Who is Pulcinella? What does his laughter have to say about the "end of time" and the end of life of Giandomenico Tiepolo? How can the end of a life make anyone laugh like Carnival’s popular mask does? This article tries to answer such questions. By unfolding the tools that come from the realm of Giorgio Agamben’s philosophy – notably the notion of "recapitulation of time" in its relation to comedy – we will trace a path which links Michail Bachtin’s (...) theories on the carnivalesque culture together with a recognition in the aesthetics of "character". In this encounter, the consistency of Pulcinella-King Carnival’s form of life will appear in the light of an “escape route”: it winks at a kind of general and anonymous beatitude, which pairs with the experience of the destitution of time. (shrink)

La libertà sotto il tiro incrociato dei poteri globali.

This book provides the first detailed account of Gramsci's work in the context of current critical and socio-cultural debates. Renate Holub argues that Gramsci was ahead of his time in offering a theory of art, politics and cultural production. Gramsci's achievement is discussed particularly in relation to the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, Bloch, Habermas), to Brecht's theoretical writings and to thinkers in the phenomenological tradition especially Merleau-Ponty. She argues for Gramsci's continuing relevance at a time of retreat from Marxist (...) positions on the postmodern left. Antonio Gramsci is distinguished by its range of philosophical grasp, its depth of specialized historical scholarship, and its keen sense of Gramsci's position as a crucial figure in the politics of contemporary cultural theory. (shrink)

Al centro della riflessione della filosofia e delle scienze sociali, il concetto di cultura ha assunto uno spettro di significati difficilmente riassumibile in una definizione che non sia multidimensionale. Numerose sono le province di significato in cui tale concetto ricorre riflessivamente portando in primo piano ordini di realtà e punti di vista analitici differenziati. Oltre all’identità multiforme le analisi della cultura presentano sul piano storico un contesto di genesi prettamente moderno la cui rilevanza è crescente. Accanto alla coltivazione dello “spirito”, (...) come erudizione e raffinatezza personale, saranno le scienze storiche e l’antropologia, tra l’inizio e la fine dell’‘800, a dischiudere la nuova conoscenza verso quella “tela di ragno” di rappresentazioni, costumi e disposizioni di cui gli esseri umani sono, al contempo, artefici e prodotto. Il presente volume sistematizza le complesse riflessioni di Jürgen Habermas sulle forme di sapere “implicite” ed “esplicite” alla base dei processi di comprensione e di apprendimento: il linguaggio simbolico e grammaticale, il senso comune, le immagini del mondo (la mitologia, le religioni e la metafisica), le sfere di valore specialistiche (le scienze e le tecniche, le morali e il diritto, l’estetica e le arti), i loro prodotti e le procedure, ma anche le competenze cognitive, sociali ed espressive necessarie per “maneggiare” tali argomenti. Si tratta di una ricostruzione che, all’interno di un “programma di ricerca” che Habermas recupera dai classici del pensiero sociologico, lascia emergere la riproduzione culturale come una sfera analiticamente distinta della società ma interdipendente con i processi di integrazione sociale e di socializzazione. (shrink)

It seems obvious that Nietzsche has influenced the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). The extent to which Adorno and Horkheimer base their argument on Nietzsche, however, remains controversial. By analyzing an early draft of the first excursion of the Dialectic of Enlightenment from 1943, this article demonstrates that Nietzsche was more important for the development of its main concepts than has been assumed, in particular his analysis of myth and enlightenment. In the earlier version of the Ulysses-chapter Nietzsche, together with Rudolf (...) Borchardt, is a pivotal point of reference. Indeed, it is the Nietzschean reflection on Homer and on the pre-Homerian epic—and Borchardt’s interpretation of these themes—that Adorno views as the first original form of the dialectics of enlightenment. (shrink)

The article deals with an unknown Latin version of the miʿrāǧ the author has discovered in the Archive of the Pontifical Gregorian University within an booklet written by Baldassarre Loyola Mandes S.J., a Moroccan Muslim prince converted to Christianity who then joined the Society of Jesus. The aim of the article will be to demonstrate how this Latin miʿrāǧ relied on an Arabic source related to the ḥadīṯ literature. As a method for reaching our aim, we will make a comparative (...) study of the sources of which Baldassare may have had knowledge. We will further show the way Baldassarre tried not only to polemicize with the Islamic tradition, but also the strategies he used for Christianizing it. (shrink)

RESUMO Como entender uma teoria da felicidade enquanto sabedoria de vida, elaborada a partir de noções como as de uso prático da razão e de caráter adquirido, no pensamento do grande metafísico pessimista que certamente foi Schopenhauer? O presente artigo sustenta a hipótese de que o pessimismo schopenhaueriano pode ser melhor compreendido se considerado, por um lado, como um pessimismo metafísico, e, por outro, como um pessimismo pragmático. Para tanto, procuro mostrar em que medida a consideração da peculiar eudemonologia do (...) pensador é fundamental para uma compreensão mais abrangente de seu pessimismo.ABSTRACT How can a theory of happiness, based upon the practical use of reason and acquired character, be understood in the thought of Schopenhauer, the great pessimist metaphysic? This article aims to prove that Schopenhauer's pessimism can be better understood if considered, on the one hand, as metaphysical pessimism and, on the other, as pragmatical pessimism. Thus, I seek to show that the consideration of Schopenhauer's singular eudemonology is fundamental to fully understand his pessimism. (shrink)

In his Repastinatio . . . Lorenzo Valla launched a heavy attack on Aristotelian-scholastic thought. While most of this book is devoted to metaphysics, language and argumentation, Valla also incorporates chapters on the soul and natural philosophy. Using as criteria good Latin, common sense and common observation, he rejected much of standard Aristotelian teaching on the soul, replacing the hylopmorphic account of the scholastics by an Augustinian one. In this article his arguments on the soul's autonomy, nobility and independency from (...) the body are studied and analysed. His critique of Aristotle's opinions on natural phenomena as being untrue to what we observe will also be briefly studied. His arguments do not show him always to be deep or consistent thinker, but the critical review of Aristotelian philosophy proceeds from some philosophically interesting assumptions. Moreover, from a broader historical perspective his undermining of Aristotle's authority may be regarded as a contribution to the final demise of the Aristotelian paradigm, even though the humanist critique was just one factor in this process. (shrink)

In questo contributo si intende evidenziare la rilevanza e l’importanza della Disputatio XI, De divina existentia et subsistentia, all’interno della produzione di Francisco Suárez. Il maestro spagnolo tratta in essa di questioni metafisiche fondamentali relative alla sussistenza e all’esistenza divina, facendo riferimento ai principali dogmi della fede cristiana, quali soprattutto i misteri della Santissima Trinità e dell’Incarnazione del Verbo. La sua pro-spettiva teoretica sul modo di concepire Dio e la sua interpretazione del nome divino Qui est lo colloca in un (...) crocevia in cui si incontrano i massimi problemi della sacra doctrina e insieme le più radicali questioni metafisiche, così da permetterci di accosta-re il suo sistema di pensiero nel delicato rapporto tra teologia e filosofia. Le opzioni adottate dal teologo gesuita sono alla radice delle divergenze e lontananze rispetto ad altri sistemi, compreso quello di Tommaso d’Aquino. Anche in questo modo Francisco Suárez ha indub-biamente esercitato un grande ruolo nell’interpretazione e nella trasmissione di molti concetti metafisici nel periodo tra la tarda Scolastica e l’inizio della cosiddetta “filosofia modern. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The article presents the federalist thought of Carlo Cattaneo, Giuseppe Ferrari and Alberto Mario and Gaetano Salvemini. Referring briefly to the recognised failures of the federal idea in Italy and the corresponding difficulties with its territorial puzzle’ as well, the author proposes to analyse their argumentation through the prism of their attempts to find a proper federal structure for this country. The article shows that despite their eagerness to make Italy perfectly compatible with its ‘natural’ diversity, they gave different (...) answers to the Italian federalist dilemma: whether to begin the whole process with the communes or with more subnational units or rather somewhat include both elements. As will be seen, it was perhaps Salvemini who outlined the most coherent and Cattanean conception that recognised again the necessity of local initiative. Yet, as will be also seen, his federalism, intertwine from the beginning with his concern about the Italian South, was not free from its own weaknesses. (shrink)

The topic of the present thesis is the conception of thinking in Michel Foucault, in both its theoretical and practical dimension, from the archaeological works of the Sixties to the ethical problems of the last years. The text is organized in two parts. The first part (chapp. I-II) investigates the connections between thinking, philosophy and history in the archaeological works. Starting from Madness and Civilization and from a comparison with Bataille and Derrida, it is possible to identify the difference as (...) a central concept (chap. I). In the following, the chap. II clarifies the theoretical structure of the archaeology on the basis of Order of Things and Raymond Roussel (concepts of visibility and repetition). The chap. III discusses the transition from archaeology to genealogy and it introduces to the second part about the political problem. The chap. IV is focused on the analytics of power develpoed by Foucault in the mid-Seventies (dispositifs, resistance). On this basis we get to the later foucauldian research (chap. V). This last chapter deals with two intimately connected questions developed in the lectures Security, Territory, Population and Birth of the Biopolitical and from the book The Use of Pleasure: the connection government - governmentality (with particular care to the theme of the liberal government) and its relationship with the ethical problematization. (shrink)

Beginning from a preliminary question on the meanings of the word "logic" in the expression "hermeneutic logic" used by Ricoeur in a well-known essay of his, the first aim of our research (Part I) was to investigate the origin, the structure and the speculative meaning of Ricoeur's "methodical hermeneutics" following the progressive elaboration of Ricoeur's method through the texts in which Ricoeur himself has explained it, through a dialogue with those authors (Husserl, Heidegger, Gadamer) who have been more influential on (...) its development. (Part I, Chapters 1, 2, 3). This first part aimed at drawing attention to the contribution given by these authors to the definition of Ricoeur's method as well as to the failings which, according to Ricoeur, still affect their views. In developing this analysis, we have also tried to highlight the line of transition between logic as a methodical-epistemic construction and the explication of the underlying and more general logic-speculative trend that supports it, through the highlighting of the dialectic, non-reductive feature of this method. In Part II, following the guiding thread of a "dialectics of self", we tried to focus our attention on the basic structure and on the final intelligibility criterion of Ricoeur's undertaking. We have tried to show the congruency between the constitutive structures and the functioning of this dialectics and the general structure of hermeneutic logic as emerged from the previous section. Therefore, this second part has a threefold task: questioning Ricoeur's self once more, (Part II, Chapters 1-2), reinterpreting its intrinsic dialectics, (Part II, Chapters 3-4) and relocating it in the horizon of its filiations and influences. In their turn, these two intimately interconnected itineraries ("hermeneutic logic" and "dialectics of self") are involved in a twofold demand. The first one consists in an attempt at a thematic reconstruction and theoretical investigation on the characteristic structures of the first and second side of our research. The theoretical-speculative interest of this kind of analysis lays in the possibility of contributing to the exploration of what we may call the logical space of a hermeneutic philosophy. The second demand consists in an attempt at a historiographic survey of the formative and evolutive process of such a "logic" and "dialectics", as well as of its filiation lines. Looking for these filiation lines and for the original matrix of the overall trend of Ricoeur's thought, as well as in an attempt at explaining its relationship with the tradition of the reflexive philosophy, we have tried to verify the hypothesis of a personologic anchorage of Ricoeur's thought through a thematic comparison with Mounier's speculation. In this sense, we have tried to highlight the specificity of Ricoeur's idea of person; to show the congruity between the structure and the meaning of that idea and the structural features of hermeneutic logic and dialectics of self; to show how Ricoeur's idea of person can give a criterion to bring back to a problematic-planning unity Ricoeur's philosophical itinerary and, finally, to highlight the ways in which Mounier's thought anticipates this horizon of thought and the basic congruity between Mounier's and Ricoeur's views in a more general questioning on the actual (or "inactual") meaning of "saying person". The specific hermeneutic aim of this final part of our research consists in the attempt, through a comparative analysis, at reciprocally highlighting the thought of the two authors who have been analysed. It is in the effectiveness of this mutual explanation that our working hypothesis should find its justification. (shrink)

This article seeks to deepen Giorgio Agamben’s brief investigation of the Foucauldian technical term dispositif, by locating it (and the triple structure which articulates it) in the larger context of his own contribution to the genealogy of “governmentality.” Following Agamben’s reconstruction of the Christian paradigm for the divine government of the world, it explores the singular relation between governmental dispositifs and concurrent modes of subjectivation. It argues that the contingency of human action must first be secured for the governmental machine (...) to be able to operate. (shrink)

O presente artigo aborda a concepção de virtude, vício e pecado nas obras Dialogus inter philosophum, Iudaeum et Christianum ou Collationes e Ethica ou Scito te Ipsum, ambas escritas por Pedro Abelardo, o qual, além de contribuir para o desenvolvimento da lógica medieval, também inovou com sua pesquisa ética à medida que distinguiu o vício do pecado, afirmando ser o primeiro uma enfermidade da alma e o segundo fruto do consentimento no mal o qual reside na intenção do agente.

Muratori has often been portrayed as a moral philosopher who represented the traditional neo-Aristotelian mainstream of Italian intellectual life in the early part of the eighteenth century. His loyalty to Christianity as a basis from which societies ought to be reformed has determined his reputation as a ‘pre-enlightened’ thinker. Yet, it is argued here that not only was Muratori very much in touch with the state of the art of early eighteenth-century moral philosophy, but also that he was really a (...) historian with political interests who came to develop a renewed Christian moral philosophy as a tool to respond to the political challenges of the time. Fallen man's preference for self-preservation to natural freedom prepared him for engaging in increasingly sociable contexts that required further self-disciplining and moral improvement. Thus, man cultivated his fallen condition into prudence and ultimately developed a capacity both for charity and for functioning in modern commercial societies. (shrink)

La problematica dell'intercampo, descritta nelle sue principali sfaccettature oltre le teorie "del" e "di" campo, seguendone gli archetipi, la simbolica e la semantica.

The purpose of this essay is to consider Robespierre’s ideas of people and government, under a conceptual history point of view. Robespierre, like Rousseau, tries to find out how the command can be really political: Government as guide, as cure, as direction for the political body opposed to the absolute monarchy’s despotic rule and opposed to the Feuillants’ and Girondists’ concept of representation. These conditions are established with one consent between people and government, which can be achieved by a strong (...) homogeneous society. Robespierre’s thought achieves an affinity of ideas with Boulainvilliers’ historical and political thought, who represents the XVII-XVIII century aristocratic resistence’s voice against the monarchy. Robespierre substitutes the Nation of Franks, which was founded thanks to the ancient conqueror race’s blood, with the “Race Renouvelée” through virtue and terror. So Robespierre takes inspiration from the Christian pastoral tradition. He infers that the mystic union between people and government is possible only through a sort of ascetic purification, which can get rid of heresy. (shrink)

This paper presents two more elaborate criticism of the Jonas´ project, namely that taken from the transcendental-pragmatic of K.O-Apel and taken from the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. The two philosophers are confronted with the Jonas´ principle of responsibility, indicating its shortcomings and limitations. The purpose of the paper is a glimpse of the way that the principle of responsibility has to follow in order to better respond to the demands of ethical foundation of our time.

This dissertation discusses whether Giacomo Leopardi can be considered a philosophical heir of Giambattista Vico, as some scholars retain, despite the fact that there is no evidence that Leopardi read Vico’s New Science or other works until late ; too late to demonstrate a direct influence of the philosopher’s thought on the deepest nexuses of Leopardi’s reflection. This dissertation clarifies how Leopardi responded to Vico-related questions characterizing the culture of his time through an innovative methodology that looks at the diffraction (...) of Vico’s ideas in Bourbon Restoration Italian culture. This work aims to paint a dynamic picture of Italian nineteenth-century polycentric culture through a geographical organization of the material; it in fact tackles the diffusion of Vico’s works and ideas from Naples to Venice, to Milan, to Leopardi’s hometown Recanati, to Florence, and again to Naples. Not only does this work shed new light on the existence of a Vico-Leopardi philosophical lineage, but it also present an original study of perceptions of time and history and of the dichotomy ancient/modern in Post-Napoleonic Italian culture. (shrink)