To show the organization of the course that includes this module, follow this link:  Course organization

Learning outcomes

The course aims at giving the conceptual, methodological and cultural grounds to promote a phenomenological inquiry on the affective experience and on the importance of emotional sharing for the relations of care, the individual formation (Bildung) and the foundation of social ontology.
In this course, crucial importance will be given to the role that desire plays in the relations of care and in the process of the human formation.

At the end of the course, students will have to prove: their adequate knowledge of the texts; critical assessment; to know how to communicate their knowledge in a clear, coherent and well-supported way; to know how to interact in the discussions with the professor and the other students.

Program

Inter-affectivity and inter-corporeality

Between 1909 and 1916 Max Scheler rewrote Kant’s transcendental aesthetics by means of Jakob von Uexküll’s biosemiotics and founded a new phenomenology of corporeity.

In this course we will deal with the foundations of the phenomenology of corporeity starting from Jacob von Uexküll’s thesis on the relationship between organism and environment and from Max Scheler’s theory of direct perception of expressiveness (Ausdruck). Both issues are at the center of today’s phenomenological debate on the theory of primary intersubjectivity of Trevarthen and of the inter-corporeality of Merleau-Ponty (Gallagher, Zahavi, Fuchs).

In particular, we will try to reconstruct the origin of the phenomenological distinction between a lived body (Leib) and an object body (Körper) starting from the writings of Scheler published between 1912 and 1913 (with advance therefore on Husserl, who will publish Ideas II only later). A special attention will be paid to the second part of Formalismus (1916), which has been increasingly recognized as one of the major philosophical works of the twentieth century. This allows us to overcome the predominant understanding of the phenomenology of corporeity, focusing on the problem of expressive unity and emotional sharing.

Examination Methods

For attending students:
A personalized program will be set together at the beginning of the course.

For non-attending students:
The exam is in oral form and aims at verifying the adequate knowledge of the scheduled texts. In order to access the oral examination, students must submit a paper of 20000 characters. The paper must be previously agreed on with the professor during his office hours – after students have read the texts – and is to be submitted at least 7 days before the exam. The paper must be submitted via email, with a .doc document containing the student’s name, surname and identification number.