Teaching code

4S00985

Teacher

Tommaso Tuppini

Coordinatore

Tommaso Tuppini

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

M-FIL/01 - THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY

Period

Sem. 1A dal Sep 21, 2020 al Oct 31, 2020.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars

Learning outcomes

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.

Program

THE VOID

The void is one of the many bogeymen of Western culture, especially of philosophical culture. "Horror vacui" is a very recurring expression in the history of art and of thought. We all have a little fear of emptiness, often because we naively identify emptiness with non-being, as if emptiness were a mask of nothingness. But this is not the case. On the contrary, emptiness is one of the most fruitful experiences we are given and the world would be truly unlivable if there were not always, even when we did not notice it, a measure of emptiness to keep it together.
We will try to understand what "void" means by reading two extraordinary texts that are situated on the threshold that unites-separates science and literature: "Eureka" by the American writer Edgar A. Poe and some passages of his ancient model, the "De rerum natura" by Lucretius. As a term of philosophical mediation, the collection of essays Althusser dedicated to materialism will help us. It is in fact the great tradition of Western materialism to have focused the notion of emptiness as best as possible and to teach us what use it can be made of.

Examination Methods

Exam is oral and evaluates the mastery of the topics and concepts contained in the books indicated in the bibliography. The questions evaluate the vocabulary, the critical-argumentative capacity, the ability to autonomously rework what has been learned.

Teaching materials e documents

•   E.A. Poe, Rivelazione mesmerica   (pdf, it, 226 KB, 16/10/20)
•   Rig-Veda   (pdf, it, 53 KB, 16/10/20)