PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
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There are no prerequisites
Only the final oral examination is planned in which the following will be assessed: - the ability to adequately understand the reading of a text; - the adequate knowledge of the examination texts; - the ability to know how to develop one's own independent critical reflection. During the oral interview, it is planned to ascertain the acquisition and proper understanding of the contents of the compulsory texts, which are to be studied in their entirety. At least two specific questions will be formulated on the contents of the examination texts, which will concern an assessment of the ability of interdisciplinary critical analysis and autonomous judgment. In addition, knowledge of the topics covered in the books of choice will be required (at least one question). The final grade will take into account the accuracy and quality of the answers (70 percent), as well as the communicative ability shown during the interview (10 percent) and the ability to adequately substantiate statements, analyses and judgments (20 percent).
The course aims at defining and analyzing philosophical historiography with an integrated, historical, philosophical and narrative approach to contemporaneity, capable of addressing, with adequate critical capacity, philosophical issues. For this reason, the course aims to provide the main methodological tools useful for understanding the specific cultural context of the 20th century, fostering a plurality of hermeneutic approaches that, especially in the contemporary age, have distinguished philosophical reflection in historiography. Special attention will be paid to the critical analysis of the texts with the aim of grasping their essential lines, as well as the development of the different conceptual forms and the explication of the different categories and the examination of the language used by the Author taken into consideration Through a direct relationship with the sources (in all its formats), a critical understanding of the texts taken into consideration is fostered in the learner, favoring an in-depth historical and conceptual study in comparative and interdisciplinary form as a tool for the conceptual understanding of the qualifying changes in the contemporary world. This fosters a hermeneutic approach capable of adopting forms of analysis and critical skills specific to contemporary philosophical historiographical reflection
The course will deal with the different interpretations of the thought and work of Friedrich Engels, one of the founding fathers of the Marxist tradition. The reference texts will be those of Engels, namely the Dialectic of Nature (fundamental) to which will be added, at the student's choice, one of these two works by Engels: The Evolution of Socialism from Utopia to Science or The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. To these texts must be added the compulsory volume by Fabio Minazzi, Historical-evolutionary epistemology and neo-realism. In this perspective, the relationship between history and historiography will be reconsidered, the role and function of ‘contemporaneity’, conceptual traditions and their critical and hermeneutic role; continuity and discontinuity in the history of philosophical and scientific thought; science and history; historical-evolutionary epistemology and its importance; the role of reason as a privileged instrument for constructing critical reflection.
One book of your choice from the following: Autori Vari, Friedrich Engels cent’anni dopo. Ipotesi per un bilancio critico, a cura di Mario Cingoli, Teti, Milano 1998 Autori Vari, Engels duecento anni dopo (1820-2020), a cura di Gabriele Borghese, Giovanni Sgrò e Salvatore Tiné, La Città del sole, Napoli 2023 (ISBN: 978-88-8292-541-3 Alan R. Burger (edited by), Marxism, Science and the Movement of History, Grüner, Amsterdam 1980 Louis Althusser, Per Marx, trad. it. di Maria Turchetto, Mimesis, Milnao-Udine 2008 Chunfeng Hu, Ziranbianzhengfadaolun, Shanghai Renmin Chubhnshi, Shanghai, Qinghuadaxeu Chubanshi 2006 Elmar Altvater, Engels Neu Entdecken: Das Hellblaue Bändchen zur Einführung in die Dialektik der Natur und die Kritik von Akkumulation und Wachstum, VSA, Amburgo 2015 Guglielmo Carchedi, Behind the Crisis: Marx’s of Value and Knowledge, Brill, Leida 2011 Lucio Colletti, Il marxismo ed Hegel, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1968 Eleonora Fiorani, Friedrich Engels e il materialismo dialettico, Feltrinelli, Milano 1971 Ludovico Geymonat, Storia del pensiero filosofico e scientifico (Garzanti, Milano 1970-76, più volte ristampata anche in edizione economica), vol. V della prima edizione, limitatamente ai due seguenti capitoli: La maturità di Marx ed Engels e la dialettica della natura, pubblicati, rispettivamente, alle pp. 294-231 e pp. 232-371 Hans Heinz Holz, Weltentwurf und Reflexion: versuch einer Grundlegung der Dialektik, Metzelr, Stoccarda 2005 Vladimir Il’ič Lenin, Materialismo ed empiriocriticismo (qualunque edizione) Paolo Paolucci, Marx’s Scientific Dialectis: A Methodological Treatise for a New Century, Brill, Leida 2007 Helena Sheehan, Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History, New Jersey Humanities Press, Highland Park, New Jersey 1993 Daping Hu, Huidao Engesi. Wenbenlilun he jieduzhengzhixue, Jiangsu Renmin chubanshi, Nanchino 2011 Alfred Schmidt, Il concetto di natura in Marx, trad. it. di Giorgio Baratta e Giuseppe Bedeschi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 19732 e Punto Rosso, Milano 20183 Stephen H. Rigby, Engels and the Formation of Marxism. History, Dialectics and Revolution, Manchester University Press, Manchester 2007 Giovanni Sgrò, Friedrich Engels e il punto d’approdo della filosofia classica tedesca, Orthotes, Salerno 2017 André Tosel, Sulla crisi storica del marxismo, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2025, ISBN: 9791222318035 Ferdinando Vidoni, Natura e storia. Marx ed Engels interpreti del darwinismo, Dedalo, Bari 1985 Xianjing Xiao et alii, Ziranbianzhengfa galiun, Higher Education Press, Pechino 2016 Problematic interweavings There will also be interdisciplinary seminars in "crossover" mode (i.e., with the presence of other faculty members from the graduate program or outside guests) in which some topics covered in class will be explored in depth through different keys.
The educational objectives of the course will be achieved through the mode of face-to-face lectures (totaling 48 hours) involving analytical and collective discussion of the texts taken in direct reference.
Basic reference texts for all students - Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature (any edition) - Fabio Minazzi, Historical epistemology and European Philosophy of Science, Springer Nature, Swizerland AG 2022 (ISBN: 978-3-030-96332-3) A text of your choice from these works by Engels - Friedrich Engels, La situazione della classe operaia in Inghilterra (qualunque edizione, edizione più economica Lotta comunista, Milano ISBN-13. 978-8896901014) - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels, Il manifesto del partito comunista (qualunque edizione, edizione migliore, più completa ed economica: Lotta comunista, Milano 1998, ISBN 88861766279) - Friedrich Engels, L’evoluzione del socialismo dall’utopia alla scienza (qualunque edizione, edizione più economica: Lotta comunista, Milano 1998, ISBN 88861766279) - Friedrich Engels, L'origine della famiglia, della proprietà privata e dello Stato (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata Pigreco, Milano 2025 ISBN: 9788868026639) - Friedrich Engels, Anti-Düring (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata Pigreco, Milano 2021, ISBN: 9788868023188) - Friedrich Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach e il punto d’approdo della filosofia classica tedesca (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata La Città del Sole, Napoli 2009, ISBN: 9788882924126) - Friedrich Engels - Karl Marx, La sacra famiglia, (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata a cura di Nicolao Merker, traduzione di Aldo Zanardo, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1986, ISBN 88-359-2937-7.) - Friedrich Engels - Karl Marx, L’ideologia tedesca (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata Editori Riuniti, Roma 2018, ISBN: 9788835981275)