Learning outcomes

Profound examination and critical reflection on the relevant topics treated during the course.

Program

Contents:

The Tragic, the Subject and the Community in G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of the Spirit

After a broad introduction into Hegel’s philosophy and the dialectical method, above all the pages of the Phenomenology dedicated to the figure of the spirit will be read and commented. The intention of this course is to provide the students with the instruments adapted to dialectical thought and to give them the possibility to make an experience of how, in the years of the French Revolution, the relationship between the single person and society was perceived also in the arts (and especially through tragedy). Hegel asserts that the German philosophy represents the Revolution in the form of concepts; thus analysing certain figures of the Phenomenology of Spirit might indicate a way of making a revolutionary experience even today. During the course the following concepts will primarily be examined: the ethnical world, law, guilt and destiny, the condition of right, self-estrangement (alienation), Enlightenment and morality. The analysis of the single figures will help to elaborate the different relationships with a given community, the single subject might find itself involved in, but also the possibilities to change them not only in a political way, but also by the arts in an anticipatory manner. If necessary, also the pages dedicated to self-consciousness and to the dialectics between lordship and bondage will be involved into the discussion.

Examination Methods

The exam consists in an oral discussion with the teacher.