THEORETICAL PHILOSOPHY

In philosophical studies Theoretical Philosophy is a traditionally basic discipline. It aims to highlight the fundamental elements of the issues, without limiting itself to analytical decomposition. Within the PISE this teaching can offer those basic grammatical coordinates that have marked the entire Western philosophical tradition.

The philosophical-theoretical approach aims at at least two objectives:
(1) learn to read a classic text with the necessary historiographic awareness and the necessary critical sense of the multiplicity of meanings;
(2) open up the students' cultural horizon in order for them to learn how not to absolutize the present and not to take dominant interpretations as the only possible ones.

As this course is intended for third-year students, it is assumed that the students already have the historiographic, terminological and conceptual bases to attend the course.

Title: Jacques Derrida re-reads Robinson Crusoe. The myth of nature between eurocentrism and colonialism.

The myth of Robinson Crusoe overshadows Defoe's novel -- the literary text is richer and accommodates many nuances and openings. The myth of the closed individual, uniquely self-referential and utilitarian, nothing more than an homo oeconomicus, who has freed himself from the civilized world, tends to falter if compared to the novel, which shows more ambivalences. There are even Robinson's moments of almost tenderness for the other, united even to gratitude. Besides the role of the relationship with God proves decisive. That notwithstanding the course will focus on the relationship of the modern individual with the other, firstly the wild nature and Friday, the native met on the island. The adventures of Robinson Crusoe, as including also a modern economic pattern, constitute a premise not only of the eighteenth and nineteenth century European colonialism, but also, too often, of the contemporary Postcolonialism. The second part of Derrida's "The Beast and the Sovereign" will help us to interpret and understand the myth of Robinson Crusoe and its grounding implications.

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719), edited by Michael Shinagel, Norton & Company, New York 1994;
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, 1690 [selected parts, available on Moodle]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, only Book 3, § 8, in The Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract, Confessions, Emile, and Other Essays, Halcyon Press Ltd., 2009;
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, only Book I, chap. 2;
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, Hackett Publishing Company, 1992 (selected parts);
Karl Marx, Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy, only Introduction, 1a;
Michel Tournier, Friday [1967], The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997 (selected parts);
Tzvetan Todorov, The Conquest of America. The Question of the Other [1982], Oxford UP, 1999 (selected parts).
Vanita P. Tadha, Comparison between Caliban and Friday, in The Postcolonial Literature, 30(3), 2015;
Karl Marx, Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy, only Introduction, 1a;
Jacques Derrida, The Beast and the Sovereign, vol. 2 (2002-2003), translated by G. Bennington, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2011 (available on the web).

More (non-mandatory) references:
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;

Baumeister, David, The Human/Animal Logic of Sovereignty: Derrida and ‘Robinson Crusoe’, Environmental Philosophy: The Journal of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, 16(1), 2019, pp. 161-180;
Bobaru, Nicolae, The Footprint Motif In Rewritings of the Crusoe’s Modern Myth in «Journal of Romanian Literary Studies», 22, 2020, pp. 416-421;
Brugnolo, Stefano, La tentazione dell’altro. Avventure dell’identità occidentale da Conrad a Coetzee, Carocci editore, Roma 2017, solo 2, 2.1, 2.2 pp. 27-54; 6.13, pp. 205-209;
Hill, Christopher, Robinson Crusoe, in «History Workshop», No. 10, 1980, pp. 6-24;
Muthu, Sankar, Enlightment Against Empire, Princeton UP, 2003, only Chapter Three: “Diderot and the Evils of Empire: The Histoire des deux Indes”, pp. 72-121;
Watson, Matthew, Crusoe, Friday and the Raced Market Frame of Orthodox Economics Textbooks,in NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY, 23, 5, 2018, pp. 544–559.

The exam consists of a written test with open questions. In the maximum time of two hours students are asked to illustrate and explain some (four) passages taken from the texts in the program.
Students are advised to remember the following:
when you are already registered for an exam session and, for any reason, you cannot take the exam, you must notify the teacher in advance via email.

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.

written

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

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.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development