My research career started with an anthropological interpretation of Karl Löwith’s philosophy, with a specific focus on his phenomenological personalism (that I have defined Mitanthropologie). Thanks to a three-semester study period at the Technische Universität Dresden as Gastdoktorand, I started to engage with German philosophical anthropology of the 20thcentury. While deepening my knowledge in this field I “met” the question of technology. Grounded on this basis, I developed an original theoretical approach, i.e. a philosophical anthropology of technology that I defined “philosophy of technology in the nominative case” (TECNOM). This approach focuses on the moral implications of technology conceived as epochal phenomenon, i.e. current “subject of history”. Within such a hermeneutical framework technology emerges as neo-environment that produces a feralization of human being as its anthropological and ethical crucial consequence. Recently this work on philosophy of technology has brought me to deal with the topics “Anthropocene” and “Environmental Ethics”.
Currently I am teaching as an adjunct professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Basilicata (Italy) and as an adjunct professor of phenomenology of Image at the Academy of Fine Arts of Napoli (Italy). The course I am presenting here has been thought as Theoretical Philosophy course for graduate students.
I developed this syllabus on the basis of my experience as teacher and researcher as well, because from several years (i.e. since 2007) I am working on the topic “philosophy of technology”. I tried to follow the international standard models of university courses, in order to make my proposal as feasible as possible by other teachers. The “innovative” approach of my proposal is expressed in the part two of my syllabus (in particular, lessons 11-14). It is a direct and strict confrontation (namely, a real hermeneutical exercise) with a classic of the philosophical literature: Martin Heidegger’s essay The Question Concerning Technology (1953).
In my view the fundamental aim of every philosophical lecture/course is to make the students able to live in first person the experience of philosophy. As Maurice Merleau-Ponty affirmed: “True philosophy consists in relearning to look at the world”.
The pedagogical goals of my syllabus are to provide the students with the basic conceptual tools in order to deal with the topic of “technology” as crucial “hub” of the philosophical thought (especially with reference to its modern and contemporary stages).
I firmly believe in few and simple pedagogical principles, which I try to apply/implement in my teaching activity. Among them is the primacy of the relation – namely the idea that a lesson is first and foremost a relation/encounter between teacher and students. This means that the teacher must design and develop a lecture/course with specific reference to his/her class. That is to say, by finding a compromise between his/her specific competence and the abilities and interests of his/her students. In my view, a good university course must look like a made-to-measure-suit. As a consequence, I consider a course as a constant work in progress. In order to apply this conviction, I try to get constant feedbacks from my students, by creating “dialogical moments” during every lesson. They represent a fundamental benchmark for my pedagogical agency and strategy, that is a compass to orientate and/or re-orientate it. All my lessons (after the first) begins with a short summary (5-10 min.) of the previous lesson. Little by little I try to engage the students in this practice and finally I let them the summary.
My favourite element of the syllabus is what I defined “hermeneutical exercise”, that is a direct confrontation (namely, reading, explanation, interpretation, discussion of the text in the class) with a philosophical classic (as said, in my syllabus this hermeneutical exercise concerns Martin Heidegger’s essay The Question Concerning Technology). According to my teaching experience, the hermeneutical exercise represents the students’ favourite element, too. They find very interesting the possibility of making such an experience together in the class and thus acquiring (under the experienced guidance of the teacher) a personal relationship with a philosopher and his/her ideas. For these reasons in every course I taught, I tried to include an hermeneutical exercise.
Obviously, I don’t consider my teaching strategy complete or “perfect”. My teaching philosophy can be summarized in the formula: “Teaching is learning”, that is “you can be a good teacher only if you learn to teach”. Therefore I believe I can always learn something more about learning and thus that every course can be improved. As a result, I hope I can always find something to change (improve) in my courses.
My only advice/suggestion for those who hope to teach the course using my syllabus as a guide is expressed by two keywords: competence and example. With “competence” I mean both the skills (i.e. theoretical, historical, methodological) that a student needs to acquire in order to approach philosophically a topic/question and the skills that a teacher must possess in order to be a solid and credible guidance for the students. With “example” I mean the role of the teacher, namely that his/her lectures must provide a constant example of the peculiarity of the philosophical approach to a certain topic.
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Agostino Cera
Agostino Cera Adjunct Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Basilicata (Italy). His area of interest is Continental Philosophy between XIX and XX Century (especially German philosophy: Löwith, Heidegger, Anders, Nietzsche), Philosophy of Technology; Philosophical Anthropology; Philosophy of Film. Further information can be found at https://unibas-it.academia.edu/agostinocera.
