HISTORY OF JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIONS 1

This is one of the core courses of the Corso di Laurea "Languages, Cultures and Societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa".
Its formative objectives are within the area of cultural and humanistic skills learning.

Knowledge and understanding:
- understand the cultural complexity of traditional Japanese religious experience in its historical and social context;
- acquire critical awareness of the different perspectives of analysis of religious phenomena.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- analyze philosophical and religious texts through the use of critical historical-religious and anthropological tools;
- critically apply the analytical methodologies of the sciences of religions;

Judgment skills:
- elaborate critical judgments on religious phenomena examined during the course;

Communication skills:
- critically re-elaborate the contents of the program without resorting to purely mnemonic preparation.

Learning ability:
- take notes, summarizing, in a clear way, the main topics covered during the lessons;
- integrate independently the study of different teaching materials;
- independently analyze topics not dealt with during lectures;
- study on texts in English;
- use the online teaching platform.

An intermediate level of English (B2) is required to deepen the topics covered in class, using the reference texts.

The course will give a general introduction to classical Japanese thought. In particular, the course will present the most important religious doctrines and religious practices of the Shinto, Taoist and Buddhist traditions in Japan.

Kazuo Kasahara (ed.), 2004, A History of Japanese Religion, Kosei Publishing Co. (from page 5 to page 156).
Raveri, Massimo, Il pensiero giapponese classico, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (chapters 4, 6, 7,8).

Optional further reading:
Robert Ellwood, 2016, Introducing Japanese Religion, Routledge, 2016 (from page 1 to page 120).

Written exam (1h): 6 open questions.

The exam serves to evaluate the knowledge relevant to the different Japanese religious traditions and the student's ability to study and learn. The open questions are used to evaluate his ability to apply knowledge to the discussion of the topics covered and his autonomy of judgment in their analysis, as well as his ability to express his arguments in a concise and effective manner.

Lectures, also with the help of power-point.

It will be possible to take the exam with the program carried out in this course (2020-21) only for the first four exam sessions.
Once these four exam sessions have passed, students will have to take the exam with the program of the new academic year.

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