an analysis of the notion of "boundary [boundary]" as it was formalised by the father of contemporary semiotics, Charles Sanders Peirce, subsequently discussing the revival of this notion by the Italian philosopher Giovanni Maddalena and the Colombian mathematician Fernando Zalamea. In the second part of the course, the similarities between the previously discussed notion of 'orosemiotics' and the 'catastrophe theory' developed in the 1950s and 1960s by the great French mathematician and philosopher René Thom will be highlighted. Thom suggested employing the topological theory of dynamical systems to model the discontinuous changes that occur with a certain frequency in natural phenomena, but also in phenomena relating to semiosis and meaning, devoting particular attention to the concept of 'boundary'.
The bibliography is purely indicative, the pages to be studied for each text will be indicated in class; some texts are optional.
- G. Maddalena, F. Zalamea, A New Analytic/Synthetic/Horotic Paradigm. From Mathematical Gesture to Synthetic/Horotic Reasoning, 2009 (article).
- G. Maddalena, Philosophy of Gesture, Carocci, 2021.
- G. Maddalena, The philosophy of gesture : completing pragmatists' incomplete revolution, 2015.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The course will be developed through lectures in which the texts under study will be commented on directly. Peircian theories will also be considered from "case studies" to show the operational and applicative potential of catastrophe theory and orosemiotics. For attending students, in addition to the texts indicated in the bibliography, active and participative attendance at the lectures is to be considered an integral part of the course.

Learning assessment procedures

For all students, both those attending and those not attending, the test will consist of an oral examination covering the entire programme. Alternatively, it is possible to take the examination through the discussion of a 25,000-word paper, to be handed in at least one week before the chosen roll call; the topic of the paper must be discussed in advance with the lecturer.
Non-attending students are invited to arrange a reception with the lecturer for an orientation interview in view of the examination.

Evaluation criteria

To pass the examination, students must demonstrate that they:
- possess sufficient mastery of the themes, conceptual tools, and reflective paths presented by the texts in the examination bibliography;
- possess the ability to retrace and rework the texts in the bibliography in a sufficiently rigorous and subjective manner.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The final mark in the oral test will be expressed in thirtieths.

Exam language

italiano