Programme

The course examines how the theme of "personal" identity is elaborated by Spinoza, Locke, Hume and James. trangely, in the Spinotian "Ethics" two answers to this problem seem to be traceable: in the first, the identity of the individual would be determined by its essence and therefore conceivable in its singularity "sub specie aeternitatis", while in the second it is determined only in duration, in function of what Spinoza calls "constitutio", and which consists of the whole of perceptions, imaginations, memories and affections from which it is taken in its own history. If the first answer risks assimilating the individual, which for Spinoza is only a mode, to the permanent substance of becoming, the second has difficulty in giving an account of the continuity in the alteration. Perhaps it is from this dilemma that Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Understanding", in a silent dialogue with Spinoza, can call into question the temporal continuity of the self or person, proposing to anchor personal identity to consciousness and no longer to substance, and that Hume, radicalizing the Lockean position, in the "Treatise on Human Nature", may even come to question its unity in a given moment of time, to reduce the «self» to a series of perceptions that are distinct from each other and are seamless in time, and thus to conceive it as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of mind, while preserving its unity as the object of mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral sphere. While elaborating a theory of consciousness that refers to this empirical and skeptical tradition, in the "Principles of Psychology" James makes a critique of Hume’s position on the «Self» as «bundle of perceptions», arguing that in experience there is no original distinction between impressions. On the contrary, there is a continuity of the "flow of thought", based on a constant appropriation of previous contents. Through the examination of the theories of these classics of modern and contemporary thought the course aims to familiarize the student not only with the ambivalence, the shifts, the second thoughts that are the subject of the history of philosophy, but also to put into perspective some of the central questions of contemporary philosophical reflection.

Core Documentation

Baruch Spinoza, Etica, Milan, Bompiani (passim).
John Locke, Saggio sull'intelletto umano, Rome-Bari, Laterza (Book I, Chap. 4, Sect. 5 and Book II, Chap. 27)
David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with English text, Milan, Bompiani (Book I, Part IV, Sect. V-VI, Appendice, Books II and III, passim).
William James, Principi di psicologia, Milano, Principato (Chap. 6, 9, 10: in part).

Reference Bibliography

On Spinoza: Martin Lin, "Memory and personal identity in Spinoza." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 35.2 (2005): 243-268. Davide Monaco, "Individuation and death in Spinoza’s Ethics. The Spanish poet case reconsidered." British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27.5 (2019): 941-958. Lee C. Rice, "Spinoza on individuation." The monist (1971): 640-659. Emanuela Scribano, "Spinoza muore." Rivista di Storia della Filosofia (2012). Francesco Toto, L'individualità dei corpi. Percorsi nell'Etica di Spinoza, Milano, Mimesis (chapters related to the Laboratory theme). On Locke: Étienne Balibar, "Identité et conscience de soi dans l'Essai de Locke." Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale (1995): 455-477. Don Garrett, "Locke on Personal Identity, Consciousness, and" Fatal Errors"." Philosophical Topics 31.1/2 (2003): 95-125. Chiara Giuntini, Presenti a se stessi. La centralità della coscienza in Locke, Firenze, Le Lettere (Chap. 4). Shelley, Weinberg, "Locke on personal identity." Philosophy Compass 6.6 (2011): 398-407. Kenneth, Winkler, "Locke on personal identity." Journal of the History of Philosophy 29.2 (1991): 201-226. On Hume: Donald C. Ainslie, Hume on Personal Identity, in A Companion to Hume, ed. by Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, New York, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pp 140-156. Annemarie Butler, The Problem of Believing in Yourself: Hume’s Doubts about Personal Identity, in The Cambridge Companion to Hume’s Treatise, ed. by Donald C. Ainslie – Annemarie Butler, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 165-187. Lorenzo Greco, L’identità personale in David Hume: dalle passioni all’etica, «Thaumàzein», 2, 2014, pp. 247-264 (available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.13136/thau.v2i0.26.g27). Eugenio Lecaldano, David Hume e il carattere: tra critica dell'identità personale e riflessione sulla morale, «I Castelli di Yale», online, anno I, n. 2, 2013, pp. 165-185 (available at: http://cyonline.unife.it/article/view/816). Jane L. McIntyre, Hume and a Problem of Personal Identity, in David Fate Norton and Jacqueline Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Hume, Second Edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 177-208. On James: Goodman, Russell B., “Emerson, Romanticism, and Classical American Pragmatism,” in The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, ed. Cheryl Misak, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 19–37. Flanagan, Owen, "Consciousness as a pragmatist views it", in Putnam, A. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to William James, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, pp. 25-48. in general on treated authors: F. Mignini, Spinoza, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 1983 L. Vinciguerra, Spinoza, Rome, Carocci, 2015 Edward Jonathan Lowe, Locke, New-York, Routledge, 2005 Nicholas Jolley, Locke: His Philosophical Thought, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1999 F. Laudisa, Hume, Rome, Carocci, 2009 J.P. Wright, Hume’s A Treatise on Human Nature. An Introduction, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009 Gale, Richard M., The Philosophy of William James: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 Calcaterra, R.M., Maddalena, G., Marchetti G. (a cura di), Il pragmatismo. Dalle origini agli sviluppi contemporanei, Rome, Carocci, 2015.

Type of delivery of the course

The Laboratory includes: • Frontal teaching; • Group work and oral presentations by students. In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions governing the conduct of teaching activities and student evaluation will be implemented. In particular, the following methods will be applied: distance teaching through the University platforms and distance exposure of students' work through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Type of evaluation

In order to obtain the eligibility corresponding to 6 university credits (CFU), students must ensure attendance and draw up a short text on one of the proposed topics, which will be exposed and discussed in the classroom. In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions governing the conduct of teaching activities and student evaluation will be implemented. In particular, the following methods will be applied: distance teaching through the University platforms and distance exposure of students' work through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Programme

The course examines how the theme of "personal" identity is elaborated by Spinoza, Locke, Hume and James. trangely, in the Spinotian "Ethics" two answers to this problem seem to be traceable: in the first, the identity of the individual would be determined by its essence and therefore conceivable in its singularity "sub specie aeternitatis", while in the second it is determined only in duration, in function of what Spinoza calls "constitutio", and which consists of the whole of perceptions, imaginations, memories and affections from which it is taken in its own history. If the first answer risks assimilating the individual, which for Spinoza is only a mode, to the permanent substance of becoming, the second has difficulty in giving an account of the continuity in the alteration. Perhaps it is from this dilemma that Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Intellect," in a silent dialogue with Spinoza, can call into question the temporal continuity of the self or person, proposing to anchor personal identity to consciousness and no longer to substance, and that Hume, radicalizing the Lockean position, in the "Treatise on Human Nature", may even come to question its unity in a given moment of time, to reduce the «self» to a series of perceptions that are distinct from each other and are seamless in time, and thus to conceive it as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of mind, while preserving its unity as the object of mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral sphere. While elaborating a theory of consciousness that refers to this empirical and skeptical tradition, in the "Principles of Psychology" James makes a critique of Hume’s position on the «Self» as «bundle of perceptions», arguing that in experience there is no original distinction between impressions. On the contrary, there is a continuity of the "flow of thought", based on a constant appropriation of previous contents. Through the examination of the theories of these classics of modern and contemporary thought the course aims to familiarize the student not only with the ambivalence, the shifts, the second thoughts that are the subject of the history of philosophy, but also to put into perspective some of the central questions of contemporary philosophical reflection.

Core Documentation

Baruch Spinoza, Etica, Milan, Bompiani (passim)

John Locke, Saggio sull'intelletto umano, Rome-Bari, Laterza (Book I, Chap. 4, Sect. 5 and Book II, Chap. 27)

David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with English text, Milan, Bompiani (Book I, Part IV, Sect. V-VI, Appendice, Books II and III, passim).

William James, Principi di psicologia, Milano, Principato (Chap. 6, 9, 10: in part)

Reference Bibliography

On Spinoza: Martin Lin, "Memory and personal identity in Spinoza." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 35.2 (2005): 243-268. Davide Monaco, "Individuation and death in Spinoza’s Ethics. The Spanish poet case reconsidered." British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27.5 (2019): 941-958. Lee C. Rice, "Spinoza on individuation." The monist (1971): 640-659. Emanuela Scribano, "Spinoza muore." Rivista di Storia della Filosofia (2012). Francesco Toto, L'individualità dei corpi. Percorsi nell'Etica di Spinoza, Milano, Mimesis (chapters related to the Laboratory theme). On Locke: Étienne Balibar, "Identité et conscience de soi dans l'Essai de Locke." Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale (1995): 455-477. Don Garrett, "Locke on Personal Identity, Consciousness, and" Fatal Errors"." Philosophical Topics 31.1/2 (2003): 95-125. Chiara Giuntini, Presenti a se stessi. La centralità della coscienza in Locke, Firenze, Le Lettere (Chap. 4). Shelley, Weinberg, "Locke on personal identity." Philosophy Compass 6.6 (2011): 398-407. Kenneth, Winkler, "Locke on personal identity." Journal of the History of Philosophy 29.2 (1991): 201-226. On Hume: Donald C. Ainslie, Hume on Personal Identity, in A Companion to Hume, ed. by Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, New York, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pp 140-156. Annemarie Butler, The Problem of Believing in Yourself: Hume’s Doubts about Personal Identity, in The Cambridge Companion to Hume’s Treatise, ed. by Donald C. Ainslie – Annemarie Butler, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 165-187. Lorenzo Greco, L’identità personale in David Hume: dalle passioni all’etica, «Thaumàzein», 2, 2014, pp. 247-264 (available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.13136/thau.v2i0.26.g27). Eugenio Lecaldano, David Hume e il carattere: tra critica dell'identità personale e riflessione sulla morale, «I Castelli di Yale», online, anno I, n. 2, 2013, pp. 165-185 (available at: http://cyonline.unife.it/article/view/816). Jane L. McIntyre, Hume and a Problem of Personal Identity, in David Fate Norton and Jacqueline Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Hume, Second Edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 177-208. On James: Goodman, Russell B., “Emerson, Romanticism, and Classical American Pragmatism,” in The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, ed. Cheryl Misak, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 19–37. Flanagan, Owen, "Consciousness as a pragmatist views it", in Putnam, A. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to William James, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, pp. 25-48. in general on treated authors: F. Mignini, Spinoza, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 1983 L. Vinciguerra, Spinoza, Rome, Carocci, 2015 Edward Jonathan Lowe, Locke, New-York, Routledge, 2005 Nicholas Jolley, Locke: His Philosophical Thought, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1999 F. Laudisa, Hume, Rome, Carocci, 2009 J.P. Wright, Hume’s A Treatise on Human Nature. An Introduction, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009 Gale, Richard M., The Philosophy of William James: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 Calcaterra, R.M., Maddalena, G., Marchetti G. (a cura di), Il pragmatismo. Dalle origini agli sviluppi contemporanei, Rome, Carocci, 2015.

Type of delivery of the course

• Frontal teaching; • Group work and oral presentations by students. In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions governing the conduct of teaching activities and student evaluation will be implemented. In particular, the following methods will be applied: distance teaching through the University platforms and distance exposure of students' work through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Type of evaluation

In order to obtain the eligibility corresponding to 6 university credits (CFU), students must ensure attendance and draw up a short text on one of the proposed topics, which will be exposed and discussed in the classroom. In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions governing the conduct of teaching activities and student evaluation will be implemented. In particular, the following methods will be applied: distance teaching through the University platforms and distance exposure of students' work through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Programme

The course examines how the theme of "personal" identity is elaborated by Spinoza, Locke, Hume and James. trangely, in the Spinotian "Ethics" two answers to this problem seem to be traceable: in the first, the identity of the individual would be determined by its essence and therefore conceivable in its singularity "sub specie aeternitatis", while in the second it is determined only in duration, in function of what Spinoza calls "constitutio", and which consists of the whole of perceptions, imaginations, memories and affections from which it is taken in its own history. If the first answer risks assimilating the individual, which for Spinoza is only a mode, to the permanent substance of becoming, the second has difficulty in giving an account of the continuity in the alteration. Perhaps it is from this dilemma that Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Intellect," in a silent dialogue with Spinoza, can call into question the temporal continuity of the self or person, proposing to anchor personal identity to consciousness and no longer to substance, and that Hume, radicalizing the Lockean position, in the "Treatise on Human Nature", may even come to question its unity in a given moment of time, to reduce the «self» to a series of perceptions that are distinct from each other and are seamless in time, and thus to conceive it as a «fiction» on the level of the theory of mind, while preserving its unity as the object of mere «feeling» for the purpose of its application in the moral sphere. While elaborating a theory of consciousness that refers to this empirical and skeptical tradition, in the "Principles of Psychology" James makes a critique of Hume’s position on the «Self» as «bundle of perceptions», arguing that in experience there is no original distinction between impressions. On the contrary, there is a continuity of the "flow of thought", based on a constant appropriation of previous contents. Through the examination of the theories of these classics of modern and contemporary thought the course aims to familiarize the student not only with the ambivalence, the shifts, the second thoughts that are the subject of the history of philosophy, but also to put into perspective some of the central questions of contemporary philosophical reflection.

Core Documentation

Baruch Spinoza, Etica, Milan, Bompiani (passim)
John Locke, Saggio sull'intelletto umano, Rome-Bari, Laterza (Book I, Chap. 4, Sect. 5 and Book II, Chap. 27)
David Hume, Trattato sulla natura umana, with English text, Milan, Bompiani (Book I, Part IV, Sect. V-VI, Appendice, Books II and III, passim).
William James, Principi di psicologia, Milano, Principato (Chap. 6, 9, 10: in part)

Reference Bibliography

On Spinoza: Martin Lin, "Memory and personal identity in Spinoza." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 35.2 (2005): 243-268. Davide Monaco, "Individuation and death in Spinoza’s Ethics. The Spanish poet case reconsidered." British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27.5 (2019): 941-958. Lee C. Rice, "Spinoza on individuation." The monist (1971): 640-659. Emanuela Scribano, "Spinoza muore." Rivista di Storia della Filosofia (2012). Francesco Toto, L'individualità dei corpi. Percorsi nell'Etica di Spinoza, Milano, Mimesis (chapters related to the Laboratory theme). On Locke: Étienne Balibar, "Identité et conscience de soi dans l'Essai de Locke." Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale (1995): 455-477. Don Garrett, "Locke on Personal Identity, Consciousness, and" Fatal Errors"." Philosophical Topics 31.1/2 (2003): 95-125. Chiara Giuntini, Presenti a se stessi. La centralità della coscienza in Locke, Firenze, Le Lettere (Chap. 4). Shelley, Weinberg, "Locke on personal identity." Philosophy Compass 6.6 (2011): 398-407. Kenneth, Winkler, "Locke on personal identity." Journal of the History of Philosophy 29.2 (1991): 201-226. On Hume: Donald C. Ainslie, Hume on Personal Identity, in A Companion to Hume, ed. by Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, New York, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pp 140-156. Annemarie Butler, The Problem of Believing in Yourself: Hume’s Doubts about Personal Identity, in The Cambridge Companion to Hume’s Treatise, ed. by Donald C. Ainslie – Annemarie Butler, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 165-187. Lorenzo Greco, L’identità personale in David Hume: dalle passioni all’etica, «Thaumàzein», 2, 2014, pp. 247-264 (available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.13136/thau.v2i0.26.g27). Eugenio Lecaldano, David Hume e il carattere: tra critica dell'identità personale e riflessione sulla morale, «I Castelli di Yale», online, anno I, n. 2, 2013, pp. 165-185 (available at: http://cyonline.unife.it/article/view/816). Jane L. McIntyre, Hume and a Problem of Personal Identity, in David Fate Norton and Jacqueline Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Hume, Second Edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 177-208. On James: Goodman, Russell B., “Emerson, Romanticism, and Classical American Pragmatism,” in The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, ed. Cheryl Misak, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 19–37. Flanagan, Owen, "Consciousness as a pragmatist views it", in Putnam, A. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to William James, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, pp. 25-48. in general on treated authors: F. Mignini, Spinoza, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 1983 L. Vinciguerra, Spinoza, Rome, Carocci, 2015 Edward Jonathan Lowe, Locke, New-York, Routledge, 2005 Nicholas Jolley, Locke: His Philosophical Thought, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1999 F. Laudisa, Hume, Rome, Carocci, 2009 J.P. Wright, Hume’s A Treatise on Human Nature. An Introduction, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009 Gale, Richard M., The Philosophy of William James: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 Calcaterra, R.M., Maddalena, G., Marchetti G. (a cura di), Il pragmatismo. Dalle origini agli sviluppi contemporanei, Rome, Carocci, 2015.

Type of delivery of the course

The Laboratory includes: • Frontal teaching; • Group work and oral presentations by students. In the case of an extension of the health emergency by COVID-19 all the provisions governing the conduct of teaching activities and student evaluation will be implemented. In particular, the following methods will be applied: distance teaching through the University platforms and distance exposure of students' work through the Microsoft Teams platform.

Type of evaluation

In order to obtain the eligibility corresponding to 6 university credits (CFU), students must ensure attendance and draw up a short text on one of the proposed topics, which will be exposed and discussed in the classroom.