PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS II

Philosophical Hermeneutics belongs to the sector of Theoretical Philosophy and is focussed on the issues related to human interpretation, not intended as a cognitive representation but rather as a thinking experience of human beings as they are in the world. Philosophical Hermeneutics is not a mere discipline and transcends any simply methodological and epistemological problem relating to interpretative activity.
There are at least three crucial points decisive of Philosophical Hermeneutics within the Philosophy course:
(1) Philosophical Hermeneutics vividly rethinks the great questions of the philosophical tradition;
(2) Philosophical Hermeneutics insists on the concrete link of philosophical studies with the real existence of humans;
(3) Philosophical Hermeneutics cultivates the sense of the multiplicity and mobility of meaning of the discourses, especially in important texts.

Students are expected to learn how to deal with the polysemic and stratified character of the great texts of the past, considered classics.
Students are expected to learn to experience the distance of what belongs to philosophical (and literary and religious) discourses without therefore rushing to refer everything back to their own private and personal experience.

The course is not recommended for first-year students and presupposes an acquired knowledge and mastery of the crucial categories and issues of the Western philosophical tradition.

Title: Jacques Derrida interpreting Robinson Crusoe. The sovereign self on the desert island, God and wild nature.

The myth of Robinson Crusoe overshadows Defoe's novel - the literary text is indeed richer, and includes more nuances and openings, than meant by the myth of the bourgeois-modern individual, uniquely self-referential and utilitarian, freed by shipwreck and sovereign in the midst of wild nature. However, Derrida focuses precisely on the limitless sovereignty of this individual without a world, without others, devoid of historical sense, and in relation only to his own God and his own persistent prejudices.

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719), edited by Michael Shinagel, Norton & Company, New York 1994;
Jacques Derrida, The Beast and the Sovereign, vol. 2 (2002-2003), translated by G. Bennington, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2011.

Thoreau, Henry David, “Solitude”, in Id., Walden and Civil Disobedience, Penguin Classics, New York 1986, pp. 174-184;
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, “Nature”, in Id., Nature and Selected Essays, Penguin Classics, 2003.

The exam test will be written. Students will be asked to illustrate four passages taken from the texts included in the Syllabus. The exam will last no more than two hours.

Regarding the grading, the exam will be marked on a scale ranging from 0 to 30. The minimum passing grade is 18. Honors ("lode") will be granted only for exceptional capacity of judgment and excellent knowledge of the topics under evaluation.

Lectures will give space to the direct reading of texts, projected on screen, and to a wide interlocution with the students.

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Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion

Ca' Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

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This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development