The article aims to reconstruct (on the basis of some rarely studied passages of the Protagoras and Theaetetus, as well as some doxographical evidence) the theory of the Protagorean dialeghesthai, and shows its connections with other areas (linguistic, theory of law and hermeneutics) of Protagoras’ thought. This theory is related to the distinction between the competitive and the dialectical use of the discourse. The latter is constructive and involves an application of the principles of the orthoepeia to dialectical argumentation, in (...) order to strengthen its logical and linguistic rigor, and elaborate exemplary speeches on topics of law, politics, ethics. Divenuto partecipe di una sorte divina, l’uomo, a causa della sua parentela con la divinità, fu, in primo luogo, il solo tra gli esseri viventi a credere negli dèi, e a imprendere a elevare altari e statue delle divinità; in seguito, egli articolò ben presto la voce e le parole per mezzo dell’arte, inventò abitazioni, vesti, calzature, coperte e gli alimenti che provengono dalla terra. (shrink)

Negli ultimi anni le ricerche sulla civiltà rupestre del Mezzogiorno medioevale, in seguito agli studi innovativi di Cosimo Damiano Fonseca, hanno condotto alla rivisitazione, attraverso approcci nuovi e con l'ausilio di strumenti sofisticati, di questo fenomeno nelle sue varie sfaccettature. Se, a partire soprattutto dalla fine dell'800, gli studiosi avevano rivolto i loro interessi in specie alle cappelle rupestri e alla loro decorazione pittorica, ovvero all'aspetto, in apparenza il più eclatante, dell'abitato rupestre, di recente l'attenzione si è focalizzata intorno (...) allo studio del paesaggio rupestre stesso e ai suoi valori, inteso come modello insediativo non certamente alternativo, né inferiore, a quello urbano, bensì come elemento specifico all'interno della complessa realtà dell'insediamento umano delle regioni meridionali e della Sicilia tra Tarda Antichità e Medioevo. (shrink)

Nel 1949 lo studioso di lingue semitiche Enrico Cerulli pubblicò un volume, intitolato Il “Libro della scala” e la questione delle fonti arabo-spagnole della Divina Commedia, che segnò gli studi danteschi, per lo meno per quanto riguarda il dibattito sulle fonti arabo-islamiche del medioevo europeo. Le ricerche di Cerulli su Dante si presentavano come una analisi di fatti di trasmissione culturale. Ma l’autore si era già affermato, nella prima parte della sua carriera, in un più controverso ambito di competenze: (...) alto funzionario dell’amministrazione coloniale italiana e vice-governatore dell’Africa Orientale Italiana, è stato rilevante studioso di lingue del Corno d’Africa, cioè le lingue delle colonie italiane. Questo saggio vuole connettere gli studi danteschi di Cerulli alle responsabilità coloniali e post-coloniali dell’autore, attraverso la ricostruzione della sua biografia intellettuale. Difatti, da queste ricerche Cerulli ricavò il concetto di unità della civiltà mediterranea, formula di evidente valore politico in rapporto all’Italia del secondo dopoguerra. Il saggio prova a offrire anche uno stato dell’arte del dibattito attuale sulle fonti arabe di Dante. In 1949, Enrico Cerulli, an Italian scholar of Ethiopic-Semitic languages, published a volume entitled The “Book of the Ladder” and the Problem of Divine Comedy’s Arabic-Spanish Sources, which was to become a landmark in the discussion on the knowledge held by medieval Europe of Arabic-Islamic culture. His investigation was an analysis of cases of cultural transmission. However, Cerulli had established himself during the first half of his career in a more controversial domain: he was a senior official of Italian colonial administration and he was already well known as an expert of Italian colonies’ languages and traditions. This essay, through a survey of Cerulli’s intellectual biography, aims to bridge his research on Dante and his involvement in colonial and post-colonial governmental decisions. In fact, Cerulli summarised the outcomes of his studies in the concept of unity of Mediterranean Civilisation: such a formula has undeniable political meaning in Italian secondo dopoguerra. The essay also offers a short state-of-the-art regarding current discussions on Arabic sources of Dante’s Middle Ages. (shrink)

Il tema relativo alla continuità e alla discontinuità del pensiero di John Dewey costituisce, da sempre, una delle questioni più dibattute dagli interpreti. L’obiettivo del presente saggio è quello di integrare gli studi già prodotti sull’argomento proponendo una lettura che, tenendo conto degli elementi di continuità e degli elementi di discontinuità, presenta lo hegelismo e l’elaborazione dello strumentalismo e del concetto di transazione come momenti indispensabili alla comprensione dell’intera riflessione deweyana nella sua ricchezza e complessità. The issue concerning (...) the continuity and discontinuity of John Dewey's philosophy represents one of the most discussed topics by scholars. This essay aims to deepen the relevant available studies, in particular analyzing three essential components of deweyan reflection: the persistence of Hegelianism, the emergence of instrumentalism, the development of transaction. (shrink)

In modern studies it has been largely denied that the so-called “secret doctrine” (which would be more correct to call “private teaching”) of the Theaetetus can be traced back to Protagoras. However, reasons why this doctrine can not be his own, have never been explained. At the same time, an appropriate justification of the hypothesis that it would be considered a pure Platonic creation has never been offered, nor was explained why it would be attributed to followers of Protagoras, but (...) not to Protagoras himself. This article examines the Platonic text in an analytical way, shows how Plato repeatedly attributes to the sophist of Abdera the content of this doctrine, and, based on fragments of Protagoras and other doctrines related to him by ancient sources, it is evident that nothing in Protagorean concepts comes into conflict with Theaetetus so-called “secret doctrine”, and how actually is completely coherent with it. (shrink)

Euthydemus is included neither in Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker by Diels–Kranz nor in Sofisti. Testimonianze e frammenti by Untersteiner nor in Early Greek Philosophy by Laks and Most. Likewise, the great twentieth century works on the Sophists do not give space to him, at best mentioning him briefly. Yet Euthydemus is the author of a fragment, which was quoted by Plato in his Cratylus, and on which again there is no modern study. This paper sets out to study this fragment (...) in depth, to review and discuss the various translations, both existing and possible, to study the context of Plato’s quotation, to clarify the exact meaning and the theoretical scope of this important fragment, and lastly to place Euthydemus in the Protagorean tradition, of which he is a notable product. (shrink)

La ricerca qui proposta si rivolge al programma di radicale naturalizzazione della mente e, in particolare, alla posizione del monismo materialistico che esso produce. L’articolo si propone di individuare gli assunti fondamentali sui quali tale programma poggia. Un primo assunto identificato e discusso criticamente all’interno del lavoro concerne una concezione corrispondentista della verità. Un secondo assunto fa riferimento ad una concezione secondo la quale lo studio della mente si riduce all’individuazione di relazioni causali e leggi che regolano processi meccanici, mentre (...) si possono considerare scientifiche solo quelle forme di indagine fondate sul principio di chiusura del mondo fisico. L’analisi si conclude sottolineando come il presupposto più significativo si riveli essere la negazione della soggettività e della coscienza, la quale viene ridotta/ricondotta a operazioni inconsce e inintelligenti. In problema rincontrato a questo rispetto è identificato nel fatto di non fare valere la fondamentale distinzione teoretica tra condizione empirica e condizione di intelligibilità. (shrink)

Preface 1. What is Ethics? 1. 1. Why Study Ethics? 1. 2. Isn’t Faith Enough? 1. 3. Philosophical Methods 1. 4. Specific Characteristics of Philosophical Ethics 2. The Phenomenology of Morality 2. 1. Moral Experiences 2. 2. Essential Characteristics of Moral Experience 3.. Voluntary Behavior 3. 1. Conditions of Voluntary Behavior 3. 2. Emotions and Feelings in Human Action 3. 3. Freedom in Human Action 3. 4. Human Action as Immanent Activity 4. The Virtues in General 4. 1. Importance of (...) the Virtues in Ethical Discourse 4. 2. Virtues and Vices 4. 3. Classification of the Virtues 4. 4. Virtue, Freedom, and Happiness 5. Wisdom 5. 1. Terminology 5. 2. Primacy of Wisdom 5. 3. The Operations of Wisdom 5. 4. Wisdom’s Presuppositions and Their Opposites 6. Justice 6. 1. The Concept of Justice 6. 2. Rights 6. 3. General Justice and Particular Justice 6. 4. The Parts of Justice 6. 5. Injustice 7. Fortitude or Courage 7. 1. Terminology 7. 2. Cultural Aspects 7. 3. Fortitude and Vulnerability 7. 4. Endurance and Aggression 8. Temperance 8. 1. Terminology 8. 2. The Essence of Temperance 8. 3. Virtue of Personal Integration 9. The Foundation of Morality 9. 1. The Good: Objective or Subjective? 9. 2. The True Good 9. 3. The Basis of Human Rights 9. 4. Sources of Morality 10. The Moral Law 10. 1. Attitudes toward Law 10. 2. The Essence of Moral Law 10. 3. The Natural Law 10. 4. The Law’s Limits 11. Conscience 11. 1. Anthropological Value of the Moral Conscience 11. 2. The Judgement of Conscience 11. 3. Types or Forms of Conscience 11. 4. Law, Virtue, and Conscience -/- Epilogue Bibliography . (shrink)

In this paper we investigate the class of MV-algebras equipped with two quantifiers which commute as a natural generalization of diagonal-free two-dimensional cylindric algebras. In the 40s, Tarski first introduced cylindric algebras in order to provide an algebraic apparatus for the study of classical predicate calculus. The diagonal–free two-dimensional cylindric algebras are special cylindric algebras. The treatment here of MV-algebras is done in terms of implication and negation. This allows us to simplify some results due to Di Nola and Grigolia (...) :125–139, 2004) related to the characterization of a quantifier in terms of some special sub-algebra associated to it. On the other hand, we present a topological duality for this class of algebras and we apply it to characterize the congruences of one algebra via certain closed sets. Finally, we study the subvariety of this class generated by a chain of length n + 1. We prove that the subvariety is semisimple and we characterize their simple algebras. Using a special functional algebra, we determine all the simple finite algebras of this subvariety. (shrink)

The studies of É. Évrard, recently published by M.-A. Gavray, are high quality works which allow to immerse oneself in the context of the Platonic-Aristotelian school of Alexandria in Egypt throughout the sixth century AD. They mostly focus on the figure and work of Joannes Philoponus, with specific attention to the compositional technique of his Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics and of On the Eternity of the World against Aristotle. Despite being strongly critical of the Stagirite on some points, also due (...) to his Christian faith, Philoponus deeply assimilated Aristotelian methods, lexicon and concepts. He therefore uses this legacy in his commentary on the first chapter of the biblical text of the book of Genesis on the creation of the universe, of living species and of the human being. This work by Philoponus provides a first example of Christian Aristotelianism before the well-known one of the medieval Scholasticism. (shrink)

The article studies the treatise De Lege (Summa Theologiae, I-II, qq. 90-108) showing the conceptual development and theological setting: everything comes from the lex aeterna and everything leads to the lex nova. The Thomistic concept of law is not unique or misunderstanding: it is analog. The analogy is applied according to a double movement. According to the analogy of proportionality, the analogiatum princeps is human law; according to the analogy of intrinsic attribution, the analogatum princeps is the eternal law.

With the use of a particular metaphor, which appears at the end of the Cratylus and is taken up with perfect symmetry at the beginning of the Theaetetus, Plato certainly wanted to indicate the succession of Cratylus–Theaetetus as an order for reading the two dialogues, which Trasillus faithfully reproduced in structuring the second tetralogy of Platonic dialogues. The claim of the theory of ideas, with which the Cratylus ends, must therefore be considered the background in which to place not only (...) the analysis of the name carried out in the Cratylus, but also the discussion and criticism of the epistemological theories examined and refuted in the Theaetetus. The transition from the discussion of the name to that of the logos is another important theoretical element that connects the two dialogues. Another one is the theory of knowledge, already precisely elaborated in the Cratylus, and taken up and deepened in the Theaetetus. Finally, the theme of false and error is a third theoretical element common to the two dialogues, which, starting from Euthydemus, finds its solution in the Sophist. (shrink)

This article aims through a study of the epigraphy of Pope Damasus, to reconstruct the ideal society that was shown to the pilgrim who went to the loca sanctorum in the Urbs. Taking into account the pastoral, political and ideological elements of Damasian epigraphy, it shows that the choice of martyrs and subjects which were celebrated responded to the increasing numbers of nobles within Roman Christian society after the peace of Constantine. Damasus tried to accommodated himself to the sensibilities of (...) the minor aristocracy of Rome and the emerging clergy, without renouncing its hierarchical organization of the Church in line with the social and ecclesial tendencies of the second half of the fourth century, when Roma christiana came into being. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:This volume collects seven articles of Carlo Paolazzi, O.F.M., previously published in journals and congress proceedings between 1996 and 2004, each of them dealing with the Writings of Francis. The essays are not arranged chronologically but move from more general to more specific studies on the Writings of Francis of Assisi. The titles of the essays included are: 1) The Birth of the Writings and Constitution of the Canon (...) ; 2) Francis, Theology and the Letter to brother Anthony ; 3) Anthony cites Francis: the Epilogue of the Sunday Sermons and the Early Rule XVI ; 4) The Writings between Francis and his secretaries: a Knot to be Untied ; 5) Concerning the Autographs of brother Francis: Doubts, Verifications and Confirmations ; 6) Concerning the Authenticity of the Writings of Francis to the "Poor Ladies" ; 7) The Lesser Brothers and Books: Concerning the Exegesis of "the books necessary to fulfill their office" and "Those who do not know how to read" . Each of the essays displays a careful methodology and appreciation for the evangelical content of the texts.The first essay deals with the establishment of the "canon" of Francis's writings in which the author demonstrates that the writings are born and develop from Francis's relationship with the Word of God. In this context, "writing" takes on the character of an "essential moment" in Francis's relationship with the Word , with God and with the brotherhood. This explains for Paolazzi, the passion with which Francis recommends the writings to those to whom they are addressed.The second and third essays are related to Anthony of Padua and the writings. The second essay deals with the content and authenticity of the Letter to Anthony, included by Kajetan Esser in the canon of Francis's writings. Paolazzi argues that the expression, "Brother Anthony my bishop" goes back to Francis himself. He suggests that Anthony's request for permission to teach reflects the concern of the novice who had permission from his minister to have a breviary, but was uncomfortable and needed Francis's explicit permission , a characteristic of the tension in the brotherhood upon Francis's return from Egypt in 1220. The conditions Francis places on the teaching of Anthony reflect Francis's concern that the Word of God not be approached purely from an intellectual perspective, but rather as a Word which must transform life. The third essay attempts to demonstrate that the Epilogue to Anthony's Sunday Sermons integrates sections of chapter 17 of the Early Rule. Paolazzi concludes this careful lexical study with the affirmation that Anthony had the Early Rule's exhortation to preachers in chapter 17 before his eyes as he concluded his Opus Evangeliorum .In the fourth essay Paolazzi tackles the question of the role played by secretaries in the production of the Writings of Francis. Scholars, including Esser, have suggested that because of his health and/or because of his status as "illiterate," Francis depended on secretaries to put his thoughts on paper. Paolazzi approaches the question by citing a saying attributed to Francis from the Mirror of Perfection . That this saying goes back to the historical Francis Paolazzi concludes based on both the content and the fact that it reflects Francis's literal approach to the Gospel. The saying states that Francis wanted no one to call him good, father or master because of the teaching of Christ in the Gospel who said that only God should be addressed with these titles . He then studies the usage and appearance of these three terms in the Writings of Francis, which confirm a consistent usage in accord with this saying. This demonstrates that the Writings reflect the "speech" of Francis and not simply his conceptual thought. Paolazzi considers that "in the Writings religious thought and the verbal lexicon of evangelical inspiration respond one to.. (shrink)