Abstract

In this paper I discuss the theoretical core of R. Fanciullacci’s extremely ambitious book, L’esperienza etica. Per una filosofia delle cose umane, whose central aim is to reestablish moral philosophy as a discourse capable of answering to the practical questions of human beings. After a presentation of Fanciullacci’s highly original reading of Aristotle’s Ethics, I focus on his attempt to define the relation between theory and practice, through the formulation of a three level scheme, systematically developed throughout the book. If the book offers us a self-reflective, coherent perspective on moral philosophy, couched in a new language, which will be of a great use for contemporary thinking, it faces, however, a major difficulty: the ambiguous nature of the question of meaning, on which rests the very meaning of moral philosophy, especially with regards to its political implications