Menù principale
B032103 - ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Main information
Teaching Language
Course Content
Suggested readings
Learning Objectives
Prerequisites
Teaching Methods
Further information
Type of Assessment
Course program
Academic Year 2022-23
Coorte 2022 - Second Cycle Degree in PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
Course year
First year - First Semester
Belonging Department
Humanities (DILEF)
Course Type
Single education field course
Scientific Area
M-FIL/07 - HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Credits
6
Teaching Hours
36
Teaching Term
12/09/2022 ⇒ 02/12/2022
Attendance required
Yes
Type of Evaluation
Final Grade
Course Content
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Course program
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Lectureship
Mutuality
Course teached as:
B032103 - FILOSOFIA ANTICA
Second Cycle Degree in PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
Curriculum FILOSOFIA: TESTO E INTERPRETAZIONE
B032103 - FILOSOFIA ANTICA
Second Cycle Degree in PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
Curriculum FILOSOFIA: TESTO E INTERPRETAZIONE
Teaching Language
Italian (or English, in case there is a significant presence of foreign students).
Course Content
The course aims to introduce the students to the study of fundamental philosophical texts and issues from classical antiquity, considered with respect to their historical genesis and fortune as well as to their conceptual substance.
Suggested readings (Search our library's catalogue)
(1) EPICUREAN PHYSICS
Text and translation of Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus:
- Epicuro, Epistola a Erodoto, a cura di F. Verde (Carocci, 2010).
Other texts:
- Epicuro, Opere, a cura di G. Arrighetti (Einaudi, 2a ed. 1973).
- B. Inwood and L. Gerson, The Epicurus Reader (Hackett).
(2) HANDBOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS
- F. Verde, Epicuro (Carocci, 2013).
- R. Chiaradonna, P. Pecere, Filosofia. la ricerca della conoscenza (Mondadori Scuola), voll. 1A + 1B (fino a Unità 6, cap. 1, § 2 – Plotino e il suo platonismo – compreso).
Further and more precise bibliographical directions will be provided during the course. Such directions will also concern the choice of the handbook (or handbooks) which is most suitable for each student, depending on their background and interests.
Learning Objectives
- Knowledge and understanding: students will learn the main aspects and implications of the ancient philosophical doctrines which are the subject matter of the course.
- Applied knowledge and understanding: students will strengthen and develop further (in relation to the achievements of the three-year degree course) their general capacity to compare and assess different interpretations of a philosophical text or solutions to a philosophical problem, also by making use of pertinent bibliographical resources.
- Communication skills: students will strengthen and develop further their ability to understand and use appropriately a technical terminology and illustrate clearly and precisely the meaning of a philosophical text or a philosophical problem.
- Making judgements: students will strengthen and develop further their ability to make informed critical decisions between different interpretations of a philosophical text or solutions to a philosophical problem. Thus ability will now have to be applied to texts and problems more complex and difficult than those encountered previously.
- Learning skills: students will acquire the learning skill which is necessary for them to carry on autonomously their studies in this field.
Prerequisites
Some basic knowledge of ancient philosophy is desirable but not required.
Teaching Methods
Lectures; oral presentations by students; discussion; written papers.
Further information
Students will be required to consult bibliography in English.
Type of Assessment
- 4 points out of 30 are assigned to a written paper on a subject and bibliography to be agreed upon with the lecturer. At least some of the papers will be presented orally in class in a provisional form; all will have to be submitted in written form one week before the final oral examination. Marks vary from 1 (= acceptable) to 4 (= excellent). If the paper is assessed as not acceptable no mark is assigned and the student cannot proceed to the oral examination.
- 26 points out of 30 are assigned to the oral examination, which lasts for approximately 30-40 minutes. Students who achieve the total mark of 30/30 are eligible for honours.
The oral presentation, the written paper and the final oral examination will aim to ascertain whether and to what extent the course's various learning objectives (see ‘Learning Objectives’) have been achieved. All objectives will have to be achieved at least to an acceptable degree for the student to pass the examination. During the oral examination students may be requested to expound or compare the philosophical theses encountered during the course, or to comment on texts included within (or akin to) those encountered, in order to analyse their contents and argumentative structure.
In order to take the examination students will have to be present on the day and at the time fixed for the examination or notify their delay within two hours.
Course program
EPICUREAN PHYSICS
We shall read and analyse in detail Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus and other testimonies and fragments of Epicurean physics. In doing so we shall also have occasion to investigate the relations between Epicurus’ doctrines and those of his predecessors and contemporaries.
Students are also required to study a handbook or monograph. Further information will be provided during the course.