Learning objectives

The course aims to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to independently analyze and interpret the concept of emotion and emotional sharing. The objective of the course is to move away from a psychologistic perspective and question the currently dominant conceptions of emotion in order to analyze their centrality, in the context of perceptual activity, the human formation process, social ontology, and psychopathology. The course will provide the conceptual, methodological, and cultural elements suitable for training and increasing critical and argumentative skills, as well as adequate linguistic competence in the subject. By the end of the course, the student will be able to understand the philosophical texts covered in class, to frame them critically and to proceed to their correct hermeneutics; will be able to appropriately employ correct philosophical terminology; will be able to independently make judgments on the topics covered in class; will be able to communicate philosophical arguments to specialists and non-specialists, and to pursue her philosophical studies.

Prerequisites and basic notions

There are no prerequisites.

Program

The course focuses on the concept of feeling and emotion in biology, and therefore on the elementary levels of the affective sphere. The course's main thrust engages with Max Scheler's phenomenology of emotions, for whom feeling is not a secondary subjective state, nor a disturbance of reason, but a primordial form of access to value and orientation in the world. While in Formalismus Scheler identifies an original form of value reception (Wertnehmung) that precedes and establishes perception (Wahrnehmung), in Man's Place in the Cosmos he identifies the elementary level of feeling in the Gefühlsdrang, a primordial form of feeling also present in plants and characterized as a simple stance, as being attracted or repelled. Starting from Scheler, the course will address the distinction between feeling (Fühlen) and emotion and will subsequently engage with some particularly relevant contemporary perspectives. The course will be structured around two main themes. 1. Scheler and the Phenomenology of Feeling. The first part will be dedicated to Max Scheler's phenomenology of emotions. The primacy of feeling, value perception (Wertnehmung), the stratification of affective life, the Gefühlsdrang, sympathy, love, resentment, and the ordo amoris will be analyzed. Particular attention will be given to the idea that feeling is not an irrational or purely subjective dimension, but an original form of axiological orientation. 2. Pathologies of Feeling and AI. The second part focuses on the relationship between emotions and psychiatry, and emotions and AI. Reference texts (provisional): M. Scheler, The Position of Man in the Cosmos, FrancoAngeli (including the Reading Guide); M. Scheler, Love and Knowledge, Morcelliana; M. Scheler, Ordo amoris, Morcellina or other editions. In addition to these texts, students should choose to bring to the exam some in-depth articles that the instructor will indicate during the lessons. Notice for non-attending students Non-attending students are invited to view the lectures in full before reading the texts, or in parallel with it, and to contact the teacher in case of doubts or difficulties in preparing for the exam.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The lectures will be primarily classroom-based—and will consist of commentary, reworking, and extensions of the texts studied—but with ample time for discussion and interaction. Some of the lectures will be video-recorded and made available on Moodle. A coherent and structured series of recordings will also be created, incorporating material from other lectures and conferences, to provide non-attending students with a suitable introduction to the course.

Learning assessment procedures

Assessment of learning outcomes involves an oral exam. The exam will cover the syllabus texts and the topics covered in class. Non-attending students will also be required to refer to video recordings. Students may submit a written essay to the exam, intended as a writing exercise. The essay should be conceived as a thoughtful catalog of the sections of the syllabus texts that were most relevant or that aroused the greatest interest. To avoid confusion between your comments and quotations, the latter should be placed in quotation marks with the page number. The essay should conclude with a personal reflection of a couple of pages, where students may refer to their own experience or other texts. It is recommended that students submit a draft of the essay to the instructor well in advance to obtain initial feedback and avoid the risk of going off-topic. The essay, approximately 20,000 characters long, should be submitted by email at least five days before the exam. The file, in Word format, must be named with your SURNAME and COURSE TITLE.

Evaluation criteria

In the exam evaluation, the following will be considered in particular: 1) possession of an in-depth knowledge of the main themes of the texts covered during the course (12/30 points); 2) the ability to argue and develop an independent and original reflection on the theoretical implications of these themes (12/30 points; 3) competence in specialized vocabulary (6/30 points).

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The grade will take into account both the knowledge acquired and the ability to rework it in an original way.

Exam language

italiano