Learning outcomes

To achieve an adequate understanding of the egological foundation of experience in the phenomenological thought.

Program

EGO, CONSCIUOSNESS

At the end of the last century an elderly pope complained about the relativism of contemporary philosophy. It is a common place in our culture: in the twentieth century we are totally unsure what to do because the rock of the foundation was submerged by the tide of difference and perspectivism. Nothing more wrong than this. The great tradition of phenomenological thought begins with the attempt to find a certain foundation of our practices and ways of living in the world. It is an essentially Cartesian desire, which Husserl recognizes as the motive of his decade-long search: to find a univocal ground that does not deny but justifies the multifaceted and equivocal character of experience. It is not a metaphysical and speculative foundation, but an effective and self-evident one, capable of self-affirmation in the turmoils of existence. Husserl calls this ground "transcendental ego". The young Sartre moves to the attack of this egological perspective and argues that only the impersonality of Consciousness grounds the movement of experience. What is the difference between Ego and Consciousness? Which of the two is the true ground of the experience?

Examination Methods

Orale exam.

Teaching materials e documents

•   Husserl, Idee, Libro I, §§ 2-5   (pdf, it, 711 KB, 17/10/17)
•   Husserl, Idee, Libro I, § 58 - Libro II § 39   (pdf, it, 919 KB, 29/08/17)
•   Sartre, Un'idea fondamentale della fenomenologia di Husserl: l'intenzionalità   (pdf, it, 22434 KB, 04/10/17)