Teaching

Learning activities for the Doctoral Program in Philosophy, Science, Cognition, and Semiotics

A) Mandatory Activities for all the Curricula

First-year students (cycle 39) will attend all three courses. Second-year students (cycle 38) will choose two out of three courses based on their interests. All courses include a final assessment, a study program, and certificate of suitability.

 

For dates and times of implementation, doctoral students must refer directly to the individual teachers.

Corso 1. “L’immagine come dispositivo esperienziale”, 18 ore (due moduli da 9 ore, 3 cfu)

The course aims to introduce students to some reflections on the relationship between image and experience, with a particular focus on the connection between perception and language, the concept of mediation (including technological mediation), and an interdisciplinary perspective that bridges aesthetics, semiotics, and artificial intelligence.

Corso 2. “Patrimonio culturale e paesaggistico: un approccio interdisciplinare”, 24 ore (quattro moduli da 6 ore, 4 cfu)

6 ore, Prof. 
6 ore, Prof. 
6 ore, Prof. 
6 ore, Dott.ssa 

The course aims to introduce PhD students to a multidisciplinary approach for studying cultural and landscape heritage. The subject of the course is the critical analysis of "heritage practices," that is, the processes by which cultural, social, and scientific memory is construed, selected, preserved, valorized, reprocessed, communicated, and transmitted within specific places (museums, archives, historical cities and landscapes).

The course is divided into modules that address the construction/preservation/transformation of cultural, scientific and landscape heritage from various disciplinary perspectives (history and philosophy of science, semiotics, aesthetics) in close dialogue with each other to promote a multi-perspective understanding of the issues involved.

 

PhD course timetable

Lunedì, 20 maggio, h.10-13 Aula Mondolfo
Martedì, 21 maggio, h.10-13 Aula Mondolfo
Lunedì, 27 maggio, h.10-13 Aula Mondolfo
Martedì, 28 maggio, h.10-13 Aula Mondolfo
Lunedì, 3 giugno, h.15-18 Aula Mondolfo
Martedì, 4 giugno, h.15-18 Aula Mondolfo
Lunedì, 10 giugno, h.15-18 Aula Mondolfo
Martedì, 11 giugno, h.15-18 Aula Mondolfo

Corso 3. “Open Science e divulgazione del sapere in filosofia e nelle Humanities”, 18 ore (due moduli da 9 ore, 3 cfu)

9 ore, Prof.  
9 ore, Prof.ssa  

At the end of the course the PhD student accomplishes a theoretical and practical knowledge of the concept of Open Science and of the practice of knowledge dissemination and transfer of knowledge in the philosophical and humanistic fields, and in a broad sense with reference to the knowledge generally produced by scientific research . They will have the opportunity to interface with best practice projects so as to be able to identify and apply the best methods in open science experiences and the social impact of their research in the various domains of knowledge. A prospective picture of how these modalities may influence the evaluation of research will also be offered.

 

PhD course timetable

Lunedì, 13 Maggio 2024 h.14-17, Sala Mondolfo – Via Zamboni 38
Mercoledì, 15 Maggio 2024 h.10-14, Sala Mondolfo – Via Zamboni 38
Lunedì, 20 Maggio h.14-17, Sala Mondolfo – Via Zamboni 38
Mercoledì, 22 Maggio 2024 h.14-18, Sala Mondolfo – Via Zamboni 38
Mercoledì, 29 Maggio 2024 h.13-17, Sala Mondolfo – Via Zamboni 38

B) Specialized Activities for each Curriculum

Each doctoral student is required to choose at least three of the following activities. All the activities listed below include an assessment, a study program, and a certificate of suitability and are open to all students enrolled in the PSCS program. However, some of these activities are designed for students in specific curricula and are particularly recommended for them.

Legend: i) O: mandatory for all curricula; ii) F: recommended for the Philosophy and Science Studies curriculum; iii) SC: recommended for the Cognitive Science curriculum; iv) S: recommended for the Semiotics curriculum.

 

For dates and times of implementation, doctoral students must refer directly to the individual teachers.

O) SERIC – Seminari sulle ricerche in corso (24 ore, 2 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The Seminar of the Department of Philosophy and Communication is a discussion forum promoted by lecturers, researchers, research fellows and PhD students and open to all those who are interested in the research carried out in the Department in the multidisciplinary fields that the Department represents.

The aim at the base of the SeRiC FILCOM is to share the richness of research themes, connections and different approaches within the Department of Philosophy and Communication, as well as to identify areas of intersection between the various disciplinary fields, fostering opportunities for comparison and dialogue between the various orientations.

The intention is to foster greater knowledge and visibility of the Department's activities with the result of promoting as much as possible dialogue between disciplines and methodological approaches, the discussion of common themes, the enhancement of competences, the increase of knowledge, providing a forum for dialogue and the promotion of the exchange of ideas.

 

PhD course timetable

SeRiC 2023/24

F, S, SC) Trucchi per un laboratorio di ricerca interdisciplinare (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof.sa 

The learning outcomes of this seminar are: I) to offer the Students a hands-on experience of interdisciplinary research; II) to illustrate how the specific scientific discourse of the different disciplines involved can be adapted in order to offer the best possible contribution to interdisciplinary research; III) to build a concrete interdisciplinary research experience around a shared topic, defining in this way a new research perspective that derives from the exchange between the different kinds of expertise involved.

SC) Conoscenza e cognizione (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof.  

Active knowledge of issues relating to: ways of building, communicating and discussing knowledge; their impacts in the main contemporary scientific, social and humanistic areas; the epistemological, methodological and conceptual aspects connected to the disciplines participating in the broad transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of cognitive science; the practices of understanding and discussing the main literature related to these disciplinary fields.

 

PhD course timetable

Agenda of The Knowledge and Cognition research center

  • 22-11-2023, 14:00-16:00
    Chiara Lucifora (Università di Bologna) “L’utilizzo della realtà virtuale nella ricerca clinica e sociale”
  • 31-1-2024, 14:00-16:00
    Silvia Camporesi (Università di Bologna) “Osservazioni geometriche sull'apprendimento automatico e l'intelligenza artificiale”
  • 6-3-2024, 14:00-16:00
    Patrizio Frosini (Università di Bologna) “Uses and abuses of the concept of race in the genomics of sport performance: epistemological and ethical considerations”
  • 8-5-2024 10:00-17:30 (6 ore)
    Tom Ziemke (Linköping University), Luisa Damiano (IULM Milano), Pierluigi Graziani (Università di Urbino) “Machines in Thoughts. Philosophy, History, and Epistemology of Robotics and AI

SC, F, S) Affetti, pratiche, concetti. Tra filosofia, scienze umane e scienze cognitive (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. , Prof.sa 

As a result of this series of talks, it is expected that participants will become familiar with the main theoretical accounts of the phenomenon of mixed affect and that they will be able to deepen their analysis of emotional ambivalence from a multidisciplinary perspective (cognitive science; theoretical, experimental, and clinical psychology; phenomenology; aesthetics; philosophy of psychiatry; analytical metaphysics; ancient philosophy; classics).

 

PhD course timetable

Bittersweet Talk Series

  • 20 March 2024, 11-13 Eric CULLHED (Uppsala) Crying in the sunshine
  • 25 March 2024, 11-13 Sara DELLANTONIO (Trento) When the fog lifts. Lack of emotional awareness and anhedonia
  • 26 March 2024, 11-13 Federica GREGORATTO (Berlin) TBD
  • 27 March 2024, 11-13 Ditte MUNCH-JURISIC (Copenhagen) Uncertainty in emotion perception
  • 10 April 2024, 11-13 Ursula HESS (Berlin) TBD
  • 15 April 2024, 11-13 Anna MARMODORO (Durham) Mereological causation: ancient causal models for power mixtures
  • 16 April 2024, 11-13 Donncha O’ROURKE (Edinburgh) The Epicureans and psychic conflict
  • 17 April 2024, 11-13 – online Carola BARBERO (Torino) TBD
  • 22 April 2024, 11-13 Marco VIOLA (Roma Tre) On valence

The meetings will take place in Sala Rossa Via Azzo Gardino, 23 Bologna

F) Scienze e costruzione storica dell’autorità (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

This series of seminars presents a set of historical investigations and methodological reflections focused on the relationships between the history of science and cultural and social history from the early modern period to the contemporary era. In particular, students will be introduced to advanced research on the historical relationships in the Western world between medicine and the sciences on one hand, and the construction of forms of political authority on the other.

 

PhD course timetable

  • 24 ottobre 2023, h. 16.00- 19.00
    Mariacarla Gadebusch-Bondio (Universität Bonn), Benedetta Chizzolini (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München/Università di Padova)
    Medicina, schiavitù, e galere in età moderna: questioni metodologiche
  • 9 novembre 2023, h. 16.00- 19.00
    Lisa Haushofer (University of Amsterdam)
    Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition
  • 5 dicembre 2023, h. 16.00- 19.00
    Hannah Murphy (King’s College London)
    Medicine, Inspection, and the Epistemology of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
  • 25 gennaio 2024, h. 16.00- 19.00
    Luca Paltrinieri (Université de Rennes)
    Wergeld: un’inchiesta sul valore della vita
    in collaborazione con SeRiC

The meetings will take place in Aula Mondolfo (Via Zamboni 38) 

S) Semiotica, trauma e memoria (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The course offers doctoral students a program of seminars and lectures on topics in the semiotics of memory. Through contributions from scholars and experts, doctoral students will explore some aspects of the debate within memory studies and the semiotics of culture and cultural memory. Presentations will address, among other topics, the symbolic reprocessing of cultural trauma, the construction and transmission of cultural heritage, the construction and sharing of collective memories, and the intergenerational transmission of memory.

Planned activities include seminars and conferences organized and co-organized by the TRAME Research Center (Center for Semiotic Studies on Memory), the MSCA-RISE SPEME Project - Spaces of Memory, and the Mokichi Okada Chair on Beauty. Other seminars will be organized as part of the Semiotics of Memory, Semiotics of Conflict, and Semiotics of Culture courses of the Master of Arts in Semiotics.

 

PhD course timetable

Agenda del Centro TRAME 

F) Modernità radicali: filosofia e politica tra XVI e XVIII secolo (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The course focuses on the themes, ideas, and problems raised by the philosophical system of Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677). Students will be introduced to the in-depth analysis and understanding of key themes and concepts of the Spinozist tradition through lectures by leading national and international scholars. They will develop a deep critical capacity that will enable them to describe and analyse the conceptual structure of the major texts of Spinozism, combined with knowledge of the specific historiographical debates and the different historical and cultural contexts of reference. 

 

PhD course timetable

The training activities will be held from 15 May to 15 June 2024 and will be selected as part of the BIP Hortus Spinozarum project

F, S) Storia dei testi e costruzione del sapere (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The course aims to deepen some particular aspects of the different ancient and medieval traditions of thought, consolidating the ability of direct reading and philological analysis of texts, also presented in the original language (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic). The study of the topics covered is intended to increase PhD students’ awareness of the importance of the history of the transmission of texts for the construction of different forms of scientific and philosophical knowledge.

 

PhD course timetable

  • Giovedì, 7 dicembre 2023, dalle 11 alle 13 – Aula A, Via Centotrecento, 18
    Maria Evelina Malgieri (Torino), Fluxus e creazione. Alberto Magno interprete del Liber de causis
  • Giovedì, 14 dicembre 2023, dalle 11 alle 13 – Aula A, Via Centotrecento, 18
    Fabrizio Amerini (Parma), Tommaso d’Aquino, il Liber de causis e il problema della fine della vita umana
  • Venerdì, 15 dicembre 2023, dalle 11 alle 13 – Aula A, Via Centotrecento, 18
    Mario Meliadò (Siegen), Alberto Magno, Tommaso d’Aquino e Meister Eckhart interpreti del De causis

S) Temi echiani (in collaborazione col Centro Internazionale di Studi Umanistici “Umberto Eco”, 12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The seminar series aims to discuss Umberto Eco's interpretative semiotics, addressing the various dimensions of his intellectual work while maintaining a fundamental semiotic specificity.

 

PhD course timetable

Agenda del Centro Umberto Eco

F, S) Storia e critica della violenza nel Novecento (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The series of seminars aims to provide doctoral students a comprehensive overview of the so-called historical revisionism. This is understood both as the manipulation of the history of ideas, aimed at radically revising the conceptual categories upon which the cultural and political history of a society is based, and as a practice of the public and political use of history, engaged in controversies around the narration of specific phases and events from the past.

Therefore, we will examine revisionism as a trend that emerged in the historiographical debate of the late 20th century, with the ultimate goal of reinterpreting, from a liberal and conservative perspective, significant events in European history (from the French Revolution to Fascism, up to the fall of the Soviet Union).

We will also consider it as a conceptual approach expressed in the early decades of the last century, aimed at identifying the historical roots of ideologies and political regimes. For instance, we consider the case of Giovanni Gentile, who, in his essay on the Risorgimento in 1923, presented Mazzini and his ideas as precursors to fascism.We will present and discuss some of the most significant works of this historiographical trend, taking care to connect their content to the political and cultural contexts that served as their backdrop.

 

F, S) Teorie della verità (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

This course provides students with the tools required to understand contemporary debates on the concept of truth (and the property presumably associated to it). It offers a concise introduction to some basic notions of philosophical logic and a critical overview of the main options on the table -- from the classical theories to the most recent developments. 

SC, S) Lab Meetings of Cognitive Dynamics 4E (Embodied, Enacted, Embedded, Extended) Lab (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof.sa 

The purpose of the lab meetings of the Cognitive Dynamics 4E is to offer an interdisciplinary platform to PhD students in which they can share their most recent results, presenting both ideas for future studies as well as research studies already completed.
PhD students presenting their research work will have the opportunity to:

  •  receive feed-back about their work which can help them to further define their research question or understand their data, depending on the stage of their work
  •  improve their presentation skills in a friendly environment before they present their work at national or international conferences
  •  learn to address points/questions raised by experts in a process akin to the scientific peer-review process

PhD students taking part in the discussion will have the opportunity to:

  • practice their critical and inductive thinking abilities
  • familiarize with the main experimental paradigms and theories of Cognitive Sciences

 

PhD course timetable

Mercoledì, 29 novembre ore 11-13
Lunedì, 18 dicembre ore 11-13
Giovedì, 25 Gennaio ore 11-13
Giovedì, 22 Febbraio ore 11-13
Martedì, 26 Marzo ore 13-15
Mercoledì, 24 Aprile ore 13-15
Giovedì, 23 Maggio ore 11-13
Giovedì, 27 Giugno ore 11-13

F, S, SC) Frange del pragmatismo / Fringes of Pragmatism (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof.sa 

This lecture series aims to orient the doctoral student in the current debate on pragmatism particularly in its more "marginal" and nontraditional forms, including specifically aesthetic-theoretical and social themes, problems and phenomena.

 

PhD course timetable

  • 13 dicembre, 15:00-17:00, Sala Mondolfo, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione, Via Zamboni 38: Bourdieu e il pragmatismo (Roberta Dreon, Cà Foscari Venezia | Giovanni Matteucci, Università di Bologna)
  • 17 gennaio, 15:00-17:00, Sala Mondolfo, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione, Via Zamboni 38: Brandom e il pragmatismo (Antonio Scarafone, Università di Monaco di Baviera | Yvonne Hütter Almerigi, Università di Bologna)
  • 13 Febbraio 15.00-17.00: Seminario sulla vaghezza in Peirce (Tullio Viola, Università di Maastricht)
  • 4 marzo: 14:30-18:30, Sala Rossa, Centro di Studi Umanistici Umberto Eco, Via Marsala 26: International study day How to use A.I. sensibly in aesthetics? (Ossi Naukkarinen, Aalto University | Aldo Gangemi, Università di Bologna | Nicola di Stefano, CNR, Roma | Gioia Laura Iannilli, Università di Bologna)
  • 6 marzo, 15:00-17:00, Sala Mondolfo, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione, Via Zamboni 38: Whitehead e il pragma.smo (Rocco Ronchi, Università dell’Aquila | Maria Regina Brioschi, Università di Milano Statale)
  • 12 aprile, 15:00-17:00, Sala Mondolfo, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione, Via Zamboni 38: Preserving meaning in an age of Algorithms and A.I. – Borgman and Dewey (David Hildebrand, University of Colorado Denver)
  • 24 aprile, 17:00-19:00, Sala Mondolfo, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione, Via Zamboni 38: Davidson and pragmatism (Bjorn Ramberg, Oslo University)
  • 21 maggio, 15:00-17:00, Sala Mondolfo, Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione, Via Zamboni 38: Jane Addams tra femminismo e pragma.smo (Nuria Boronat, Universitat de Barcelona | Federica Castelli, Università di Roma Tre | Carlotta Cosuttaa, Univerità di Milano Statale | Matteo Santarelli, Università di Bologna)
  • 24-26 giugno (ora e luogo tba): Conferenza internazionale George Herbert Mead.

F, S, SC) Trucchi per un laboratorio di ricerca interdisciplinare (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof.sa 

F, S) Storia e critica della violenza nel Novecento (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

F, S) Teorie della verità (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

 

PhD course timetable

lunedì 27 maggio h. 15 – 18, Aula Mondolfo, Via Zamboni 38
giovedì 30 maggio h. 15-18, Aula Mondolfo, Via Zamboni 38
lunedì 3 giugno h. 10-13, Aula Mondolfo, Via Zamboni 38
giovedì 6 giugno h. 15-18, Aula Mondolfo, Via Zamboni 38

F) Spinoza e la filosofia (12 ore, 1 cfu)

Coordinatore, Prof. 

The course aims to study the influence that neo-Spinozism has today on the methods, themes and problems of contemporary philosophy in its various fields, in its different disciplines and controversies. In fact, it offers tools and concepts for a critical, sometimes radical, understanding of issues and problems debated today. Through comparison and discussion with various Italian and foreign colleagues, students will be introduced to themes and problems where the Spinozist approach allows them to investigate and sometimes resolve.

C) Optional Activities for All Curricula

Students may also choose to participate in other optional educational activities that are regularly valid for doctoral education and can be added to the mandatory activities. These courses can be validated with an attendance certificate. These activities are considered supplementary to the mandatory activities expressed in A) and B).

F, S, SC) Formazione in studi sociali della scienza e della tecnologia

Coordinatore, Prof.sa  e prof. 

This year, the Social Studies of Science and Technology research grouphas planned the following doctoral activities: