FOUNDATIONS OF EUROPEAN THOUGHT
Syllabus
Updated A.Y. 2015-2016
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, 2015–2016
Syllabus
Foundations of European Thought
CFU 3
Prof. Lorenzo Perilli
Course Description
The course aims at providing students with a common background about the origin and development of the most important features peculiar to European thought, and at giving them the intellectual instruments to understand the issues which make Europe different from, or similar to, other cultures. Students will gain knowledge of the foundations and conceptual base of western political systems (democracy), science, law, philosophy, ethics, and other issues, in their mutual relation.
Teaching Method
Taught class, lectures delivered by the Professor will be the main feature. Active discussion with students will also be part of the teaching activity. Students will also be asked to write short essays on topics not announced in advance.
Schedule of Topics
Topic 1 the birth and first development of democracy as a political system
Topic 2 the method of scientific research and the notion of science. Axiomatic-deductive method vs. arguments based on images
Topic 3 the role of religion in society and its competitiveness towards rational thought
Topic 4 Inference, induction, deduction.
Topic 5 the circulation of knowledge and the idea of progress
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Textbook and Materials
C. Ginzburg, Clues: Roots of a Scientific Paradigm, in C. Ginzburg, Clues, myth and the historical paradigm, Johns Hopkins University Press 1989, pp. 96-125; Selected pages from E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkeley 1951; G.E.R. Lloyd–N. Sivin, The way and the word. Science and medicine in ancient China and Greece, Yale 2003. M. Finley, Democracy ancient and modern, London 1985; R. Kapuscinki, Travels with Herodotus, Knopf, New York 2004; J. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel. The fates of human societies, London-New York 1997. Further bibliography and other material will be made available during the class.
Assessment
final written exam: 100%.
Office hours
lorenzo.perilli@uniroma2.it