29424 - Seminars (1) (LM) (G.I)

Learning outcomes

The Philosophy Seminars aim to achieve the following educational objectives specific to seminar-style teaching: (1) to train students in philosophical argumentation by encouraging discussions on philosophical themes and texts, including those in their original language, presented in meetings with Italian and foreign scholars; (2) to broaden and deepen their philosophical knowledge through participation in conferences conducted by specialists from various areas of philosophical knowledge; (3) to compare different methodological approaches to philosophy, complementing their regular curriculum.

Course contents

Knowledge Infrastructures

The seminar focuses on the study of knowledge infrastructures, understood as established networks of people, artifacts, and institutions for the generation, sharing, and maintenance of specific knowledge about the human and natural world.

• What are knowledge infrastructures?
• What types of knowledge are produced and materialized from infrastructures, what knowledge is embedded in them, and what is made explicit?
• What kind of actors do they enact?
• What political orders do they make durable?
• What happens when a knowledge infrastructure reaches a breaking point?
• What is the relationship between infrastructures, knowledge, non-knowledge, and digitalization?

During the seminar, we will observe knowledge infrastructures at work in various fields: scientific knowledge, territorial governance, local knowledge, health, migration, and climate change.

In this edition of the seminar, particular attention will be given to the theme of ice as a knowledge infrastructure. Why ice? Firstly, because we will see less and less of it. Secondly, because ice represents what has been called an "Interscalar Vehicle": in other words, through ice we can follow the entanglement of practices, knowledge and relations that cross economy, society, science and technology, as well as human and non-human entities, to engage with the deep past and future of the planet and life on Earth.

Readings/Bibliography

Below you can find some of the texts I will refer to during the lessons, and additional bibliographic recommendations will be provided during the course. Only a portion will be considered as the exam program, either proposed by the professor or to be agreed upon depending on the interests of the students:

• Borghi, Vando e Leonardi, Emanuele (eds.) (2024) Il sociale messo in forma. Le infrastrutture come cose, processi e logiche della vita collettiva, Napoli, Orthotes.
• Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Star, Susan Leigh (1999) Sorting things out: classification and its consequences, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press.
• Cruikshank, Julie (2005) Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination, University of British Columbia Press.
• Edwards, Paul N. (2013) A vast machine: computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming, Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England, The MIT Press.
• Ferrari, Marco, Bagnato, Andrea, and Pasqual, Elisa (Eds.) (2018) A moving border Alpine cartographies of climate change, New York, Columbia University Press.
• Hecht, Gabrielle (2018) Interscalar Vehicles for an African Anthropocene: On Waste, Temporality, and Violence, in "Cultural Anthropology", 33 (1), pp. 109–141
• Macfarlane, Robert (2019) Underland: a deep time journey, London, UK, Hamish Hamilton.
• Oreskes, Naomi and Conway, Erik M. (2010) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

 

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted through lectures, encouraging discussion and interaction using audiovisual materials and texts shared in "virtuale.unibo.it". This can be done through raising hands during the lecture or at the end, as well as through group exercises. After the lecture, interaction will also be possible through the forum active on virtuale.unibo.it.

There may be guest lecturers invited during the course to speak on specific topics. Additionally, if there are seminars and conferences relevant to our subjects taking place at the department, you will be invited to attend, but it will be optional.

During the course, particularly on Wednesdays, the lessons will have a laboratory-style approach with group and/or individual exercises and presentations.

Finally, it's possible that some lessons of the course may take place outside of regular class hours and in different premises, in the form of film screenings organized as part of the course.

Assessment methods

Here's the English translation of the provided text:

The seminar requires students to attend at least two-thirds of the lessons. The assessment aims to evaluate:

• Understanding of the topics covered in class and related bibliographic references;
• Understanding of the problem of knowledge and its practical and material dimension;
• The ability to present the course themes in an orderly and clear manner, orally or in writing depending on the chosen method;
• The critical ability that the student can exercise on the proposed themes.

To pass the exam, there is an alternative between:

A) Writing a final essay on the topics covered in the course, between 2500 and 3000 words. Essays can be submitted between April 15 and September 30, 2025. The essay must be discussed orally during the exam. If you need a correction by certain deadlines, for example in view of graduation, you must inform me at the time of delivery and still give me at least 10 days for correction. A list of suggested topics for the essay will be provided during the course, but it will be possible to agree on personalized topics. I will take due account of the linguistic difficulties of Erasmus students, or those whose first language is not Italian. Upon request, I will accept papers in English.

B) Instead of the essay, it is possible to take the traditional oral exam. In this case, the exam bibliography will consist of three texts from those indicated in the bibliography and those suggested during the course, to be agreed upon with the professor. It is possible to agree on personalized texts as long as they are relevant to the topics covered.

To supplement the oral exam or essay, I will encourage individual or group presentations by students to be held in the final lesson. The presentations will be duly taken into consideration for the overall evaluation, as will active participation during the lessons.

The essay will receive a score out of thirty (communicated individually to each student). Students can decide whether to confirm the written score or try to improve it with an oral exam during one of the regular exam sessions.

Writing and editorial standards. Philosophy students who have already attended the Writing Workshop can adhere to the Editorial Standards provided there or refer to the editorial guidelines [https://corsi.unibo.it/laurea/Filosofia/prova-finale-modalita-e-scadenze/nuove-norme-redazionali-cds-in-filosofia-6.pdf/@@download/file/Nuove%20norme%20redazionali%20CdS%20in%20filosofia%20(6).pdf] of the course.

People with disabilities and Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD)

Students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders are entitled to special adjustments according to their condition, subject to assessment by the University Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD. Please do not contact teachers or Department staff, but make an appointment with the Service. The Service will then determine what adjustments are specifically appropriate, and get in touch with the teacher. For more information, please visit the page:

https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Teaching tools

A complementary module on the university's e-learning platform (virtuale.unibo.it) is linked to the course. Through the platform, a discussion forum will be activated. The site will also be used for the distribution of additional materials and the notification of events or calendar changes. Those who wish to take this exam must enroll on Virtuale.

The slides presented during the lectures will be made available through this site.

Office hours

See the website of Claudio Coletta