No knowledge of languages ??other than English is required. A working level of English is sufficient. No knowledge of the history of Western philosophy is required. All that is required is a certain willingness to place ideas in their specific historical, intellectual, economic, social and cultural contexts. Attendance is not mandatory (since it cannot be by law). However, a modicum of common sense and a reasonable trust in the use of free will confirm the fact that, if the student is in a position to be able to attend lessons, said attendance generates a conspicuous intellectual advantage and perhaps even an enrichment of experience (social and cultural).

Students will acquire a good understanding of Hume's Treatise of Human Nature; they will develop the ability to argue points that have been discussed in class; they will become familiar with the exercise of articulating a particular thesis or a particular topic in written form. The aim of the course is to encourage a genuinely interdisciplinary approach in students, so that the major themes addressed by philosophy, science and technology are read and interpreted through a plurality of conceptual, literary and visual tools.

David Hume published "A Treatise of Human Nature, Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects" in 1739-1740, in three books: 'Of the Understanding', 'Of the Passions' and 'Of Morals'. Famously, Hume connected this grand philosophical result to what he called 'a new scene of thought'. The treatise is indeed the summa of Hume's philosophy and contains most influential positions concerning such issues as induction and the limit of knowledge, scepticism, notions of space and time, the role of human passions in moral philosophy. Most of all, Hume intended to provide a new study of human nature through the experimental method. By focusing on specific sections of the work, the course's main aim is to free Hume from a series of cartoon assumptions layered upon his thought by decades of textbook teaching: the empiricist, the irrationalist, he who awakened Kant from his dogmatic slumber, and so on. By contrast, the course will show with concrete examples the importance of the 'Treatise' as a fundamental book of philosophy, in spite of it falling 'dead-born from the press' in 1739.

The recommended edition is: David Hume, "A Treatise of Human Nature", ed. by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000. Various sections will be excerpted. At the end of the course, the teacher will prepare a handout in PDF format with the materials that students must know to pass the exam. The handout will be available electronically in the teacher's virtual classroom (where all the materials of all the courses are collected and organized in the respective folders).

The exam programme IS THE SAME whether students attend or not. In the classes of "History of Philosophical Methods", all students are considered workers. We all work, in different way.

There are no further information.

• The course involves a close and contextualized reading of significant sections of Hume's Treatise of Human Nature. Each session will have a part dedicated to questions and discussions, from which it is hoped that the characteristic physiognomy of the class will emerge, and hence the specific interests that are to be cultivated among the students. In the classes of History of Philosophical Models, teachers and students will share knowledge and critical thinking, and above all they will practice doing research from week to week. The writing of the essay will be encouraged during the course, through individual meetings between the teacher and the students, and through discussions of any preliminary drafts of the essay. The essay is to be delivered at least 10 days before the final exam.

• The evaluation will take due account of: 1) a written essay of approximately 4,000 words on one of the various topics that emerge during the discussions in class, to be delivered via email to the teacher at least ten days before the final exam date; any attempt at plagiarism, including the use of ChatGPT 4.0 and other types of sloppy chatbots and virtual assistants, will result in the test being voided; 2) a final oral exam, in which the results of the written essay will also be discussed.

  
  

  To write the essay, students are encouraged to identify a possible research topic that has some connection with the course programme or with ideas that emerged during the discussions in class. The range of issues that can be examined in the written essay is wide. Here are a few suggestions: David Hume and his philosophy; natural history; the natural history of human nature; the so-called Empiricism; impression; habit; imagination; belief; trust; causality; Newton.

  
  

A pinch of Italian, as little as possible.

English