Marsilio Ficino, fonti, testi, fortuna, convegno svoltosi à Firenze nell'ottobre del 1999, viene a chiudere la serie degli incontri internazionali coordinati dal Comitato Internazionale Marsilio Ficino e ora pubblicati a Londra e a Parigi. Il volume offre le versioni aggiornate delle conferenze pubbliche tenute all'Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in quella occasione sull'opera ed il pensiero di Ficino, dal Quattrocento al Seicento. Il suo taglio prevalentemente filologico costituisce un imprescindibile complemento alle pubblicazioni del 1984-86, sempre in onore del Ficino, (...) di cui arrichisce le conclusioni con nuove prospettive di ricerca e nuove scoperte sul maggior filosofo del Quattrocento italiano. Un indice dei nomi agevola la consultazione del lettore, che troverà in questo libro uno strumento di ricerca fondamentale. (shrink)

The public intellectual has been the subject of a lively scholarly debate for over two decades, especially in the US. There, it is often said that intellectuals have increasingly lost interest in speaking to a broad public and engaging with important real-world issues. Advocates of this view condemn academics’ distance from reality and their propensity for abstract theorizing – something that it is said has been primarily inspired by Rawls’s normative political theory. Supporters of ‘engaged’ philosophy argue that this abstract (...) and ostensibly sophisticated framework is highly obscure to the public. In addition, its implicit moralism is at odds with the actual needs of the political realm towards which it is directed. This paper suggests that Rawls’s normative theory had a unique impact on Italian philosophy. Here, what I call the ‘public intellectual’ refers to a new approach to both political philosophy and intellectual activity, which was developed in Italy as a theoretical alternative to a more traditional ‘engaged’ model. (shrink)

Contemporary political theory is characterised by a realistic critique of liberalism. Realist theorising is seen as avoiding foundational disagreements about justice mutating into second-order disputes concerning the justifiability of legitimate political institutions. In this sense, the realist critique challenges a key aspect of Rawls’ liberal project – that is, its justificatory constituency. McCabe’s Modus Vivendi Liberalism presents an interesting case of such a critique. Given the condition of deep pluralism that characterizes contemporary democracies, the liberal Justificatory Requirement (JR) should be (...) recast so to include those, illiberal or sceptical, who are excluded by Rawls’ justificatory constituency. This paper confronts McCabe’s modus vivendi justificatory project with Rawls view. It suggests that both views seem to endorse a practice-dependent account of political justice in which “politics is prior to morality”; yet the ways in which reasons are endorsed to justify the shared conception of political authority are significantly different in these two schemes. The paper shows that the most problematic aspect of McCabe contingent model is that it disconnects the idea of legitimacy from a conception of liberal political morality. On this account, political legitimacy that reflects the uncoercive character of extant institutions seems to be sufficient to meet the MVL JR. Yet, from a normative point of view, this might be not enough to ensure morally acceptable outcomes. In conclusion, the paper considers McCabe’s model as a version of ‘practice-independent’ moral theorizing committed to a transcendent view of ‘threshold morality’. This move, however, comes at the cost of sacrificing the theory’s premises of anti-perfectionism and realism. (shrink)

Giving Voice To Values (GVV) serves as a framework to teach individuals methods to speak up when they witness actions that are contrary to their professional and personal values. This essay illustrates how GVV serves as a catalyst to advance both research and teaching activities.

Nata dalla raccolta di diverse note scritte a partire dagli anni '20, la "Introduzione alla filosofia" non e ne una sintesi della storia della disciplina, ne un'esposizione delle posizioni dell'autore; semmai una inedita sintesi di entrambe. Partendo infatti dai principi cardine del pensiero filosofico e dai suoi maggiori esponenti nel corso della storia, Giovanni Gentile dialoga idealmente con loro giungendo a esporre alla fine i punti salienti della sua visione rispetto ai grandi temi della natura, la storia, l'arte, la (...) religione, e a definire una volta di piu le fondamenta della filosofia attualista. (shrink)

1-2. Carteggio Gentile-Jaja -- 3-7. Lettere a Benedetto Croce -- 8. Carteggio Gentile-D'Ancona -- 9. Carteggio Gentile-Omodeo -- 11. Carteggio Gentile-Chiavacci -- 12. Carteggio Gentile-Pintor -- 13. Carteggio Gentile-Calogero (1926-1942) -- 14. Carteggio Gentile-Donati.

Il est connu que le séjour à Paris a joué un rôle déterminant dans l’élaboration des pensées leibniziennes. Pendant cette période, Leibniz rencontre de nombreux savants, s’initie aux mathématiques et s’avère être particulièrement prolifique. Il semblerait que ce soit à cette période également que commencent à se développer les concepts centraux de sa philosophie. Les textes De la méthode de l’universalité I et II en sont un formidable exemple. Ils nous offrent un jeune projet leibnizien, surprenant, ingénieux et très ambitieux. (...) On y voit Leibniz proposer un nouveau système de notation, permettant de traiter la généralité, qu’il fait dialoguer avec des concepts comme l’harmonie ou la caractéristique qui le suivront toute sa vie. Le texte (II) est une introduction à cette nouvelle méthode, ses concepts et sa philosophie. Dans le texte (I), Leibniz détaille son système ambigu et pousse les considérations mathématiques assez loin pour être en mesure d’exhiber une équation générale capable d’engendrer toutes les sections coniques. Cet article propose une présentation des concepts, qu’ils soient mathématiques ou philosophiques, utilisés par Leibniz pour parvenir à ses fins. (shrink)

In this essay, Gentile offers an accessible overview of the tenets of his philosophy. Originally published in German in 1929 and later revised for inclusion in Gentile's Introduzione alla filosofia , the essay also contains replies to some of the main objections levelled at the doctrine, such as that it was solipsistic, incompatible with Christianity and unable tomake sense of sensory or empirical experience. Thus we see how Gentile used the years separating this essay and 'The Method (...) of Immanence' to refine and strengthen his doctrine without ever compromising its central principles. (shrink)

In his attempt to put forward an empiricist version of structuralism, van Fraassen develops an approach to scientific representation and models which has been the object of several critiques. Here we cover the “Loss of Reality Objection”, namely, that reality itself would play no role in science if science could only refer to mathematical models. We examine and dismiss the solution offered by van Fraassen. Finally, we offer an alternative solution path.

O trabalho apresenta uma perspectiva de investigação das estruturas do Lebenswelt, emparticular de suas dimensões temporal e linguística. Faz isto a partir das características dessemundo destacadas por E. Husserl em sua obra A crise das ciências europeias e a fenomenologiatranscendental e das relações essenciais estabelecidas por Paul Ricoeur entre a experiênciahumana do tempo e as narrativas em sua obra Temps et Récit. Enfatiza-se a interpretação dasnarrativas de ficção como via de acesso privilegiada à compreensão dessas relações e de seusmodos de (...) participação na estruturação de um mundo, considerando-se a elucidação danatureza e lugar das narrativas históricas e de ficção na existência dos homens levada a cabopor Ricoeur em sua hermenêutica. (shrink)

La crisis económica hace más difícil la transición a la vida adulta. Ni siquiera los jóvenes universitarios están a salvo de la precariedad laboral. Hemos entrevistados a veinte españoles entre 20 y 30 años, con títulos académicos y con trabajos precarios para saber cómo la coyuntura actual influye en sus posibilidades de independencia. A través de sus posicionamientos interpretativos, describimos la crisis como trampa, obstáculo o desafío. La alteración de su emancipación es un reflejo de los problemas de relevo generacional (...) y de promoción social que las familias de clase media están experimentando en nuestro país en los últimos años.The economic crisis has increased the difficulty of the transition to adulthood. Neither young people with academic degrees can avoid employment instability. We interviewed twenty Spanish young-adults between 20 and 30 years old, with bachelor degrees and precarious jobs in order to know how the current economic downturn is influencing their possibility of independence. According to their interpretative perspectives, we describe the crisis as a trap, as an obstacle or as a challenge. The changes of their emancipation patterns are the spitting images of those problems related to generational replacement and social promotion that Spanish middle-class families have been experimenting during the last years. (shrink)

In several works that start from the seminal text Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories, Ruth Millikan has presented her well know teleosemantic approach to philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. Millikan presents her theory of linguistic signs as a theory which, unlike other semantic theories, is able to more adequately solve problems such as that which is called “Freges’s puzzle”. Millikan considers that the Fregean modes of presentation are inconsistent with a representational theory of mind. In this paper, (...) the relevance of Millikan’s objections to Frege is evaluated and the scope of these objections is discussed in the context of her own conception. We conclude that Millikan’s analysis of Fregean semantics relies on false assumptions and, in consequence, her doctrine is weakened. (shrink)

Giovanni Gentile is widely acknowledged as the foundational philosopher of Italian Fascism. He worked in academia as well as government, contributing to the formation of the Italian corporate state and education system under Bennito Mussolini. Gentile continued writing and contributing to the Italian Fascist state until his assassination by the Italian Communist Party in 1944. In The Philosophy of Marx, Gentile critiques the failures of Marxist philosophy as presented by numerous thinkers including Marx himself. Gentile argues (...) that Marx erred in his conception of historical materialism, which led to flaws in Marxist praxis, and presents his view of a more authentically Hegelian philosophy of dialectics and epistemology. According to Gentile, who promoted what he termed "actual idealism," the dialectic was not a mystical, external force, but rather an organic element of life, and required a strong, central state, which could coordinate and fulfill otherwise competing and struggling identities and interests. Antelope Hill is proud to present its original translation of Giovanni Gentile's The Philosophy of Marx originally published in 1899, updated in 1937. This work is fundamental to understanding the politics of the early twentieth century and will remain invaluable to future generations looking to understand the past. (shrink)

Originariamente letto a una conferenza nel marzo 1907, questo breve saggio non e ne una biografia di Giordano Bruno ne un'esposizione del suo pensiero, ma un'analisi del ruolo da lui ricoperto nella cultura del tempo e delle ragioni del suo scontro con le autorita ecclesiastiche. Rifiutando le semplificazioni di un Giordano Bruno ateo o anticlericale, Giovanni Gentile espone una sua personale interpretazione della vita del pensatore nolano, considerandolo non gia un "martire del libero pensiero," quanto piuttosto, al pari di (...) Socrate, un "martire della filosofia." Ne scaturisce il ritratto di un Bruno avverso non alla religione in se ma alla superstizione, e fautore, in anticipo sui tempi, della separazione tra fede e scienza.". (shrink)