Corso di laurea magistrale in Scienze storiche

The course is intended to provide students with knowledges and critical tools fitting to understand and critically read the historical evolution of the image of the human being in the history of Western culture, with a specific focus on the early modern period (15^th-19^th centuries) and the transformation of power in its theoretical framing and its practical exercise, as well as with the development of the idea of fundamental human rights.

Therefore, power will be understood not only as the frame of reference of control tools implemented by institutional actors such as States and Churches, but also, more generally, as the conceptual background on which knowledges and disciplines concerning man (right, theology, medicine, ethnography etc.) have developed in the early modern world.

The general educational goal is to allow students to consciously understand that the universal notion of human being as it is shared in modern liberal societies, far from being a unhistorical idea, is the byproduct of a centuries-long evolution in which multiple actors and different philosophical and religious visions have been active, and that has been sided by practices of control and knowledge of man and society.

Students will acquire the ability to interpret the contemporary world and the multiple discourses on fundamental rights, human dignity and national identities that are discussed in the public sphere by consciously using the tools of historical and cultural analysis.

 In this perspective, students will be able to develop and apply the following skills:

- a knowledge of the historical contexts that hosted the birth and evolution of the fundamental notions related to the vocabulary of power, such as sovereignty, humanity, nature, territory, body, science;

- the ability to understand the divergences and conflicts, as well as the historical and symbolic convergences between the various theories on man and the forms of power in Western societies;

- the ability to comprehend texts and documents of juridical, religious, and philosophical nature, grasping their implicit links and meanings, so interpreting them in their correct contextualization;

- the ability to argue dialectically, in the context of the public debate, the nature and origin of the different forms and expressions of power from the early modern to the contemporary world in its historical relationship with the changing image of man.

Please note: given the present need of ensuring that the lessons will be conducted safely, in this academic year 2020/21 the course will take place in a mixed mode. Lessons will be held online on mon-tue-wed 2.15 pm-3.45 pm, while direct meetings will be held periodically according to a timetable to be agreed with students.

Lessons will take place on Webex; although it is not mandatory to enrol in the course, since it will be possible to freely enter the virtual room of the teacher (https://unito.webex.com/meet/franco.mottaopen_in_new), registration is strongly recommended in order to grant a better interaction between teacher and students.

Support material will be at disposal of the students on Moodle, at the url https://elearning.unito.it/scienzeumanistiche/course/view.php?id=2047

The learning verification test will be accomplished in an oral mode, either in Italian, English or French.

In the exam, students will be especially requested to interpret the sources that have been read and commented; moreover, they will be questioned about the printed texts planned for attending students (s. bibliography).

If requested, the oral verification test can be based on the discussion of a paper of 20 to 30 pages, dealing with a specifical topic addressed during the course. In this case, the bibliography will have to be agreed upon with the teacher.

Special derogations will be granted to differently abled students, according to modes to be agreed case by case.

The course crosses different historical disciplines, such as the history of ideas, religious history, institutional history and cultural history, applied to the analysis of the idea of human being and its influence on the expressions of power in the Early modern world. The following topics will be especially dealt with:

The concept of man in modern christianity. Monastic rules as discipline of power. Spiritual power and the control upon consciences: the Jesuitical system, the mechanisms of confession, moral theology. Power on the internal forum: the Inquisition.

The discovery of the New World: indians, cannibals and the 'noble savage'. The invention of the ‘natural man’: the state of nature in the culture of natural rights theory of the 17^th-18^th centuries and the evolution of the concept of fundamental rights.

Humankind and its variations: journey reports, ethnography, and natural sciences in the 18^th century. The “naturalization” of man and the creation of natural hierarchies: rise and development of racial theories.

Power, control and knowledge of bodies: early modern penal systems; the slavery system in the Atlantic world; the evolution of medical and anthropological disciplines.

During the lessons historical sources on the related topics will be projected, read and commented. The sources are available to students in pdf format in the course webpage.

Students will be examined on the lesson notes and the videolectures available on Moodle, as well as on one of the following books:

- J.E.H. Smith, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference. Race in Early Modern Philosophy, Princeton University Press, 2015;

- N. Wachtel, La logica dei roghi, tr. it. Utet Libreria, 2010

- F. Motta, In causa fidei. Studi sul momento teologico-politico della prima età moderna, Stampatori, 2017

The exam may be accomplished also in English, French or Spanish