MF0104 - HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

courses
ID:
MF0104
Duration (hours):
36
CFU:
6
SSD:
STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA ANTICA
Located in:
CHIETI
Url:
PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES/CORSO GENERICO Year: 2
Year:
2025
Course Catalogue:
https://unich.coursecatalogue.cineca.it/af/2025?co...

Overview

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (04/10/2025 - 30/01/2026)

Syllabus

Course Objectives


To be able to understand the semantic implications of the philosophical and scientific terminology of ancient philosophers and scientists.
To be able to immedesimate in the point of view of ancient scientists and philosophers, by seeing the problems they tried to solve from their own point of view.
To be able to understand the metaphors from which the explanatory models used by ancient scientists and philosophers were derived.
To get an acquaintance with the main conceptual structures and argumentative strategies used by ancient philosophers and scientists in the construction of their theories and of their arguments.
To grasp the similarities and differences between ancient, medieval, modern and nowadays thought.
To be able to do an articulated and meaningful discourse about single ancient philosophers and about the main themes of ancient philosophy, and about the interpretations XIX-XXI century scholars gave of their works.

Course Prerequisites


Acquaintance with the main conceptual and ideological structures and with the main material aspects of the Ancient Greek approach to the world.

Teaching Methods


Frontal lecture (either online or presentially).
The teacher will try to provide the texts of his lectures with at least one day of advance.
Commentary on ancient texts. Comparison between ancient texts, and between ancient and modern or contemporary texts.
Open debate.

Assessment Methods


Oral examination on the notions; maieutical discussion about the concepts.

Texts


The teacher will try to provide in advance the text of each lecture. Beside these texts, the bibliography consists in:
books to be partially examined or overviewed, which must be at hand during the lessons, in order to understand the professor’s lectures; but the exam will NOT be about these texts:
Homer, Iliad, a translation of your choice.
Homer, Odissey, a translation of your choice.
Hesiod, complete works, a translation of your choice.
Lami, A., I Presocratici. Testimonianze e frammenti da Talete ad Empedocle, BUR, or a foreign equivalent anthology.
A complete translation of Plato’s works (one of your choice), e.g. one among these: Platone, Tutti gli scritti, a cura di G. Reale, Rusconi, or Platone, Tutte le opere, a cura di E. Maltese, Newton Compton, or a foreign equivalent.
Aristotele, Fisica, a cura di G. Radice, Bompiani. Aristotele, Sul cielo, a cura di A. Jori, Bompiani. Aristotele, La generazione e la corruzione, a cura di M. Migliori e L. Palpacelli, Bompiani.
Aristotele, Metafisica, a cura di G. Reale, Bompiani.
Foreign students will be allowed to substitute these Italian translations of Ancient works with foreign equivalents, whose choice will have to be negotiated with the professor.
Bibliography for the exam (G. Feola’s texts will be provided by the professor, in pdf format):
Platone, Timeo, a cura di F. Fronterotta, BUR, con testo greco a fronte (only a choice of passages); foreign students will be allowed to substitute this translation with a foreign one;
Aristotele, Fisica (ONLY BOOK VIII), a cura di G. Radice, Bompiani, con testo greco a fronte; foreign students will be allowed to substitute this translation with a foreign one;
One of your choice between Aristotele, Sul cielo (ONLY ONE BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE, AMONG THE 4 THAT CONSTITUTE THE TREATISE), a cura di A. Jori, Bompiani, con testo greco a fronte, OR Aristotele, La generazione e la corruzione, a cura di M. Migliori e L. Palpacelli, Bompiani (ONLY BOOK II); foreign students will be allowed to substitute these translations with a foreign one.
One of your choice between G. Feola, Aristotle on the life of god, and on eternity of life and time, in « Journal of Hellenic Religion », 13, 2020, pp. 77-113, and G. Feola, Cosmic order and perceptual order according to Aristotle, which the professor can give to you.
One of your choice between G. De Santillana, Fato antico e fato moderno, Adelphi, and G. De Santillana, Sirio, Adelphi.
The texts (professor’s lectures) that the professor may send you.
Foreign students will be allowed to substitute Italian works with English, German, French, Spanish or Portuguese ones: foreign students who will be willing to substitute Italian works with foreign ones will need to negotiate their own choices with the professor.

Contents


Starting from Homer, and passing through archaic, classical, Hellenistic and roman-age cultures and cultural practices, we will examine the ways in which the Greek thought (1) improved on the important heritage of Middle-Eastern astronomy and cosmology on the way of a creation of a consistent depiction of the Cosmos, (2) tried to articulate two related epistemic enterprises, a descriptive astronomy and a conceptualization of the ontological structure of the Cosmos.

Course Language


Italian

Degrees

Degrees

PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES 
Master’s Degree
2 years
No Results Found

People

People

FEOLA Giuseppe
Teaching staff
No Results Found