Learning objectives
The conceptual techniques used in the past in legal disputes will be examined, trying to get to understand and master the functioning of the sharp and deadly intellectual weapons available to jurists of the age of common law; the knowledge of those wise argumentation and communication techniques will also be shown to be very valuable also for today's speaker, leading the student to the understanding and conscious use of the methodologies of reasoning and intellectual duel essential for the exercise of dialectics, both of the juridical one, the political one and the academic one. At the end of the course the student is expected to demonstrate that he has learned and is able to apply the main methodological tools of legal reasoning and forensic and political eloquence typical of medieval and modern science.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The course aims to offer a description of the methodological tools used in the medieval and modern age to build effective and persuasive arguments, both in the forensic and in the political fields: both rhetorical and dialectical techniques will be presented and studied, starting from the description of the functioning of the conceptual tools of distinctio and syllogism to arrive at verifying in detail their concrete application in legal reasoning and in general in all communication strategies aimed at obtaining social consensus and political approval. It will also introduce some basic notions of medieval mnemotechnics aimed at the legal dispute, as well as some fundamental rules for the rhetorical construction of the speech, as well as practical tools for the construction of a persuasive speech and an effective argument. The course also includes exercises aimed at demonstrating the actual usefulness of the argumentative methods adopted by the rhetoricians and logicians of the age of common law, with the concrete application and experimentation in the classroom of oratory methodologies, of dialectical confrontation techniques and tools, for the construction of a winning reasoning in every field of intellectual life.
Full programme
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Bibliography
A.Padovani: Modernità degli antichi. Breviario di argomentazione forense, Bononia University Press, Bologna 2006
(192 pages)
or, alternatively,
G. Tuzet: Analogia e ragionamento giuridico, Carocci, Roma 2020
(126 pages)
Teaching methods
The course is divided into frontal lessons conceived in the way of active learning, with oral presentation of the subjects that are the object of the teaching. Each lesson will be 60 minutes. Part of the lessons will be of a seminar character and aimed at the thematic study of individual highlights of the course. There will also be follow-up exercises, aimed at the practical examination of quaestiones and the conduct of disputationes. For students belonging to the PA who will contact the teacher before the lessons are held, any specific video recordings will be made available (according to the provisions of the specific agreement of the University that concerns them).
Assessment methods and criteria
The summary appraisal of the learning consists of a final oral examination consisting of an oral question to determine to what extent, on a scale from 0 to 30, the student is able to highlight the history, role, importance and use of the conceptual remarks of rhetoric, dialectics and logic for the conscious application of legal rules in the practice of law. To this end, the student must obviously demonstrate that he has studied and understood the notions of rhetoric, dialectics and logic that have been given during the frontal lesson, which are contained in the texts recommended for the preparation of the exam and that are synthesized in didactic schemes described during the lessons and offered as a support to teaching.
Other information
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2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
16 (Pace, giustizia e istituzioni forti)
