Ateneo - UPO

The Human Need for Rooting in Simone Weil's Thought

S. Weil, La prima radice. Preludio a una dichiarazione dei doveri verso l’essere umano, trad. it. di F. Fortini, SE, Milano 1990. S. Weil, L'Iliade o il poema della forza, Asterios, Trieste 2012. Parts from: - AA.VV., Le sfide dell’ospitalità. Identità, alterità e pluralismo culturale, Aracne, Roma 2020. - I. Poma, Simone Weil. Per una decostruzione religiosa del soggetto moderno, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2022.

The course aims, at a basic level, to promote an attitude of attention, an indispensable condition for acquiring awareness of themes and problems, otherwise unnoticed. This will allow the acquisition of basic notions of moral philosophy, through a methodological approach and with reference to the history of philosophical thought. At a more advanced level the aim of the course is to allow the student to orient himself in the interpretation of philosophical texts of contemporary thought, and to connect them to the theoretical-conceptual path of the discipline; the student will be able to express critical judgments on themes and authors, using a terminologically precise and rigorous language.

No mandatory prerequisites are required. Many students come from the Bachelor of Philosophy; for others a general understanding of philosophy in its basic concepts is helpful.

Lectures, analysis and commentary of texts, group discussion.

The course will be held in the second semester. Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

The final exam includes an oral exam of about 20 minutes, with which to verify the knowledge inserted between the objectives and the expected learning outcomes. The interview is structured in 3 sections: 1) at least one question on the introductory part of the course; 2) at least one question on every text of the course program; 3) at least one question on the parts related by the students, except the one presented by the student examined. The exam will have a positive result if the sum of 18/30 is reached or exceeded. The formulation of the overall grade will be based on the following elements: answers to questions from Section 1: 20% of the evaluation; answers to questions in Section 2: 50% of the evaluation; answers to questions in Section 3: 20% of the evaluation. Exposure attentive to the precision of the terminology and to the argumentative correctness: 10%. The honors will be awarded based on the assessment of accuracy, depth and ability to process the response.

The course tackles the problems of rooting and uprooting starting from Simone Weil's philosophy. From here the path unfolds in an analysis of the figure of the foreigner and the challenges it represents for relational and welcoming thought of plurality of every type and genre, converging in the common tension towards good.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: - ability to face philosophical texts and to connect them to the theoretical-conceptual path of the discipline; - ability to display and discuss the Authors's position, using the fundamental concepts of the discipline in an appropriate manner. Autonomy of judgments and communication skills: - ability to deal appropriately with the subject, articulating the interventions, interacting in the discussion and learning the transmission methods also from a didactic perspective. Learning ability: - ability of analysis, synthesis and interpretive comprehension of texts.