The course of Theoretical Philosophy is among the characterizing activities of the MA Programme in Philosophical Sciences. It aims to provide an in-depth understanding of some classical problems of the philosophical tradition (topics in ontology, epistemology, philosophy of mind and agency). Particular emphasis will be granted to the interplay between philosophy and science in the conviction that they should interact in the attempt to offer an integrated conception of the world and ourselves. Upon completion of the course students will have acquired analytical knowledge and argumentation skills in relation to the topics covered in the course; capacity to read and analyse the sources and the relevant critical debate; capacity to write an end-of-course paper.
teacher profile teaching materials
A. Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity, Stanford University Press, Stanford 1991.
M. Marraffa and C. Meini, The developmental psychology of personal identity. A philosophical perspective. Bloomsbury, London 2023.
Programme
The course explores the issues of the construction and defence of personal identity. After starting from the theories to which all philosophical and psychological reflection on personal identity continues to refer, namely those of John Locke and William James, the course discusses in an integrative perspective Chomsky-inspired developmental psychology, Jean Piaget's constructivism, Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective of development and John Bowlby's attachment theory. Following this theoretical and methodological pathway, the course draws on data from the psychological sciences to reconstruct the trajectory that from the birth of self-consciousness linked to the body and emotions passes through the enrichment of the internal world, to arrive at the constitution of an ego placed in time and rationalised as an autobiography. This ego, however, is not a stable possession: it is rather something perpetually precarious, for the defence of which the individual continually mobilises all his resources.Core Documentation
A. Kind, Persons and Personal Identity, Wiley, New York 2015.A. Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity, Stanford University Press, Stanford 1991.
M. Marraffa and C. Meini, The developmental psychology of personal identity. A philosophical perspective. Bloomsbury, London 2023.
Reference Bibliography
E. De Martino (2012), "Crisis of presence and religious reintegration", HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2:434-50 (orig. ed. 1956). E.H. Erikson (1968), Identity, Youth and Crisis, New York: Norton. R. Laing (1960), The Divided Self, London: Tavistock. Giddens, A. (1991), Modernity and Self-Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press. Giddens, A. (1992), The Transformation of Intimacy, Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press.Type of delivery of the course
Face-to-face lectures.Type of evaluation
Verification of learning is through an oral test.