Cristina Santinelli responsabile sezioneCristina Santinelli
Adalberto Coltelluccio Contraddizione e paradosso in Hegel
In this paper, I argue that Hegel‟s dialectic accepts true contradictions. His logic violates the Aristotelian principle of contradiction. However, contradictions are not irreducible and do not generate paradoxes, because they are always resolved. Therefore, Hegelian dialectic cannot be defined as aporetic, as it lacks the connection between contradiction and recursive self-reference. Hegel uses an original strategy in order to get over the contradiction, which is neither the Scholastic „reductio‟ nor the logical „parameterization‟. It is conceived as an opposite „overwhelming‟ another opposite.
Nadia Pucci Noterella sul daimonion, il luogo della scelta morale
In the following essay we intend to demonstrate that between the passages of Apology and those of Phaedrus, both containing reference to the ―divination of the demonic sign‖, there is a deeper connection, comparable to an ―upside-down mirror‖. The daimonion, who does not intervene in Apology and allows Socrates to fullfil his moral destiny, assumes a significance, in Phaedrus, which is similar to the one in Apology, but nevertheless confers a sense of discontinuity to the ―time of the moral choice‖, assimilating such time to the analysis of the instant carried out by Plato in Parmenides.
Raffaele Carbonei Considerazioni sul progetto della science de l’homme nella Recherche de la vérité di Nicolas Malebranche
The malebranchean project on science of man intends to investigate the mind in itself, the mind-body relation, the relationship between the mind and God. We emphasize that the science of man is a special knowledge which takes its place between evidence and likelihood, metaphysics and experience. The science of man needs a large knowledge and in particular it concerns the basic structure of mind and the nature of body. According to Malebranche these enquiries are good if we consider the theological and historical background of man: man is placed between the primary perfection of Adam and his own perfect condition in the celestial Jerusalem. In short, we can understand the structure of the mind and the mind-body relationship, therefore the perceptions and affections mechanism, only in light of the historical background of the degenerate state of mankind. In other words, the possibility of a science of man consists of its capacity to deal with the psychological and empirical data without clinging to them.
Alessandro Carlucci Gramsci and Saussure: Similarities and Possible Links
Few books from the first half of the twentieth century have exerted the same long-lasting, interdisciplinary influence as Antonio Gramsci‘s Prison Notebooks and Ferdinand De Saussure‘s Course in General Linguistics. The former is the work of a political leader and philosopher who is now widely appreciated by scholars in the humanities and social sciences, including several scholars in language studies; while the latter is the work of a linguist who, at least as the initiator of linguistic structuralism, has been regarded as a fundamental author and source of inspiration by many anthropologists, sociologists, social theorists, and political philosophers. Both the Course and the Notebooks were published after the authors‘ deaths. The first edition of the Course in General Linguistics was published in 1916. Are there any links between the ideas expressed in this book and those of Gramsci, who wrote his Prison Notebooks between 1929 and 1935? Although no documentary evidence exists confirming that Gramsci read the Course, some passages from his writings bear striking resemblances to the contents of Saussure‘s posthumous work. I shall argue that events in Gramsci‘s life can be held responsible for these resemblances. Between 1911 and 1926, he studied linguistics at Turin University and came into contact with early Soviet cultural life, residing in Russia twice in the early 1920s. Soviet linguists were then discussing the ideas contained in the Course, and post-revolutionary cultural life was, on the whole, quite receptive towards these ideas. Therefore, it is likely that they became part of the cultural milieu which influenced the development of Gramsci‘s thought.
Andrea Aguti, La filosofia delle religioni. Introduzione tematica e rassegna dei principali modelli contemporanei
In this paper, I offer an introduction to the philosophy of religion as autonomous discipline, with special regard to the contemporary age. After explaining the conceptual distinction between “philosophy of religion” and “philosophy of religions”, I offer some remarks about the origins of the philosophy of religion in the history of Western thought and the importance of phenomenological approach to religion in order to show the autonomy of the philosophy of religion. A further task of the paper is to show the variety of types of the philosophy of religion in the twentieth century and their methodological particularity. Finally, I analyze the problem of religious pluralism in relation to the christian theology.
Lorenzo
Vinciguerra, L'antropologia
di Spinoza
The necessity, the immanence and the antifinalism of substance are the instruments
of a radical anthropological thought in Spinoza, where the theological anthropomorphism
appears to be ruled by a finalist anthropocentrism. The theological reform
goes together with a anthropological reform, which denounces three native
illusions (belief in freedom, in a substantial self and in the power of
a free will). In a positive way, man, defined by Spinoza as individuum is
to be considered as the effect of a triple natural relation: to the substance,
to the universe and to other men (multitudo). The desire, that is the very
essence of man, is here conceived as a reaction to these three fundamental
and modal relations.
Italo Cubeddu, Per leggere le Regulae ad directionem
ingenii,
In his Regulae Descartes describes a technique of symbolic abstraction,
one which anticipates the Kantian theory of schematism.
Veronica Nicusanti, L’opera
di Arnold Geulincx (1624-1669) Tra cartesianismo e occasionalismo
The article introduces Arnold Geulincx’ works reconstructing their derivation
from the cartesian nova philosophia and pointing out some theoretical aspects
they share with Spinoza’s thought. First of all the text examines the most
widely known result of Geulincx’ elaboration of cartesianism, that is his
occasionalistic doctrine of the finite beings’ causality, outlining its
original features and pointing out one of the possible sources it comes
from. Then the article dwells upon the Geulincx’ system section propaedeutic
to his occasionalistic theory, that is his peculiar confutation of the scholastic
physics and metaphysics, first effect of his youthful assimilation of Descartes’
works. Through a detailed analysis of the most significant loci of Geulincx’
Metaphysica Peripatetica, the text introduces in particular his refutation
of scholastic ontology, showing the confutation of the concepts of ens,
of modus entis and of trascendentalia the author develops. The analysis
points out the affinities between this refutation and the one that Spinoza
works out in his Cogitata Metaphysica and, at least, it underlines the assonances
between Spinoza’s and Geulincx’ original ontology, at the same time as their
clean differences.
Cecilia
Muratori, Il Dio Senza-Fondo. Storia dell’evoluzione
del concetto di Ungrund negli scritti di Jakob Böhme
No other concept has more often been used to represent the philosophical
thought of Jakob Böhme than that of Ungrund, despite the fact that
it appears relatively late in his writings: the word Ungrund was employed
for the first time in the Forty Questions (Vierzig Fragen), written in 1620,
eight years after Böhme’s first book, Aurora or Morgenröte
im Aufgang, and only four years before his death.
As it literally means Bottom-less, or Without-Ground, the word Ungrund is
used to describe the nature of the Divinity in the most radical way, that
is ripping from it every possible image or representation, and, as a final
step, leaving it without a ground to sustain itself.
I propose to trace an evolution of both the concept and the term Ungrund,
from Böhme’s early works to those written after 1620, with the
aim of showing that the concept which first appears in the Forty Questions
is not entirely a new one: although Böhme repeatedly changes his terminology
in attempting to describe the divine mysteries, certain aspects of his approach
nevertheless remain constant throughout this process.
First, it’s possible to point out that already in Aurora Böhme
tries to conceive the Divine on different levels (levels of depth). The
Holy Trinity, far from being considered as the only possible representation
of the Divinity, is defined as a form of it which has a beginning (or
‘birth’), proceeding from a divine depth, or abyss: it is this
abyss that Böhme will later call Ungrund.
Following the stages of this evolution will show, on the one hand, the reason
for the late appearance of the term Ungrund, and on the other the shades
of meaning which converge in it. At the same time, Böhme’s constant
and developing attempt to consider the Divinity as a bottomless Abyss offers
an interesting parallel with Meister Eckhart’s conception of the Divine
as a motionless Nothing.
Giuseppa Saccaro Del Buffa,
There has always been little agreement among Spinoza scholars on how to
interpret the concept of attribute, essential though it is for a full understanding
of the metaphysics of being. Through an analysis of Spinoza's early works,
this paper explains how the issue of attribute progressively took shape
and how the philosopher's new thinking broke away from the metaphysics of
monotheistic theological traditions, which he challenged and even repudiated.
Only gradually and through a difficult, tormented process did Spinoza move
from an original conception of attributes as individual substances to that
of a single substance which «expresses itself» through infinite
attributes. In the same process one can also see an emerging awareness of
the relation between the knowledge of being and the language expressing
such knowledge. This awareness underpins further linguistic-conceptual refinement,
which is fundamental for an understanding of Spinoza's masterpiece.
Pina Totaro, Le traduzioni italiane
del Tractatus theologico-politicus di Spinoza. A proposito di una
nuova traduzione
This paper contains comments on the Author's translation of Spinoza's Tractatus
theologico-politicus (Bibliopolis). It is part of a national project
for the publication of a new edition of Spinoza's Works, originally planned
by E. Giancotti and currently coordinated by F. Mignini. Main features and
criteria characterizing Italian translations of the Tractatus (starting
from Carlo Sarchi's in 1875) are examined; referring to specific examples,
it is argued that there cannot be an a priori ideal criterion for translation.
The translation has to remain faithful to the letter of the text without
jeopardizing its intelligibility. Translators must therefore avoid too literal
styles which would result in artificial language and compromised communication.
This is particularly true of Spinoza's Tractatus, which remains fully
up-to-date in political and exegetic context.
Elisa Basili, La
solitudo
in Spinoza
The following article aims to address the meaning of the term solitudo as used by Spinoza in his works and theory. The manner in which this
intense and diverse word is used in various forms by the Dutch philosopher is
considered (selected passages from Political Treatise and Ethics).
This contribution tries to reconstruct Heidegger's reflection
about alterity problem in Sein und Zeit and in the years from 1919
until 1928. The Mitsein doesn't represent the only existential structure
that makes the Dasein able to exist with others. Heidegger speaks also
about Fürsorge and, in Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der
Logik. Im Ausgang von Leibniz (1928), he suggests a relationship between
the ‘originary temporality' of the Dasein and the other as ‘you'. So,
the alterity problem has an ontological significance because the Dasein
and the other are not two metaphysical subjects.
One of the most complete accounts on Heraclitus that the ancient world has left
us is Hippolytus'. The Roman writer interprets the Heraclitean doctrine of the
unity and unification of all opposites of reality as the identification of the
persons of the Father and Son in the Christian conception of God. In his Refutatio
omnium haeresium Hippolytus quotes 18 of Heraclitus' fragments, meticulously
chosen from the others, to show that the most dangerous heresy of his time,
the 'monarchism' of Noetus from Smirnes, derives from Heraclitus' theory of
the 'One', and to demonstrate that his personal enemy, the immoral and corrupt
bishop Callistus, was an epigone of this heretical doctrine. This study translates
for the first time in Italian Hippolytus' Greek text and analyses the particular
interpretation of Heraclitus given by the Christian author who intends to reach
his polemical target by the strategic use of the Greek sage's doctrine, and
wants to refute the heresy defending the Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy
of the Roman Church. However, in this attempt, one can find some Gnostic elements.
Riccardo Caporali, Un moderno alla maniera degli antichi Suillo Spinoza di Leo Strauss
The considerations outlined below synthetically revolve around the three essential
points relevant to the context and to the motivations (Motiven) of young Strauss's
interest in Spinoza as well as to the extent and the depth of his interpretative
contributions, to the probable influences and to the non-impossible retroactivities
the author being interpreted arises in the reflection of his even critical interpreter.
In its articulation, the text refers back to the essay - just revised - presented
at the Seminar on Spinoza: Power and Freedom organized for the activities of
the Doctorate in Philosophical Anthopology and Fundaments of Sciences of the
University of Urbino (4th March 2004). The content, purposely in its original
colloquial version, is halfway between my Afterword to Strauss (2003) - to which
I have turned to for various aspects - and further detailed investigations to
be arranged in a more thorough format.
Paolo Taroni, Bradley
e la critica all'esistenza del tempo
The present article analyses Bradley's critic of the time existence. Starting
from a rigorous logical examination, the British idealist demonstrates that
every relationship is contradictory, inconsistent. Therefore the time is contradictory,
too and it is appearance, because it is constituted by elements mutually connected
in an after and a before. The only Reality is the Absolute. In the Absolute,
everything is contained in a Unity, that may be felt through an immediate experience,
a feeling, that is an absolute intuition. In the Absolute there is no time.
The Absolute is non-temporal, but it includes time, as one of its aspects; in
the Total, time is not a singular element and does not have specific characteristics.
In the Absolute, the typical time's elements - the unity of after and before,
and the direction to the stream - do not exist, and are only appearances of
the human mind. In the Absolute only the Eternal exists
Lyuba Castelli, Gli echi di un dissenso democratico
The present article analyzes some themes of the Dutch philosopher B.
Spinoza's political theories, paying also attention to the themes faced in the
Ethics, in order to emphasize some aspects of the sixteenth century philosopher's
political science. The dynamics of the union pact, the choice for a democratic
government form, the theory of the consent (treated mainly in the Political
Treatise) are all indispensable and constitutive elements for the formation
of a country, in which the free circulation of ideas and the possibility to
dissent conduct towards a horizon as much rational as possible, thus towards
freedom. According to these reflections, it has been attempted to individuate
a sort of theoretical continuity (not parallelism) between the Spinoza's political
theory and the Karl Marx's philosophy: the relationship between democracy and
multitudo permits to formulate some hypothesis on how the Marxian philosophy
has ideally inherited something from the theoretical nucleus of Spinoza's politi-cal
thought.
Italo Cubeddu, La Metafisica di Aristotele. Sommario ragionato di un libro non scritto
This reproduces the concluding paragraph of a more extensive study which endeavours
to trace in the text of Metaphisics as passed down to us by its ancient editors
a pathway which leads from the reworking of the Platonic diairesis undertaken
in the Topics (in particular in chapters 5-6 of Book 6, on the topoi of genera
and of diaphorai), further developed in the Posterior Analytics (see chapter
4 Book 1, on the meaning of the terms of every one, in itself, universally),
down to the conclusion of chapter 12 of Metaphysics Zeta, which closes researches
about substance with the account of which is a definition.
Giulia Montemezzo, Polemica antireligiosa, libertinismo
e dissimulazione nel Candelaio di Giordano
Bruno
The present study intends to offer a contribution to the interpretation of Giordano
Bruno’s ‘libertinage’, focused in particular on the stage of Bruno’s only comedy:
Candelaio, which is now analysed. Set between the flight from Naples and the
first french experience (1576-83), the Candelaio either shows a peculiar moment
of Bruno’s philosophical thought and marks a basical step to understand Bruno’s
conception of faith, catholic religion, superstition, and Churche’s hierarchy.
From a themathic point of view, the main attention is thus focused on the double
level of Bruno’s writing, language and style in relation with the Scriptures
and the debate between Erasmus and Luther, on the sacred liturgy’s ‘dismantlement’
and parody, and on the paradoxical turn over applyied to basic concept in civil
society such as honour and chastity. Bruno’s thought shows thus, since the very
first experiences, a broad evidence of a close relationship between the «Nolano»
and the italian «Averroismo» and even his deep knowledge of a couple of very
different, but certainly important ‘restless’ intellectuals: Ortensio Lando
and Torquato Tasso.
Fabio Frosini, La "filosofia della praxis" nei Quaderni del carcere di Antonio Gramsci
"Philosophy of praxis" is the concept used since 1932 by Antonio Gramsci
in his Prison Notebooks (notebooks 10 and 11) as a substitute of "Marxism".
It is quite possible that one among the reasons for this conceptual choice was
the circumspection of the prisoner Gramsci vis-à-vis the censor. However,
as this article tries to show, all the conditions which make that substitution
possible are already present in the period 1929-1932. Throughout that period,
Gramsci elaborates an original reconsideration of Marxism, culminating in a
proposal that he expressly announces as "philosophy of praxis". The
concept draws explicitly on the work of Antonio Labriola and is defined, in
accordance with Labriola, as denoting the core of Marxist philosophy. Specifically,
Gramsci argues that Marxist philosophy is born out of historical materialism,
rather than other philosophical positions such as Idealism and Materialism.
This article describes the genesis of the philosophy of praxis by means of a
close reading of the Notebooks. Contrary to received wisdom, the article argues
that this concept - albeit in a sketchy and rather vague way - is already present
in 1930, with the subsequent two years being dedicated to defining it in every
detail.
Valentino Bellucci, Descrizioni fenomenologiche nei Cahiers di Paul Valéry
It is a common point of wiew that the investigation Paul Valéry leads
in his Cahiers show a theoretical dimension centred on phenomenological aspects.
What shall be do now is to confront with much more details some phenomenological
descriptions exposed into the Cahiers with Husserl's investigations on time
and Merleau-Ponty's searches on perception. Reguarding the comparison Valéry-Husserl
is to point out the notable similarites on considering the concept of 'present'
like a complex form and also that, this was treated using same language. Reguarding
the comparison Valéry-Merleau-Ponty we have not only a common interset
on perception, but also the same examples on clarefing same phenomenological
aspects on sensation. At last is underline the common interest of Valéry
and Merleau-Ponty on painting and the fact that it assumes an important philosopical
value for them.
Benedetta Zavatta, l gioco del mondo e il mondo del gioco in F. Nietzsche
The theme of play is found in all Nietzsche's productions, from the ones belonging
to his youth to the latest works and its progressive evolution shows a process
of modification which also takes place in Nietzsche's thought: from the artist's
metaphysics to the free spirit's scepticism, the doctrine of the eternal recurrence
of the same and the will to power. In this work we have tried to demonstrate
how the evolution of the metaphor of the world as play is strongly indicative
of Nietzsche's research for a radically extra-metaphysical philosophy. So the
sight of the artist, who is looking the play of the world, becomes the 'play
without player' of the will to power in which both God and the subject disappear.
Thus nihilism is overcome by recognizing and affirming the play-character of
existence.