Presentation
The “Convegno nazionale dei dottorati di ricerca in filosofia” is a symposium that has been held in Italy since 1987. From the beginning, the stated purposes of the symposium are at least four. First, the “Convegno” aims to enable doctoral students to meet and get to know each other, so as to develop research relationships, also useful to building both the content of their doctoral theses and a network of contacts and perspectives necessary for the development of their careers.
Secondly, the “Convegno” intends to build a moment of discussion, debate and confrontation between doctoral students and professors most experienced in their research topics, on which they can therefore receive important indications for modifications, integrations and revisions of their PhD thesis: in this way, doctoral students can open their study horizons beyond the prevailing methodologies in their university locations, submitting to a qualified audience their study perspective so as to obtain a critical verification and an opportunity for cultural growth.
Third, the symposium intends to present the various “souls” of Italian philosophy: from logic to theoretical philosophy, from the history of philosophy to aesthetics, from moral philosophy to the philosophy of language and political philosophy. A such pluralism is useful not only for doctoral students, but also for professors themselves, who may find opportunities for openness and discussion that are not always realized in ordinary academic life.
Finally, the “Convegno” makes it possible to create a map (indicative, though obviously partial) of the contents and methodologies of Italian philosophical research and of the different schools of thought, thus making it possible to verify the thematic and perspective changes that run through the Italian academy.
Since the first edition in 1987, numerous symposiums have followed one another (of which we find evidence on this site in the sections dedicated to the editions and the archive), held in various cities and on the initiative of different coordinators, partially changing the formula and the organizational model. With respect to these changes, we can recall here the main ones: for example, the fact that recently only second-year doctoral students have been participating in the conference (and not third-year, as was the case initially, partly for the reason that in the first cycles the doctoral courses lasted four years), since it seems important to provide them with a moment of discussion and confrontation at a stage that is not yet the final one of the research, so as to offer useful ideas for the writing of the thesis. Another change consists in a progressive enlargement of the number of professors involved as session directors in the “Convegno”, corresponding to the construction of less numerous and more specialized discussion sessions. But, beyond these organizational changes, the purpose of the “Convegno” remains unchanged: to create a space for comparison and discussion, knowledge and relationships between doctoral students and professors, as well as among doctoral students themselves.