Corso di laurea magistrale in Filosofia

In line with the overall learning objectives of the MA program in Philosophy and the Philosophy International Curriculum, students will have to prove able to thoroughly read philosophical texts, to know and to present the main arguments in favour and against the theories and perspectives at stake and to discuss them critically. At the end of the course students will be able to master the logical space of the positions in question, and present them also in an interdisciplinary perspective (particularly in relation to cognitive sciences), and to master the technologies needed for such presentations.

Students should be able to scrutinize philosophical texts written in English, to know and present the main arguments in favour of the examined theories and views, and to know how to discuss them critically. This will be accomplished via i) oral examinations, ii) students' presentations during the course, iii) quality of the students' questions on the scrutinized texts.

Lectures plus seminars with students' presentations. Depending on the circumstances, the module will be offered in blended mode (either online or in class). Students are invited to register themselves on Campusnet, in order for them to be immediately informed of any variation.

Non-attendees: oral examination concerning the texts recommended in bibliography. Attendees: oral examination on the non-scrutinized texts in bibliography plus possible evaluation of written questions on the students' part concerning the scrutinized texts. The evaluation (min 18/30 max 30 cum laude /30) will depend on three factors, in a non-exclusive alternative: i) the students' preparation on the programmed texts and their ability to face them critically, ii) their capacity to make an oral presentation on a paper, iii) their capacity to ask pertinent and penetrating questions on the featured texts. This will make it possible to test students' ability both with respect to the learning objectives and with respect to the expected results. Evaluation will be given on a mark scale starting from 30 (cum laude). If the coronavirus emergency will surface again, exams will be moved online onto the webex platform.

The module will concern the most recent theories on intentionality, the property inherent primarily in mental states of being about something or having a content that makes them subject to semantic evaluation, from those according to which intentionality is phenomenologically a relation with something (Crane, Sainsbury), to those for which intentionality is a phenomenological property (Kriegel, Mendelovici), to those for which intentionality is effectively a relation with something (Priest), in order to finish with those that consider such a relation a constitutive one (McCullough). In the end, a book presenting an utterly different novel approach to intentionality, Hutto-Myin's Radical Enactivist approach, will be read in class.

MANDATORY reading list:

1. T. Crane, Elements of Mind, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2001, Part I (Secs. 1-8) and Part III (Secs. 25-26).
2. T. Crane, The Objects of Thought, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2013, chaps. 1, 4-5.
   (available as ebook via the service Trova)open_in_new
3. U. Kriegel, The Sources of Intentionality, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2011, chaps. 3-4. (available as ebook via the service Trova)open_in_new
4. A. Mendelovici, The Phenomenal Basis of Intentionality, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2018, chaps. 5, 8-9.
5. G. Priest, Towards Non-Being, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2018, chaps. 3, 11.
6. M. Sainsbury, Thinking About Things, Oxford, Oxford University Press 2018, chaps. 1-2, 6.
7. G.Mc Cullough, The Life of the Mind, London, Routledge 2003, chaps 1-2.

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Lessons will start on Feb 13, 2023. If the coronavirus emergency will surface again, the module will be moved online on the teacher's virtual room:

https://unito.webex.com/meet/alberto.voltolini