Seminary 2022/23: Freud with Kant between gnoseology and ethics

The seminar in the year 2022-23 will be devoted primarily to illustrating the transcendental constitution of psychoanalysis, particularly in its gnoseological and ethical aspects.
In contrast to a vulgate that would have Freudian gnoseology “too poor” (Cappelletti), it will be shown instead how Freud takes up and completes the revision of transcendental philosophy that Kant had undertaken toward the end of his life and deposited in a mass of notes later published under the name of Opus postum. This will highlight the profound consonance between Freudian and Kantian thought, thus the sophisticated complexity of the gnoseological framework of metapsychology.
Moreover, it will be shown how Freud completes Kant’s gesture also on the level of ethics: behind the demand for a naturalization of the subject, does not the risk of rendering epiphenomenal the sphere of ethics and especially the possibility of freedom that is its cornerstone, as happens today in that psychoanalysis that uncritically flattens itself on the neurobiological paradigm? In entirely Kantian terms Freud asks how it is possible to account for the possibility of freedom within a deterministic conception of the subject. Freudian drive theory allows for a reworking of the conception of the subject (the ego) as a bar to the deterministic course of libido, a theory that reconciles determinism and freedom.

The Seminar consists of a course of 18 lectures on a biweekly basis.

• Lectures by lecturers.
• Student talks on specific topics, mainly of comparison with other authors.