Course Offerings

The College reserves the right to change course offerings and scheduling.

HIS 204 History of Italy from the Renaissance to
Professor Pyka

Italy in many of its aspects can be considered to be a laboratory of Western modernity. The peninsula had a leading role in Western affairs during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, but this role was lost by the end of the fifteenth century. During the modern age, however, Italy continued to provide a central point of reference in the European mind. This course focuses attention on the cultural, social and political developments in Italian history in their European context since the Renaissance. Themes include the struggles over national identity in the absence of a unified nation state, the differing regions and competing centers, the interplay of culture and politics, and the relation between religion and politics.

ITA 301 Advanced Italian, Pt. II
Professor Orsi

For students who have completed at least two years of college-level language studies or the equivalent. This course offers cultural readings from a variety of sources, including some literary pieces, as well as magazine and newspaper articles reflecting the contemporary scene in the countries where the language is spoken. Vocabulary expansion and development of techniques of expression are accomplished through oral and written exercises.

ITA 302 Advanced Italian Conversation
Professor Ferrari

This course uses techniques of oral expression to develop greater conversational fluency and accuracy. Conversational practice is based on topics in the culture and contemporary civilization related to the language.

ITA 370 Readings in Italian Literature
Professor Orsi

A Venetian at heart, a reformer sensitive to folklore and "popular culture", Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) upgraded the commedia dell'arte, literally "the comedy of art," to literary dignity. A spontaneous theatrical form rooted in Italian folklore(s) and characterized by masks, i.e. "types" (in terms not just of fixed physiognomies, but also of geography, language and psychology), the commedia dell'arte had enjoyed a great success at the Comédie Italienne (the theatre of the Royal Palace in Paris) in the second half of the seventeenth century. In his amazingly prolific career as a playwright, Carlo Goldoni committed himself to the integration of the commedia dell'arte into the traditional theater. His ideal audience was the bourgeoisie and the enlightened aristocracy, specifically the Venetian ones, at that crucial time when the Venetian ruling class was succumbing, not without splendor, to its incapacity to regenerate itself and read the present. One of Goldoni's sources was, not surprisingly, Samuel Richardson, the author who with his Pamela had revolutionized the English society and literary scene in Goldoni's own time. Initially accused of having ridiculed the aristocracy and proposed immoral values, subsequently (in post-Risorgimento Italy) praised due to his supposed reassuring bourgeois bonhomie, Goldoni revitalized both the commedia dell'arte and the traditional theater and did so by presenting challenging reflections of his own time as well as the human nature. In our course we will examine a number of "canovacci" (literally, "cleaning cloths") of the commedia dell'arte (as the scripts used by the comici dell'arte are called); plays by contemporary playwrights besides Goldoni (among them, Carlo Gozzi), as well as some of the major plays by Goldoni, including Pamela, La serva amorosa and La locandiera. The course is taught in Italian.

Facoltà di Teologia di Lugano:

History of Modern Philosophy
Professor Roberto Diodato

This course introduces the student to the most influential thinkers and significant trends in modern philosophy, from the scientific revolution to Kant. The scientific revolution from 1500-1600 prepares the way for Descartes in a period dominated by the debate about Rationalism and Empiricism. In the same vein the fundamental points in the philosophies of Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, and Leibniz will be examined without neglecting the existential and religious philosophy proposed by Pascal. Students will also explore the skepticism of Hume and Illuminism before arriving at the so-called “great synthesis” of the Kantian contribution.

Applied Ethics: The Ethics of the Image                  
Professor Adriano Fabris

Due to the impact of new technologies, the notion of the “image” has changed considerably in the past decades. The sheer quantity of images that “invade” our daily life (coming from TV, from print advertising, from the internet) have also significantly impacted social interaction in important ways which demand to be looked at critically. This course invites students to analyze these transformations and to reflect on their resulting ethical consequences.

Legal Ethics                                                                     
Professor Markus Krienke

The law determines many aspects of our life, in all its social dimensions, from birth to death. The law can protect us, but it can also threaten us. The central themes to be examined in this course will be: law and morality, law and existence, law and authority, law and institution, civil society and religious society and, finally, the theology of law.

Ontology                                                                           
Professor Giovanni Ventimiglia

This class introduces the student to a few of the key questions in classic ontology, from the Aristotelean model to more contemporary analytic ontological models. Students will address questions regarding the nature of existence, essentiality, and identity. Themes to be studied will include: the Transcendent, the Principle of Non Contradiction, and Analogy.