The course develops the foundations of a philosophical anthropology. Before all (ch. 1 of the Handbook), we illustrate the proprium of an ontology of the human being with respect to the different human sciences (biological, neurological, psychological, sociological, etc.). Hence (ch. 2), we present a historical development of the different philosopical anthropologies developed in the western thought from the origins till our days. The systematic part of the course is devoted to a deepening of the essence of the human being, starting from his proper operations: biological (ch. 3), cognitive (ch. 4), and deliberative (ch. 5). Final outcome of this systematic analysis is the demonstration of the double component, material and spiritual of the metaphysical unity of the human person. So, three arguments of the metaphysical type conclude the course (ch. 6): the possible subsistence of the human soul as formal (informational) component of the human body; the relationship between mind and body; the notion of human person in his irreducible individuality (formal unicity) and dignity.

Lecture Notes of the Introductory Part (ch. 1), available for download.

Bibliografia:

Handbook: G. BASTI, Filosofia dell’uomo, Edizioni Studio Domenicano, Bologna, 1995 (2003).
ID., La relazione mente-corpo nella filosofia e nella scienza, Ed.Studio Domenicano, Bologna, 1991 (Ristampa anastatica, Edizioni PUL 2002);
A. CLARK, Dare corpo alla mente, MacGraw-Hill, Milano, 1999;
A. KENNY, Aquinas on Mind, Routledge, London-New York, 1994;
W. BECHTEL, Filosofia della mente, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1999;
G. FORNERO, Bioetica cattolica e bioetica laica in Italia, Mondatori, Milano, 2005;
I. CARRSACO DE PAULA, Bioetica. Morale della vita e integrità della persona umana nella prospettiva cattolica, Ed. Pont. Università della S. Croce, Roma, 2001.

Starting from the questions related to the foundations of logic and mathematics in modern theoretical and applied mathematical sciences, the course shows the connections of these problems with some ontological and metaphysical questions, through the contribution of the formal ontology (e.g., the different senses of the terms «existence» in the mathematical language of modern sciences and in the ontological language of the ordinary and philosophical languages).
The course is obligatory for all the students of the specialization in «Logic and Epistemology» in the Faculty of Philosophy .

Lecture Notes available for download

Bibliography:

Course Handbook: BASTI G., Ontologia formale: per una metafisica post-moderna, In: ALBERTO STRUMIA ED., Il problema dei fondamenti. Da Aristotele, a Tommaso d’Aquino, all’Ontologia Formale, Cantagalli, Siena, 2007, pp. 193-228 (Downloadable in the lecture notes page of this site).

G. BASTI, Filosofia della Natura e della Scienza. Vol.I: I Fondamenti, Lateran University Press, Rome, 2003 (exp. ch.1 and ch.2).
E. NAGEL ET AL., Goedel's Proof, New York University Press, New York, 2002 (Revised Edition).
G. BASTI, Analogia, ontologia formale e problema dei fondamenti. (Downloadable in the lecture notes page of this site).

The course presents the principal cosmological models of the physical sciences on the origin of the universe, deepening the onotological implications (and suppositions) of such models. Particularly, we deepen the ontology of the quantum physics and of the complex system physics. They, more than other physical theories, disconcert the mechanistic ontology supposed by the classical (Newtonian) mechanics of the beginning of the modern age. These ontologies are compared with those implied and supposed in the most famous metaphysical theories of the philosophical and theological traditions on the origin of the universe of the western thought.

 Bibliografia:

G.BASTI, Filosofia della natura e della scienza, Vol. I: I Fondamenti, Edizioni PUL, Roma, 2002(spec. cap. VI).
S. HAWKING, La teoria del tutto. Origine e destino dell’universo, Rizzoli, Milano, 2003.
S. HAWKING & R. PENROSE, La natura dello spazio e del tempo, Rizzoli, Milano, 2002.
P. DAVIES, Il cosmo intelligente, Mondadori, Milano, 1999.
S. WEINBERG, I primi tre minuti, Mondadori, Milano 1986.
F. CAPRA, Il tao della fisica, Adelphi, Milano, 1989.
R. FEYNMAN, QED. La strana teoria della luce e della materia, Adelphi, Milano, 1989.

First Part of a Two-Year Course.
Introduction to the Course. The relation of Physics to other Sciences. The Physics before the 1920. Relativity. Quantum physics. Motion and related laws. Newton’s law of dynamics. Conservation of momentum. Work and potential energy. The energy and its forms. Gravitational. Kinetics energy. Other forms. The harmonic oscillator. The center of mass and the moment of inertia. Rotation in space. The energy of an oscillator. Optics and the principle of Fermat. Light. The principle of least time. Geometrical optics. Electromagnetism. Electromagnetic field. Gauss and the application of his law. The electromagnetic field in various circumstances. The Maxwell’s equation. The potential on the wave equation. Thermodynamics. The kinetics theory of gases. The principle of mechanical statistics. The laws of thermodynamics.

Lecture notes of the course are downloadable from the lecture notes page of this site.

The course gives an introductory overview of a particular branch of formal logic: the so-called "intensional logic", as a collection of modal logic models. These models are coming into prominence in the contemporary cultural scenery. In fact, they allow a limited but highly flexible symbolic formalization of the "contentual languages" of the humanistic disciplines, philosophy and theology included, in their treatment of specific problems (ontological, epistemological, ethical, legal, etc.). This formalization of the humanistic disciplines allows a more rigorous and well-founded confrontation with the scientific disciplines and their mathematical "extensional" formalism, on all the classical topics of the interdisciplinary dialogue among them.
The course is given in Italian.

Bibliography:

S. GALVAN: Logiche intensionali. Sistemi proposizionali di logica modale, deontica, epistemica, Franco Angeli, Milano, 1991 (exp. ch. 2, pp. 71-119)

Other texts useful for the course are downloadable from the lecture notes page of this site.

The course gives an introductory overview of this newborn discipline that is becoming ever more relevant in the contemporary analytic philosophy because it is filling a gap in the early Fregean and neo-positivistic approach to the philosophical analysis. Center of the formal ontology is indeed the formalization of the different ontologies, explicitly developed in the different metaphysics' but implicitly supposed in every use of the ordinary and scientific language. In other terms, the formal ontology deals with the formal, symbolic analysis of the different senses of the term "being", as the basis of any logical theory of meaning. Particularly, the approach of the "conceptual realism" developed by Professor Cocchiarella is presented. It allows a formalization of the Aristotelian realism and its causal explanation of "natural kinds", with interesting contact points with quantum physics on one side, and phenomenology on the other. Particularly, this approach allows a "naturalistic" interpretation of phenomenological concepts, today supported by many philosophers of nature and of science, both in Europe and in United States .
This course is promoted and supported within the STOQ Project.
The course is given in English with a simultaneous translation into Italian.

Bibliography:

Handbook of the Course:
N. B. COCCHIARELLA, Formal Ontology and Conceptual Realism, Springer, Dordrecht, 2007.

Papers:

N. B. COCCHIvARELLA, "Logic and Ontology", Axiomathes 12: 117–150, 2001.
N. B. COCCHIARELLA, "Conceptual Realism as a Formal Ontology". In: R. POLI AND P.SIRNOR (EDS.), Formal Ontology, Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, 1996.

Both papers are downloadable from the lecture notes page of this site.

Annual (2 semesters) Course. The course deepens the relationship between the reli-gious assert about the existence of one only God, and the Christian assert about the ex-istence of “One God in Three Persons”. Particular attention is given on the relationship between Monotheism and the rational knowledge of God in metaphysics, versus the modern atheistic philosophies, overall those using the modern natural sciences as a support of this atheistic belief.

Since the academic year 207-8 STOQ estends itself also to the Faculty of Canon Law. In fact, a new graduate course starts in the Faculty of Canonic Law: “Elements of Deontic Logic”.

Aim of the course is to introduce graduate students of canonic law who will be lawyers and judges in the Ecclesiastic Courts allover the world into a particular interpretation of modal logic formal schemes: the deontic logic. Particularly, typical of the Rome school of Canonic Law is the intentional solution of the so-called Humean Problem, i.e., the problem of the dualism fact/values, beingness/oughtness. Instead of postulating a foundation of moral and legal duties independent of ontological and metaphysical truths (see the Kantian principle of deontic logic of the "duty-for-duty"), the intentional approach founds the moral/legal duty on a rational and hence true judgement of "optimality" of a given target for a singular, intentional (i.e., aware and free) human subject (i.e., a human person). The formalization in terms of deontic logic schemes of this approach is particularly significant in Canonic Law, where, differently from Civil Law, the lack of intentionality in the objectively "bad" behavior of a given subject, is sufficient to justify in many cases the lack of imputability and hence of punishability of that given subject.

Bibliography

Course lecture notes available in the lecture notes page of this site.

Anthropology Section:
G. Basti, Filosofia dell’uomo, ISD, Bologna, 1995 (2003), capp.V-VI [FU]
Law Philosophy Section:
G. Fassò, Storia della filosofia del diritto, Vol. III,Laterza, Bari, 2001, pp. 413ss.
D. Antiseri, “Chaim Perelman e la nuova retorica”. In: N. Abbagnano, Storia della filosofia, Vol VI/2, “La filosofia contemporanea”, Torino, UTET, pp. 269ss.
AA.VV. Digesto delle discipline privatistiche, Sez. Civile, Vol. XI, Torino UTET, pp.128ss.: Voce: “Logica giuridica”
Formal and Modal Logic Section:
D. Van Dalen, Logic and structure, Springer, Berlin, 1997. [VD]
S. Galvan, Logica dei predicati, ISU, Milano, 2004. [GA1]
S. Galvan, Logiche intensionali. Sistemi proposizionali di logica modale, deontica, epistemica, ISU, Milano, 1990. [GA2]
Reference Papers:
E. Di Bernardo, “Il sillogismo giudiziale. Prerogative e limiti di applicabilità nel processo canonico”, Apollinaris 4 LXXVII, 1-2, pp. 415-453.
G. Basti, Analogia, ontologia formale e problema dei fondamenti. In: BASTI G & TESTI C.A. (Eds.), Analogia e autoreferenza, Marietti 1820, Genova-Milano, 2004, pp. 159-236. [BA1]