30413 - Philosophy Laboratory (1) (G.D)

Learning outcomes

The student learns to read and critically analyze philosophical texts and to write a philosophical essay.

Course contents

This workshop is temporarily attributed to the coordinator of the undergraduate degree in Philosophy while we wait for a new person to become professor at the end of 2024. The syllabus has been prepared by the new professor. 

General Information

The Philosophy Workshop has three main purposes: education to philosophical writing and editorial conventions; introduction to the use of bibliographic resources; introduction to how to read a philosophical classic and how to produce a short philosophical essay about it.The success of workshops ideally requires regular attendance of all students at all meetings. In order to be admitted to the final exam and achieve a pass, students will need to have attended at least 12 out of 15 classes (24 hours out of 30).

Students can choose from several proposals of Philosophy Workshops. Programmes and teachers’ names are available on the website of the First Cycle Degree/Bachelor in Philosophy (corsi.unibo.it/1cycle/Philosophy). Up to 40 students may attend each laboratory. Classes will be given in Italian or in English, as indicated by each teacher on their laboratory web pages. Please enrol via Studenti On Line (studenti.unibo.it/sol/welcome.htm), by clicking on the tab “Prenotazioni” and the workshop of your choice. Enrolment begins on the 1st of September, 2024.

Attendance — both face-to-face and online, if streaming is activated — will be verified by signature on sign-in sheets or by log-in online. In the light of several unpleasant episodes of signature falsification in recent years, in the event that it is proved that even a single signature has not been made by the corresponding student, that student will be excluded from the final exam and will have to wait until the next year to attend the Workshop again. The same standards will hold for students submitting written exams which are totally or partially copied from published sources or digital texts.

Only in the event of certified inability to attend the Workshop are students allowed to arrange an alternative programme with the relevant teacher of the module in question. Such cases include:- working students who cannot obtain specific permission to attend the Workshop. These students shall inform the teacher at the beginning of the module and provide a declaration of their employers stating their inability to attend.- students who are participating in exchange programmes (Erasmus, Overseas, etc.). These students shall promptly provide documentary evidence to the teacher showing their inability to attend on grounds of residence abroad.

For attending students assessment will consist in the submission and discussion of a short essay on the philosophical text discussed in the Workshop attended. The essay will be evaluated both for form and for content. During the laboratory, teachers will provide instructions on how to write the final essay, and all students are requested to download and study the manual of philosophical writing, which can be found at corsi.unibo.it/laurea/Filosofia/laboratorio-di-filosofia-norme-per-la-redazione-del-saggio-finale (in Italian).

 

The course aims to offer students a problematization of the relationships between semiotics and philosophy. The objective is to ensure the acquisition of writing skills that combine the rigor of reflection and the requirements of scientific objectification. In this sense, the different schools of semiotic thought provide an example of problematization, often unresolved, between the emergence of philosophical stakes that necessarily cross a disciplinary project that aims to account for the different accesses to meaning and the epistemological anchoring to the linguistic tradition and comparative methodology of corpus studies. The workshop will focus the exercises and writing practices on the genealogy and consistent treatment of key concepts such as, for example, sign, meaning, symbolic form, life form, institution, structure, system, complexity, pragmatism, metalanguage

Readings/Bibliography

The basic bibliographic material consists of the following essays, published in the form of small books (the introductions to the volumes will be considered as critical complement to the collective discussions of the texts).

1. Ernst Cassirer, Lo strutturalismo nella linguistica moderna (a cura di F. Rastier), Roma, Luca Sossella Editore, 2018.
2. Roman Jakobson, Lo sviluppo della semiotica, Roma, Luca Sossella Editore, 2017.

To understand the theoretical orientations of the laboratory, reading the following article is strongly recommended: Pierluigi Basso Fossali, “La semiotica tra scienza e filosofia. Una duplicità epistemologica strategica”. Estudos Semióticos, 2023, 19 (3), pp.99-121, available online: link [https://www.revistas.usp.br/esse/article/view/214894/201447] .

To prepare the final paper and class presentations (in particular, those concerning the collectively constituted glossary), it is recommended to consult, in timely manner, this preliminary bibliography, all accessible online.

1. Claudio Paolucci, “Sistema e struttura. Per una semiotica enciclopedica della complessità”. E/C, November 2016, 1-13, available online: http://www.ec-aiss.it/index_d.php?recordID=767

2. Alessandro Zinna, “Il primato dell’immanenza nella semiotica strutturale”, E/C, available online: http://www.ec-aiss.it/pdf_contributi/zinna_16_7_08.pdf

3. Francesco Marsciani, “L’ermeneutica di Paul Ricoeur e la semiotica strutturale”, in P. Ricoeur e A.J. Greimas, Tra semiotica ed ermeneutica, Roma, Meltemi, 2000, available online : http://www.ec-aiss.it/monografici/10_greimas/intro_ricoeur_greimas_27_2_12.pdf

4. Algirdas Julien Greimas, “Note sul metalinguaggio” (1980), in Miti e figure (a cura di F. Marsciani), Bologna, Esculapio, available online: http://www.ec-aiss.it/monografici/10_greimas/Miti_e_figure_note_sul_metalinguaggio_27_2_12.pdf

5. Umberto Eco, “Segno e inferenza”, Torino, Einaudi, Piccola biblioteca online, available online: link [https://www.storiamedievale.net/pre-testi/Eco.pdf]

6. Paolo Fabbri, “Come Deleuze ci fa segno. Da Hjelmslev a Peirce”, in Il secolo Deleuziano, a cura di S. Vaccaro, Mimesi Ed., Milano, 1998, available online: link [https://www.paolofabbri.it/saggi/deleuze/]

7. Pierluigi Basso Fossali, “Semiotic mediations and complexity management: Paradoxes and regulative principles”, in Kristine Lund, Pierluigi Basso Fossali, Audrey Mazur & Magali Ollagnier-Beldame (eds.), Language is a complex adaptive system: Explorations and evidence, 9–22. Berlin: Language Science Press, available online: https://zenodo.org/record/6620107/files/334-Lund-et-al-2022-2.pdf?download=1

8. Pierluigi Basso Fossali, “Institutions as double agents: programming discourses and modal adjustments”, in Isabella Pezzini (ed.), Paolo Fabbri. Unfolding semiotics. Pour la sémiotique à venir, p. 35-48, Punctum, available online: https://punctum.gr/download/paolo-fabbri-unfolding-semiotics-pour-la-semiotique-a-venir/?tmstv=1721394557

9. Pierluigi Basso Fossali, “From paradigm to environment: The foreign rhythm and punctual catalysis of culture”, Sign System Studies, 2016, 44 (3), pp.415 – 431, available online: link [https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2016.44.3.06/10890]

For further insights, it is recommended to refer to:

• Semiotics and philosophical pragmatism: Charles Sanders Peirce, Pragmatismo e oltre (a cura di G. Maddalena), Milano, Bompiani, 2010.
• Structuralism and the philosophical notion of form of life: Claude Zilberberg, Giardini e altri terreni sensibili. Sulle tracce delle forme di vita, Centro int. Scienze semiotiche Umberto Eco, Roma, Aracne, 2019.
• Institutions of meaning and linguistic reflection: Vincent Descombes, Le istituzioni di senso, Genova, Marietti, 2005.
• Philosophy of symbolic forms and semiotics: Jean Lassègue, Dal trascendentale al simbolico L’epistemologia semiotica di Ernst Cassirer, Milano, Mimesis, 2019.

Teaching methods

Lectures, commented readings, group or individual presentations by students. Please note that classes will be exclusively in-person.

The laboratory will begin with meetings dedicated to presenting the topic with some commented readings to highlight the argumentative style, discursive strategies, and conceptual vocabulary of the authors treated. Subsequently, activities will be conducted in groups to constitute a small glossary of key notions, which will be presented and subjected to general discussion.

In the final part of the course, aspects concerning teamwork and corpus study will be problematized. Special attention will be dedicated to the correct use of sources and the issue of plagiarism, as well as the impact of artificial intelligence tools on the originality of academic work.

Various multimedia supports will be used during the course. All materials used throughout the course will be available on the e-learning platform Virtuale. In this regard, students intending to attend this course are required to register on the platform to access the teaching supports that will be an integral part of the teaching programme.

Assessment methods

To achieve a passing grade, two elements are required:

1. The presentation and discussion of aspects of the texts assigned by the professor and the lexicon that will be constituted; this part will take place in small groups;
2. A written paper, between 12,000 and 18,000 characters in length (excluding bibliography); this exercise will be individual and submitted to the professor by email by a date that will be indicated later (about a month after the meetings end).

The paper will focus on the themes of the laboratory, either taking up the aspects each person illustrated in the group presentation or choosing others at their discretion. The texts must be written in correct Italian and comply with the drafting standards learned during the first part of the laboratory. Among the evaluation criteria for the written paper, the following parameters can be specified: (i) understanding of the texts and correct use of sources; (ii) relevance of the topics addressed; (iii) quality of writing and compliance with editorial standards; (iv) clarity and possible originality of reflections; (v) scientific coherence and rigor of argumentation.

Students with disabilities and Specific Learning Disorders (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

Office hours

See the website of Pierluigi Basso