The Reading Laboratory is part of the program in Philosophical sciences (MA level) and is included among the “Other Training Activities (Letter F)”. Upon completion of the Reading Laboratory students will have read through some of Hegel's writings on the sentient soul. In particular, students must have developed and deepened: - advanced language and argumentation skills required for reading and understanding the original editions of Hegel’s Vorlesungen über die Philosophie des Geistes: Berlin 1827-1828; - ability to analyse a philosophical problem from different points of view; - ability to draw conclusions from a variety of observations and inferences. These skills are promoted during the seminar work that is an integral part of the Laboratory through writing texts and collegial debate.
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Programme
During the workshop, students will read, present in class and comment together on the first four parts of Adam Smith's ‘Treatise on Moral Sentiments’. In doing so, they will discuss the foundations of Smith's theory of sympathy, its main anthropological and moral implications, and its tensions or difficulties. Smith's theory will also be compared with his main interlocutors, in particular Hume and Lord Kames, and with his main - and at least apparent - polemical targets, such as Hobbes and Mandeville.Core Documentation
Adam Smith, Theory of moral sentiments (every complete edition)Reference Bibliography
Samuel Fleischacker, Adam Smith (Routledge)Attendance
Attendance is compulsory for at least two-thirds of the meetings.Type of evaluation
At a date to be decided together, all students will present and discuss in class, orally, the results of a written paper, in which they will focus on one of the topics considered during the course and with a selection of the most relevant critical literature related to it.