27992 - Contemporary Aesthetics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the lesson course the students will have ad idea of the main aesthetic traditions of the past century. Furthermore, the students will acquire conceptual and methodological tools that are essential to understand crucial questions at the center of the current aesthetic debate, by means of a mainly theoretical-problematic approach. 

Course contents

The problem of "expression" Between Nietzsche and Colli. 

The lesson course will start with a discussion of Nietzsche’s renowned early work The Birth of Tragedy. After offering a quick profile of Nietzsche’s life and of his book of 1872, we will delve deep into sever questions, among which:

1. The relationship between philosophy and philology in the young Nietzsche and the meaning of his return to ancient Greek culture;
2. The fundamental elements of Nietzsche’s aesthetic-philosophical perspective;
3. The meaning of the dichotomy Apollonian/Dionysian;
4. Nietzsche’s understanding of art, and of tragedy in particular;
5. The role of nature and the cosmic character of Nietzsche’s view.

Afterwards, we will take into consideration one of the most relevant Nietzsche scholars of the XXth Century, i.e. Giorgio Colli. Our main aim will be to understand how Colli reworks Nietzsche’s thinking in order to develop his own and original philosophical perspective.

Readings/Bibliography

Friedrich Nietzsche, La nascita della tragedia, a cura di V. Vivarelli, Einaudi, Torino 2009.

Francesco Cattaneo, Macchie luminose nella notte. Sul ruolo dell’arte nella “Nascita della tragedia” a partire dal rovesciamento del platonismo”, in “Estetica”, vol. VIII, n. 1, 2018, pp. 75-95.

Giorgio Colli, Dopo Nietzsche, Adelphi, Milano 1974.

Ludovica Boi, Giulio M. Cavalli, Sebastian Schwibach (a cura di), Esprimere il vissuto. La filosofia di Giorgio Colli, Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Napoli 2023, (oltre all’“Introduzione”, i saggi di Meattini, Cavalli, Attolini e Corriero).

 

N.B. The  bibliography may be subject to changes until the beginning of the lesson course.

Teaching methods

The course will consist of frontal lessons; sources will be commented and discussed and the problems and their historical context synthetically reconstructed. Teacher-led discussions will be encouraged.

Assessment methods

The final proof will take place in the form of an oral examination. During the examination the teacher will assess whether the student has achieved or not some basic educational goals: knowledge of the texts and capacity to contextualize authors and works; comprehension of the fundamental concepts and capacity to provide a correct interpretation of them; clarity in the explanation of concepts and accuracy in the use of philosophical terminology; capacity to establish connections between the various authors and themes from both a historical and a strictly speaking conceptual point of view. During the oral examination the teacher will assess if the student possesses the abovementioned knowledge and skills in a (more or less) complete, precise and adequate way, or vice-versa in a (more or less) incomplete, vague and superficial way. The final grade will correspondently vary from excellent (30 and honors) to very good (30) to good (27-29) to fairly good (24-26) to more than enough (21-23) to merely enough (18-21) to unsatisfactory (<18).

 

Exam sessions are scheduled for the following months of the academic year:

- January (for all students)

- March (for all students)

- June (for all students)

- July (for all students)

- September (for all students)

- December (for all students)

Teaching tools

All the aforementioned texts (in the specified editions) are an essential tool in order to actively participate in the classes. It is recommended to get hold of the texts before classe because specific parts will be read and commented. Equally important for the students will be to see the films and paintings discussed during the lessons.

Some other texts will be distributed through the channels offered by the Unibo portal.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students .

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Cattaneo