The course aims to foster a fruitful dialogue with the classics of German philosophy, focusing on a topic of crucial interest and enduring relevance. The learning objectives (whose attainment will be carefully checked and tested during the exam) comprise an ability to read and understand texts: students will be exposed to dialogue with some of the protagonists of German philosophical thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They will sharpen their awareness of key terminology and, at the same time, increase their disposition to connect acquired knowledge with personal experience. The anticipated learning objectives are as follows:

Knowledge:
1) Knowledge and understanding of classical German philosophy and its major exponents;
2) Knowledge and understanding of some of the most important texts of classical German philosophy; 3) Knowledge and understanding of the German philosophical lexicon developed between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries.

Skills:
1) Applying acquired knowledge and understanding to the reading of and commentary on philosophical texts belonging to the classical German tradition, possibly in the original or at least with some reference to it; this should be demonstrated by the possession of an appropriate vocabulary and the ability to identify interpretative problems and suggest possible solutions;
2) Applying acquired knowledge and understanding to the translation of the key words of classical German philosophy, which are often intrinsically polysemous; 3) Making autonomous judgments and engaging in independent reasoning;
4) Developing communication skills in the following areas: participating in guided discussions, explaining ideas and defending these through argument, and possibly delivering short presentations in class;
5) Enacting autonomous learning skills through the development of an appropriate methodology of study and interpretation of texts;
6) Developing the ability to connect study outcomes with personal experience with regard to the specific subject of the course, wherein particular attention will be paid to ability to differentiate between historical circumstances and contexts.

PREREQUISITES: Knowledge of early-modern and contemporary philosophy at B.A. level. The linguistic considerations of the classes do not presuppose knowledge of German nor of Ancient Greek and Latin; all necessary information for a full understanding of the concepts and key words arising during the course will be provided in the teaching.


COURSE CONTENT: Introspection, Research and Exercise. The Dimensions of “Care” in Classical German Philosophy.

The course aims to offer a brand new narrative of classical German philosophy both chronologically and theoretically: on the one hand, classical German philosophy will be extended backwards so as to include the late Enlightenment, on the other hand, it will be reconstructed using the notions of “spiritual exercise”, “art of living” and “care”. These notions have originally established themselves in the different, yet not unrelated contexts of contemporary philosophy (Heidegger, Foucault) and scholarship on Ancient thought (Pierre Hadot, Christoph Horn), but represent a valuable key also to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German culture, which they help to describe in a different way than we are accustomed to. The conception of philosophy which follows from this novel picture is mainly practical and existential, and is based on self-knowledge and the clear insight on one’s role in the world as preconditions for any further intellectual endeavor, but most importantly for daily behavior. Philosophy’s task, to be shared by theology and literature, is therefore to guide the human being to discovering their own vocation and the best means to realize it, according to what Lessing and Kant identified as Socrates’ teaching, which was however immediately forgotten by his scholars and successors.
In order to do justice to the specific features of this theoretical and cultural project, often obscured by the epistemological character of both criticism and the subsequent idealistic theories, the course will consist of three parts:

1) Introduction to classical German philosophy e revision of its traditional image: periodization,
alternative historiographical categories, authors, ideas, literary genres;
2) Key words: care (“Sorge”), vocation (“Bestimmung”), mission, (“Sendung”), calling (“Beruf”/“Berufung”), aim (“Zweck”) or final aim (“Endzweck”), striving for perfection/perfecting (“Vervollkommnung”), meditation (“Betrachtung”) e comparison with equivalent ancient terms referring to exercise, practice and care:
3) Authors and texts: reading of and commentary on selected passages taken from philosophical, theological and literary works by authors such as Johann Joachim Spalding, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte.


TEACHING METHODS: The modality of course delivery will depend on the University’s measures against COVID-19. The course will consist of two parts: 24 hours of lectures (=4 CFU) and 24 hours of exercises (=2 CFU). In the first part of the course, the professor will provide all relevant historical, theoretical and historiographical elements following a traditional explanatory method. In the second part of the course, the teaching mode will shift to seminars with discussions initially guided by the professor, papers given by students and/or team working. The ways in which professor and students, but most importantly students themselves will interact mutually, will be object of experimentation and will possibly be reassessed in the making, in the light of the attendees’ number, their potential suggestions and specific learning needs. The students’ active and concrete contribution will play a crucial role in the process of co-creating this common learning path. Non-attending students are requested to contact the professor in order to identify alternative and substitutive teaching/learning modes.


MANDATORY READING FOR BOTH ATTENDING AND NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

1) Materiale didattico caricato attraverso la piattaforma e-learning;

2) L. A. Macor, Bestimmung des Menschen, in Tra filosofia della natura e antropologia filosofica. Parole-chiave nel percorso di Gian Franco Frigo, a cura di M. Dalla Valle, D. De Pretto, F. Grigenti e L. Illetterati, Padova University Press, Padova 2013, pp. 27-35;*

3) One of the following texts: J. J. Spalding, La vocazione dell’uomo, ed. by L. Balbiani and G. Landolfi Petrone, Bompiani, Milano 2011; I. Kant, La metafisica dei costumi, ed. by G. Vidari, revised by N. Merker, Laterza, Roma – Bari 1970 o 1983 o 2004 (only: Principi metafisici della dottrina della virtù) or Metafisica dei costumi, ed. by G. Landolfi Petrone, Bompiani, Milano 2006 (only: Dottrina della virtù); J. G. Fichte, Missione del dotto, ed. by D. Fusaro, Afterword by M. Ivaldo, Bompiani, Milano 2013 or La missione del dotto, ed. by E. Alessiato, Orthotes, Napoli – Salerno 2020.

* This article will be made available on e-learning.


LEARNING MATERIALS

Documents published on e-learning will include parts 1) and 2) of Mandatory reading as well as additional learning materials for the second part of the course.

Oral exam for the first part of the course + exercises (or substitutive activity) for the second part of the course.
The final mark will be the weighted mean of the marks obtained in the two parts.

The oral exam (face to face or online depending on the University’s measures against COVID-19) will be the same for both attending and non-attending students, and this will be addressed as follows:

1) discussion of one or more topics/concepts and/or reading of and commenting on one text from among those belonging to parts 1) and 2) of the Mandatory Reading: students will have to demonstrate understanding of the new image of classical German philosophy and/or acquisition of a robust methodology for analysing texts and reflecting on their theoretical implications;

2) presentation and discussion of one of the three texts indicated in part 3) of the Mandatory Reading: students will have to demonstrate capacity to introduce the relevant work in a systematic manner and contextualize it within the classical German philosophy and its new image; in doing this, they will have to demonstrate mastery of the lexicon and theoretical maturity.

The exercises carried out in class will determine the relevant mark for attending students. The form of assessment for non-attending students will be clarified during the meeting aimed at identifying alternative and substitutive teaching/learning modes.