| Description: | The course examines the evolution of the main schools of Italian philosophical thought beginning with the Middle Ages, covering the rich philosophical debate in Renaissance Italy, and reaching the Counter Reformation and the 18th century Age of Reason. However, since the problems discussed by these Italian schools of thought emerged in ancient philosophy and are directly drawn from it, it is initially necessary to review the ideas of Greek and early Christian philosophies. Key thinkers include Plato and Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Petrarch, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Machiavelli, Giordano Bruno and Campanella. The course ends by looking at the revolutionary philosophical thought that marks the beginning of the Age of Science and Reason, embodied in Italy by Galileo Galilei. |