Learning objectives
About the knowledge and understanding (Descriptor 1 = knowledge e understanding), at the end of the course the student he must have acquired the fundamental knowledge of the major authors and major works of the history of political thought.
About the knowledge and the ability to applied understanding (Descriptor 2 = applying knowledge and understanding), the student through an educational path based on method of the Socratic lesson / heuristic must have acquired that capacity for understanding and analysis of the issues addressed in class that the allow you to develop your own critical thinking on the issues dealt with in the lessons relating to some of the major ideas developed within the history of political thought.
About the autonomy of judgment (Descriptor 3 = making judgments) students both during and in particular at the end of the course they must have acquired the ability to autonomously analyze the major arguments tackled in teaching in order to be able to relate to them in a critical way.
With respect to communication skills (Descriptor 4 = communication skills) through the methods of method of the heuristic / Socratic lesson the student will have to acquire a satisfactory property expressive both at a terminological and conceptual level aimed at exposing the themes dealt with in the teaching in an autonomous way.
About the ability to learn (Descriptor 5 = learning skills) students will have acquired those bibliographic and linguistic-lexical tools as well as concepts that will allow them to autonomously develop a critical reflection on the problems dealt with in the teaching. The student must also have acquired the ability to autonomously develop their own thoughts on teaching topics and express it in a documented way to the teacher and colleagues.
Course unit content
During the lectures the main authors of the History of Political Thought will be explored with their major works of which some selected passages will be read and commented on.
Some of the main political ideas that have characterized the history of Western political thought will also be explored, with particular attention to the historical evolution of the concepts of city, citizenship, democracy and freedom.
Full programme
I L'antichità greca e romana: Il pensiero politico greco, Solone, Erodoto; Democrazia, oligarchia, tirannide; Legge e natura; Tucidide; Senofonte; Platone; Aristotele; L'ellenismo; Roma; Polibio; Cicerone.
II Cristianesimo e politica: Agostino; Tommaso d'Aquino; I Comuni.
III Gli inizi della politica moderna: L'umanesimo politico; Machiavelli.
IV La Riforma: Erasmo; Lutero; Calvino.
V Costituzione, rivoluzione, repubblica e utopia: Giacomo I; La rivoluzione e Cromwell; Il repubblicanesimo; Harrington; Moro; L'utopia in Europa.
VI La prima modernità: I monarcomachi; Bodin; Althusius.
VII Il soggetto e lo Stato: Hobbes; Locke; Spinoza.
VIII L'Antico regime e l'Illuminismo: Montesquieu; Il diritto naturale: Grozio e Pufendorf; I concetti dell'Illuminismo; La politica e i Lumi; La tolleranza; La Francia: Voltaire; L'Italia: Vico; L'illuminismo scozzese: Hume, Smith, Ferguson; La rivoluzione americana: la Costituzione federale.
IX Ragione e rivoluzione: Rousseau; La rivoluzione; Sieyes; Kant.
X La dialettica: Fichte; Hegel.
XI L'ordine dopo la rivoluzione: I controrivoluzionari: Burke; Liberalismo e positivismo in Francia: Constant; Saint-Simon; Comte.
XII Società e nazione: La questione sociale; Marx; Tocqueville; John Stuart Mill; La questione nazionale: Giuseppe Mazzini.
XIII La crisi dell'ordine politico moderno: Nietzsche; Toennies; Weber; Gli elitisti: Mosca; Pareto; Michels; I totalitarismi; I pensatori radicali della crisi: Schmitt; Kelsen; Le critiche filosofiche della modernità: Arendt; Weil.
XIV Il secondo dopoguerra: Lo Stato sociale; Critica e crisi dello Stato sociale.
XV L'età globale e le sue crisi: Elementi politici e materiali della globalizzazione.
Bibliography
Reference Books:
▪︎ C. Galli (ed.), Manuale di Storia del pensiero politico, Terza Edizione, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2011. (I PART Cap. I Parag. 1, 5-15; Cap. II Parag. 2, 8, 11; II PART Cap. III Parag. 1, 2; Cap. IV Parag. 1, 2, 4; Cap. V Parag. 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11; Cap. VI Parag. 2, 4, 5; III PART Cap. VII Parag. 1, 2, 3; Cap. VIII Parag. 2, 4; 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12; Cap. IX Parag. 1, 2, 3, 6; IV PART Cap. X Parag. 1, 2; Cap. XI Parag. 1, 2; Cap. XII Parag. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6; Parte V Cap. XIII Parag. 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13; Cap. XIV Parag. 1-2; Cap. XV Parag. 1).
Pages selected from the following books will be read, commented on and indicated during the lessons:
▪︎ C. Galli (ed.), I grandi testi del pensiero politico. Antologia, Seconda Edizione, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2011.
▪︎ M.L. Lanzillo (ed.), Libertà, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2008.
The readings chosen from the following books will be an instrument of laboratory activity:
▪︎ F. Tuccari, La rivolta della società, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2020.
▪︎ S. Cingari, La meritocrazia, Ediesse-Futura, Roma, 2020.
Teaching methods
The teaching activities will be conducted through the method of the frontal lesson /presentation and the method of the lesson Heuristic/ Socratic; a sequential type of expositive teaching (with steps of knowledge) will be alternated with a hypothetical or heuristic teaching based on questions/ stimulus. This mode of teaching aims to promote in the students the autonomous research of meaning on the topics of the frontal lessons. With the use of the Simulation/Role playing and Cooperative Learning methods, we will try to involve the students actively in the construction of the lesson.
Assessment methods and criteria
Written exam with 5 open questions on the topics of the lessons, the reference books. Time for the exam 2 hours.
Other information
GET THE REFERENCE BOOKS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO HAVE THEM IN THE CLASSROOM DURING THE LESSONS AS A PRIMARY TEACHING TOOL. All students must register immediately on the page dedicated to teaching on the Elly platform. Synthetic teaching materials will be uploaded and made available to students on the teaching page on the Elly platform.
