MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

FS3136

Academic Year of enrolment:

2018

Year of supply:

2019/2020

Type of Course:

Basic

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION SCIENCES

Disciplinary Sector:

MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Language:

Italian

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

CESARONE Virgilio

Cycle:

Second semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

153

Prerequisites:

No specific knowledge or skills are required. There are no constraints of propaedeuticity.

Objectives

The course contributes to the wider educational objective of the CdS by providing the appropriate historical and conceptual tools for understanding the fundamental themes and authors of the Western ethical tradition. The course also introduces students to the reading of some fundamental texts of this tradition, providing the essential tools for their analysis, and their historical contextualization, for framing the salient issues addressed in them and for their critical discussion. In this way, at the end of the course, the students will acquire (1) the fundamental knowledge relative to the different moral doctrines; (2) they will develop their own capacity of understanding; (3) they will develop the necessary skills to orient themself within the debates characterizing contemporary moral philosophy in the context of the different "applied ethics" (nature and environment, bioethics, technoscience, information and communication, economy and work, multiculturalism, etc.).

Contents

History of moral doctrines: authors and currents of Western ethics. The ethics of Aristotle. The moral question in the age of the crisis of tradition.

Extended Syllabus

The course covers the following topics, aimed at achieving the expected learning outcomes. First part. Ancient ethics: the Homeric virtues; the ethics of the polis and Socrates. The good life: Plato and Aristotle. Happiness and virtue: the Hellenistic schools. Neoplatonism. Medieval ethics from Augustine to Duns Scotus. Modern ethics: from Descartes to Hume. Kant, Fichte and Hegel. Kierkegaard and Nietsche. Utilitarianism. The ethics of the twentieth century: Weber, Moore, Scheler, Hare and Emotivism, Habermas, Jonas, MacIntyre, Rawls. Part Two: analysis and commentary of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: books I, II,
Arendt.
The Socratic beginning
The discovery of will
The Kantian Foundation
Nietzsche and the Triumph of Will
THE banality of evil
Nussbaum:
Socratic self-examination
Socratic education and its enemies
Citizens of the world
The narrative imagination.
The study of non-western cultures
Women Studies

Recommended Bibliography

Part I: A. Da Re, Filosofia Morale, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2003. Michael Sandel, Justice, Harvard 2009,
Part II. Aristotle, Etica Nicomachea, 2 voll., edited by M. Zanatta, Bur 1986: books I, II,
III Part H. Arendt, Alcune questioni di filosofia morale, Einaudi, Torino (for philosophers) M. Nussbaum, Coltivare l'umanità. I classici, il multiculturalismo, l'educazione contemporanea, Carocci, Roma 2006 capp 1-2-3-4-6-8. (for pedagogues)
Recommended readings:
Ch. Horn, L'arte della vita nell'antichità, Roma, Carocci 2004. M. Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness, Cambridge 1986. R. Spaemann, Felicità e benevolenza, Milano, Vita e Pensiero 1998. E. Berti, Guida ad Aristotele, Roma-Bari, Laterza 2004. P. Hadot, La cittadella interiore, Milano, Vita e Pensiero 1997. M. Nussbaum, Upheavals of thought. The Intelligence of Emotions, Cambridge 2001. J. Annas, The Morality of happiness, Oxford 1993.
During the lessons further bibliographic material will be indicated both in Italian and English.

Methods of Provision

Conventional

Teaching Methods

Frontal Lessons and Seminars

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

The assessment of the training objectives and expected learning outcomes is made through an interview of variable duration, during which the actual acquisition of the knowledge, skills and competences indicated will be examined. The test is divided into questions concerning the history of moral doctrines addressed in the first part of the course and the analysis of texts explained and commented by the teacher in the second part of the course. The evaluation is expressed in thirtieths. The minimum mark for passing the exam is eighteen. The exam can also be taken in English

Contacts/More Information

Course attendance is not mandatory. However, given the didactic-methodological approach (largely centred on reading, explaining and commenting on texts) and the nature of the examination programme, it should be noted that continuous attendance is a preferential (and sometimes indispensable) condition for effective individual study and preparation of the examination interview. Students who are unable to attend the course to the extent of at least two thirds, have the obligation to add at least one of the recommended readings (listed among the reference texts), freely chosen on the basis of any interests curricular. The teacher can always be reached at the following address: peroli.enrico@gmail.com. The reception can also be done in English language

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree