SCV0792 - PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY

courses

ID:

SCV0792

Duration (hours):

48

CFU:

SSD:

LOGICA E FILOSOFIA DELLA SCIENZA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Secondo Semestre (23/02/2026 - 29/05/2026)

Course Objectives

The course aims at defining and analyzing philosophical historiography with an integrated, historical, philosophical and narrative approach to contemporaneity, capable of addressing, with adequate critical capacity, philosophical issues. For this reason, the course aims to provide the main methodological tools useful for understanding the specific cultural context of the 20th century, fostering a plurality of hermeneutic approaches that, especially in the contemporary age, have distinguished philosophical reflection in historiography. Special attention will be paid to the critical analysis of the texts with the aim of grasping their essential lines, as well as the development of the different conceptual forms and the explication of the different categories and the examination of the language used by the Author taken into consideration Through a direct relationship with the sources (in all its formats), a critical understanding of the texts taken into consideration is fostered in the learner, favoring an in-depth historical and conceptual study in comparative and interdisciplinary form as a tool for the conceptual understanding of the qualifying changes in the contemporary world. This fosters a hermeneutic approach capable of adopting forms of analysis and critical skills specific to contemporary philosophical historiographical reflection

Course Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites

Teaching Methods

The educational objectives of the course will be achieved through the mode of face-to-face lectures (totaling 48 hours) involving analytical and collective discussion of the texts taken in direct reference.

Assessment Methods

Only the final oral examination is planned in which the following will be assessed: - the ability to adequately understand the reading of a text; - the adequate knowledge of the examination texts; - the ability to know how to develop one's own independent critical reflection. During the oral interview, it is planned to ascertain the acquisition and proper understanding of the contents of the compulsory texts, which are to be studied in their entirety. At least two specific questions will be formulated on the contents of the examination texts, which will concern an assessment of the ability of interdisciplinary critical analysis and autonomous judgment. In addition, knowledge of the topics covered in the books of choice will be required (at least one question). The final grade will take into account the accuracy and quality of the answers (70 percent), as well as the communicative ability shown during the interview (10 percent) and the ability to adequately substantiate statements, analyses and judgments (20 percent).

The course will deal with the different interpretations of the thought and work of Friedrich Engels, one of the founding fathers of the Marxist tradition. The reference texts will be those of Engels, namely the Dialectic of Nature (fundamental) to which will be added, at the student's choice, one of these two works by Engels: The Evolution of Socialism from Utopia to Science or The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. To these texts must be added the compulsory volume by Fabio Minazzi, Historical-evolutionary epistemology and neo-realism. In this perspective, the relationship between history and historiography will be reconsidered, the role and function of ‘contemporaneity’, conceptual traditions and their critical and hermeneutic role; continuity and discontinuity in the history of philosophical and scientific thought; science and history; historical-evolutionary epistemology and its importance; the role of reason as a privileged instrument for constructing critical reflection.

Course Language

Italian

More information

Basic reference texts for all students - Friedrich Engels, Dialectics of Nature (any edition) - Fabio Minazzi, Historical epistemology and European Philosophy of Science, Springer Nature, Swizerland AG 2022 (ISBN: 978-3-030-96332-3) A text of your choice from these works by Engels - Friedrich Engels, La situazione della classe operaia in Inghilterra (qualunque edizione, edizione più economica Lotta comunista, Milano ISBN-13. 978-8896901014) - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels, Il manifesto del partito comunista (qualunque edizione, edizione migliore, più completa ed economica: Lotta comunista, Milano 1998, ISBN 88861766279) - Friedrich Engels, L’evoluzione del socialismo dall’utopia alla scienza (qualunque edizione, edizione più economica: Lotta comunista, Milano 1998, ISBN 88861766279) - Friedrich Engels, L'origine della famiglia, della proprietà privata e dello Stato (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata Pigreco, Milano 2025 ISBN: 9788868026639) - Friedrich Engels, Anti-Düring (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata Pigreco, Milano 2021, ISBN: 9788868023188) - Friedrich Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach e il punto d’approdo della filosofia classica tedesca (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata La Città del Sole, Napoli 2009, ISBN: 9788882924126) - Friedrich Engels - Karl Marx, La sacra famiglia, (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata a cura di Nicolao Merker, traduzione di Aldo Zanardo, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1986, ISBN 88-359-2937-7.) - Friedrich Engels - Karl Marx, L’ideologia tedesca (qualunque edizione, edizione segnalata Editori Riuniti, Roma 2018, ISBN: 9788835981275)