The course of History of contemporary philosophy is part of the program in Philosophical sciences (MA level) and is included among the complementary training activities. The objective of the course is to provide an in-depth understanding of some aspects of contemporary philosophy and its intrinsic interdisciplinary connections with different scientific fields. Students will read through a number of scholarly books and book chapters and they will acquire in-depth understanding of the issues and debates connected to them. Students will be able to apply the acquired knowledge to discuss and to develop arguments both in a theoretic and in a historic perspective. Upon completion of the course students are expected to acquire the following skills: Advanced critical thinking on contemporary philosophy and on its relation to particular fields of contemporary science (in historical and in philosophical perspective); Advanced language and argumentation skills required for reading contemporary papers in philosophy and discussing about them and their interdisciplinary connections; Capacity to read and analyse contemporary philosophical sources and the relevant critical debate; Oral presentation.
teacher profile teaching materials
Merleau-Ponty takes up and radicalizes this approach, shifting the focus from consciousness to the lived body: the other is no longer a problem to be inferred, but a presence directly perceived through gestures, gazes, and language. Intersubjectivity thus becomes intercorporeality, an original dimension of experience in which subjects coexist within the same world, which is never private but shared from the very beginning.
Through a comparison between Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, the course aims to clarify how the experience of the other and the sharing of the world constitute an original dimension of human experience, highlighting the transition from a conception of intersubjectivity as a problem of theoretical foundation to an embodied and relational understanding of the subject.
Husserl, E. (1950). Cartesianische Meditationem und Pariser Vorträge, a cura di S. Strasser, Husserliana, vol. I, Nijhoff, Den Haag 1950; engl. transl by (D. Cairns) Cartesian Meditations, The Hague, Martinus Nijoff 1960, 54 and 5).
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception, Paris: Gallimard. engli. transl. (1981). Phenomenology of Perception, London: Routledge (part 4);
Programme
In twentieth-century phenomenology, intersubjectivity emerges as a response to the problem of solipsism and to the need to explain how the world can be a shared experience. In Husserl, the starting point remains transcendental subjectivity: the other is not given directly, but is grasped through empathy, by means of which the other’s body is recognized—by analogy with one’s own—as a body animated by consciousness. In this way, intersubjectivity grounds objectivity and the lifeworld as a common horizon, while still remaining tied to a perspective in which the ego retains a privileged constitutive role.Merleau-Ponty takes up and radicalizes this approach, shifting the focus from consciousness to the lived body: the other is no longer a problem to be inferred, but a presence directly perceived through gestures, gazes, and language. Intersubjectivity thus becomes intercorporeality, an original dimension of experience in which subjects coexist within the same world, which is never private but shared from the very beginning.
Through a comparison between Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, the course aims to clarify how the experience of the other and the sharing of the world constitute an original dimension of human experience, highlighting the transition from a conception of intersubjectivity as a problem of theoretical foundation to an embodied and relational understanding of the subject.
Core Documentation
Husserl, E. (1913)Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. In Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, 1 Halle a.d.S. (1913); E. Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book: General Introduction to a Pure Phenomenology. Translated by Fred Kersten. Collected Works: Volume 2. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982;Husserl, E. (1950). Cartesianische Meditationem und Pariser Vorträge, a cura di S. Strasser, Husserliana, vol. I, Nijhoff, Den Haag 1950; engl. transl by (D. Cairns) Cartesian Meditations, The Hague, Martinus Nijoff 1960, 54 and 5).
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception, Paris: Gallimard. engli. transl. (1981). Phenomenology of Perception, London: Routledge (part 4);
Attendance
Attendance is strongly suggested. Those who are not able to attend (neither in person nor online) can write the teacher in roder to establish texts and modalities of the examination.Type of evaluation
Four open questions about the topics analyzed during the lessons. The exam is written.