Educational objectives
Knowledge and understanding:
At the end of the course, students will have acquired the following knowledge and understanding:
diachronic textual knowledge and hermeneutic tools for understanding the phenomenon of human existence in the context of the institution of the polis;
diachronic textual knowledge and epistemological analysis tools for understanding the relationship between philosophical and scientific knowledge, with particular reference to the ethical foundations of economics and the assumptions and implications of economic modelling;
knowledge of a selection of fundamental philosophical positions and theoretical analysis tools for the formation of an autonomous capacity for conceptualisation and ethical-philosophical diagnosis of phenomena;
knowledge of a selection of fundamental philosophical positions and theoretical analysis tools for understanding the fundamental institutions of Western humanity;
knowledge of the relationship between nature and society, understood through fundamental concepts of the philosophical tradition that allow for an analysis of the sphere of human habitation and an understanding of the crises linked to the technicisation of nature in the economic context;
knowledge of the philosophical reasons behind decision-making criteria in economics and the ethical implications of these criteria, in order to understand the element of responsibility that these reasons entail at both a theoretical and practical level, with particular attention to transformative experiences.
Applying knowledge and understanding:
ability to detach oneself from the operational and contingent level, and from the respective forms of knowledge, in favour of the level on which meaning and knowledge are generated, which thematises it in a foundational perspective;
ability to distinguish between the actual cause of an event and the origin or principle of a phenomenon;
ability to appreciate the linguistic dimension and the difference between languages as a sphere for the development of philosophical thought:
ability to adopt an independent cognitive and critical approach, supported by adequate conceptualisation skills at a methodological, theoretical and ethical level;
ability to read and interpret textual examples from the philosophical tradition and to understand the fundamental intent of the reflections that comprise it;
ability to effectively formulate a concept or reasoning in a multilingual context, characterised by translation and dialogue between languages.
Autonomy of judgement:
Acquisition of the capacity for judgement and of the methodological tools useful for the critical analysis of data, sources, assumptions and implications of scientific practice, of the political, ethical and legal context within which economic phenomena are inscribed and with which they interact
Communication skills:
Fluency (oral and written) in Italian, German and English, including translation between these languages. Intercultural competence. Conceptual awareness, ability to summarise and express oneself in writing, particularly with regard to the drafting of scientific or science-based documents
Learning skills:
Promotion of critical thinking and analytical skills to focus on complex problems in their long-term dynamics and in the variety of their implications, including ethical ones.
Additional educational objectives and learning outcomes
The course focuses on the capacity for philosophical conceptualization and diagnosis of phenomena, particularly economic ones. Towards this end it analyses exemplary positions of the philosophical tradition from antiquity to the beginning of modernity, and touches upon topics such as the relation between being and man, the essence of truth, the foundation of the sense of beings, the relation between philosophy and science, etc. Through a phenomenological approach to an original philosophical ethics the course offers an outline of the fundamental traits of the philosophical institution of humanity.
Knowledge and understanding:
1. knowledge and understanding of selected fundamental positions of the philosophical tradition;
2. knowledge of the fundamental institutions of western humanity;
3. knowledge of some conceptual tools for a fundamental ethical diagnosis of our epoch.
Applying knowledge and understanding:
1. development of the capacity for distinguishing between the operative or contingent reality and the domain of the constitution of sense;
2. development of the capacity for analysing the conditions of possibility and the implications of (economic) phenomena;
3. development of the capacity for elaborating and formulating a philosophical argument.
Making judgments:
1. learning what a philosophical judgment consists in;
2. learning and applying the difference between making a judgment and evaluating;
3. learning and applying the difference between making a judgment and expressing an opinion.
Communication skills:
1. students learn how to speak about non-contingent, pre-scientific circumstances;
2. students exercise how to speak in a manner that is guided by the sense-structure of the matter at hand;
3. students are confronted with the specific requirements of written philosophical communication (essay writing).
Learning skills:
1. autonomous anhypothetical reasoning;
2. hermeneutic abilities exercised on philosophical texts;
3. written expression of autonomous thinking.