Teaching code

4S003321

Teacher

Linda Napolitano

Coordinator

Linda Napolitano

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

M-FIL/07 - HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

Period

Sem. IB dal Nov 13, 2017 al Jan 20, 2018.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning outcomes

Pedagogical aims and prerequisites:
We aim at teaching:
-(learning skills) the use of the proper philosophical terminology (nearly all deriving from the ancient Greek);
-(making judgements) the critical reading of original philosophical texts, for acquiring basic philosophical matters and concepts;
-(communication skills) moreover, through seminars and debates, we aim at making postgraduates to acquire a skill to cross-examination;
-(knowledge and understanding) a general knowledge of the history of ancient philosophy (from 6th Century b.C. to 529 a.D.) is presupposed. Surely a competence in ancient Greek and Latin makes it easier the work within this scientific field, however it is not compulsory;
-(applying knowledge and understanding) an attention to lexical research and an interest in a critical reading of philosophical texts and to arguments are requested and very useful.

Program

Title an Subject of the Course: To dialogue, to contradict, to mediate: thinking ‘against’ another and thinking ‘with’ another.

We aim at exploring the logic, linguistic and ethical foundations of thinking against another (contradicting, amphisbetèin) and in turn of thinking with another (German miteinanderdenken, within the Socratic method of L. Nelson’s school). We will trace back to these bases in the ancient philosophy (theory of dialogue and contradiction by Presocratics, Socrates, Sophists, Plato and Aristotle) and we will explore their recovery within the contemporary field of extrajudicial mediation of disputes (J. Morineau). A more thorough investigation will be done on ancient Greek tragedy (tragic agon in Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis).
Lessons will be completed by reading in a workshop some brief textsof the epical literature (Homer’s Iliad I), the tragical one (Euripides’Alcestis), the historical one (Thucydides) and philosophical one (Xenophon): students will actively participate in the discussion of the different theses proposed in these texts, applying, as much as possible, a kind of ‘thinking with others’.

Bibliography:
A) Lecture Notes 1 and 2 available at photocopy shops “La rapida” e “Ateneo”;
B) J. MORINEAU, Lo spirito della mediazione, Prefazione di A. Ceretti, tr. it. Franco Angeli Milano 20142 ;
C) EURIPIDE, Ifigenia in Tauride, Ifigenia in Aulide, introd., tr. e note di F. Ferrari, BUR Milano 1988 e ss.; D. GUASTINI, Come si diventava uomini. Etica e poetica nella tragedia greca, Jouvence Roma 1999;
D) one book chosen between:
-L.M. NAPOLITANO VALDITARA, Il sé, l’altro, l’intero. Rileggendo i Dialoghi di Platone, Milano-Udine Mimesis 2010
-EAD. ,“Prospettive” del gioire e del soffrire nell’etica di Platone, Milano-Udine 20132
-EAD., Virtù, piacere, felicità nell’etica dei Greci, Verona aemme edizioni 2014

Lessons will be available by e-learning (www.elearning.univr.it).

Examination Methods

Didactical Methods: The course will be carried on by frontal lessons, with direct reading of the texts and following discussions. Therefore attendance at classes will be very useful and desirable, though obviously not compulsory. The same program is valid for students who cannot attend lessons; nevertheless, they must get in touch with the teacher, in order to receive indications on adding texts, whose reading will compensate for lacking attendance: these texts will be agreed for every student, with regard to his previous knowledge, curriculum and interests.

Ways of evaluation: Some oral questions will be put to the student; he will be invited to read and comment some passages of the original texts already read together during classes. The student may freely choose to write a little paper (5-7 pages) about the subjects discussed during classes and he will send this paper to the teachers a week before the official exam: the text will be discussed together during the exam.