Seminário de Especialidade em História da Filosofia (not translated) - 2nd semester
Code
73203107
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Filosofia
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
Marta Mendonça
Weekly hours
2
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) To develop the ability to deeply and systematically understand distinct periods in the History of Philosophy
b) To develop competences, methods and practices adequate to the research in different periods of the History of Philosophy
c) To develop analytical and conceptual skills in Philosophy, identifying constants, tensions, affinities, divergences, etc
d) To develop the ability to connect the specific problems of certain periods in the History of Philosophy with other problems and other periods
e) To acknowledge the role of philosophical tradition in the exercise of the philosophical activity
f) To develop the ability to place, both synchronously and diachronically, the research object on the philosophical tradition
Prerequisites
None.
Subject matter
Contingency and knowledge: Aristotle, Aquinas, Suárez, Leibniz
Is thought based on necessity? Is it possible to conceive an intelligibility and a logic of contingency? What is the relationship between truth, knowledge and contingency?
The seminar will address these issues by focusing on the discussion of future contingents, a topic that originated one of the most often re-enacted controversies in the history of philosophy.
Starting with the formulation proposed by Aristotle in De Interpretatione IX, we will:
a) Identify the aspects involved in the discussion of future contingents;
b) Identify the strategies adopted, the various plans logical, epistemic, ontological in which they arise, and their consequences;
c) Explore variants of this problem formulated throughout the history of philosophy and the reasoning founding them.
d) Discuss the commensurability of variants and solutions.
Literature: Aristotle, Aquinas, Suarez and Leibniz.
Bibliography
A more complete bibliography will be made available early in the course.
Aquinas, T. (1964). In Aristotelis libros Peri Hermeneias et Posteriorum analyticorum expositio cum textu ex recensione leonine. Cura et studio Raymundi M. Spazzi. Torino: Marietti.
Aristotle (1996). The categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics. Translated by H.P. and H. Cooke Tredennick. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.
Leibniz, G. W. (2009). Sämtliche Briefe und Schrifeten Zweite Reihe: Philosophischer Briefwechsel. Zweiter Band: 1686-1694. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
Suárez. F. (1856-1878). Disputationes metaphysicae. In Opera Omnia, vols. 25-26, Paris: Ludovicus Vivès.
Teaching method
The course will work as a seminar, with a double explanatory and hands-on approach. The dominant methodology will be the analysis of literature, especially sources. The guiding principle will alternate between a chronological approach to the philosophers and a comparative analysis of their positions. The different ways in which the problem of thinkability of contingency can be formulated, to what extent the definition of the concepts involved in this issue determine its solution, which objections each philosopher has to face and what compromises he has to make, and whether the different positions are commensurate, will be debated.
Evaluation method
Oral participation in the seminar (35%).
A written essay (between 18,000 and 25,000 characters, including spaces) on a topic to be agreed between the teacher and the student at the beginning of the semester (65%).