Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding
1. To know the philosophical foundations of the main ethical and moral notions that intervene in the sphere of training experiences, with particular attention to the themes of the subject, of the person and of the interpersonal relationship.
2. To know the main philosophical and cultural models for describing personal identity and to be able to read the structure and complexity of educational processes in their multiple aspects: those linked to the person's emotions and body; those related to social aspects; those related to the relationship with the other; those related to the role of contexts and typical environments of the contemporary.
3. To know and understand the ethical and philosophical nature of the concept of formation, which should be understood not only as training for learners or users, but also as a process that transforms the formator.
4. Understanding the issue of personal identity formation, exploring the narrative dimension of the self and discussing the relationship between identity and the digital environment, an increasingly negligible dimension in today's educational practices.



Abilities
1. To orientate critically oneself among the main theoretical, cultural and philosophical perspectives characterizing the ethical and moral questions connected to the pedagogic processes, with particular attention to the themes of the subject, of the person and of the interpersonal relationship.
2. To use the philosophical lexicon correctly, gaining a greater awareness of the fundamental concepts in the ethical and educational field, favouring the acquisition of a more responsible and aware action capacity in the different relational and educational contexts.
3. To conduct autonomously analysis of empirical situations typical of the contemporary world, inherent both the educational and the relational practices in general, tracing the terms of the problem of personal identity to philosophical categories and reinterpreting the lived experiences, by oneself or by others, at a greater complexity level.
4. To elaborate philosophically founded connections with respect to the problem of the formation of personal identity also in the web-digital environment.

Program

Title: Personal identity, storytelling and digital environments

Synthetic description
The course will investigate the processes concerning our personal identity formation, in particular the relationship between personal identity, narration and web-digital environment.

Contents
- During the first lessons some personal identity models based on memory (starting from Locke) and on the notion of "social self" will be recalled.
- Then the relationship between personal identity and self-narration will be explored, based on some contemporary philosophical texts (including Adriana Cavarero, Paul Ricoeur, Aldo Giorgio Gargani). It will be highlighted how they allow a reflection on the concept of "history of a life" and "memory" able to highlight the link of three nodal elements in the process of identity formation: singular existence, the relationship with each other and the expression of the self. The role of corporeity will be investigated in the latter.
- In the second part of the course, the concepts dealt with in the first part will be applied to the analysis of self-narration and self-expression practices typical of the web environment. It will be discussed how the concept of narration, given the nature of the digital medium, can change consistently. We will deepen - through concrete examples and their theoretical discussion - the question of the construction of our digital identity, the mask and self-representation (for example through selfie), in their relationship with the device of social networks.
- In the concluding lectures we will try to show, taking up the concepts analyzed in the first part of the course, within which limits the internet can be considered a new self-narrative morphology that represents a form of "self care", in the sense that expression gave Michel Foucault.


Educational organization of the program development
The lessons will be mainly frontal, in order to discuss the essential contents of the program. However, there will be room for dialogue between the students and the lecturer, encouraging a participatory moment with interventions, questions and short debates on the issues discussed each time during the lesson or for clarification or further information on previous lessons.

Examination Methods

• Reference texts
To achieve the learning objectives listed above, mandatory for everyone, attending and not attending, is the study of the following texts:


Articles:
- P. Ricoeur, “L’identità narrativa” (disponibile al link http://www.allegoriaonline.it/PDF/8.pdf), “Allegoria”, n. 60, 2009, pp. 93-104.
- A.G. Gargani, “La nascita attraverso la scrittura”, in “Anterem” 60, giugno 2000 (testo disponibile sul sito http://www.anteremedizioni.it/files/file/aldo_giorgio_gargani.pdf), solo le seguenti pagine: pp. 8-10.

Books:
- R. Bodei, Destini personali, Feltrinelli, Milano 2002 [solo le seguenti pagine: pp. 37-53 e pp. 293-300].
- A. Cavarero, Tu che mi guardi tu che mi racconti. Filosofia della narrazione, Feltrinelli, Milano 2001 [solo le seguenti pagine: pp. 7-64; pp. 173-178]
- G. Riva, Selfie. Narcisismo e identità, Il mulino, Bologna 2016.
- Ippolita, Anime elettriche, Jaca Book, Milano 2016 [solo le seguenti parti: Metamorfosi (pp. 31-45), Confessione (pp. 47-63), Genius (pp. 65-80)].

• In addition to the mandatory texts, students can read the following texts for a personal study of some parts of the program:

- F. Cambi, L’autobiografia come metodo formativo, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2005.
- L. Denicolai, Riflessioni del sé. Esistenza, identità e social network, “Media Education”, Vol. 5, n. 2, 2014, pp. 164-181 (disponibile on line al sito http://riviste.erickson.it/med/wp-content/uploads/4_Denicolai_II_2014_fin.pdf).
- U. Fadini, Stravaganze. Annotazioni sull’addio in immagini, in I. Pelgreffi, Il filosofo e il suo schermo. Video-interviste confessioni monologhi, KE Edizioni, Tricase (LE) 2016, pp. 51-59.
- M. Foucault, Sull’origine dell’ermeneutica del sé, Cronopio, Napoli 2012.
- F. Scrivano, Diario e narrazione, Quodlibet, Macerata 2014.
- M. Serres, Non è un mondo per vecchi. Perché i ragazzi rivoluzionano il sapere, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2013.


Exam

The exam consists, both for attending and non-attending students, in an oral test, in the form of an dialogue on the contents of the program. The goal of the oral test is to to determine the expected learning outcomes. The evaluation, expressed in thirtieths, will take into account of:

- knowledge of the main contents of the exam program
- ability to reflect critically on the contents of the exam program
- ability to autonomously elaborate philosophically founded connections, referring to the references texts (and, in addiction the optional texts), with respect to the contents of the exam program.