Vita e Pensiero

Plotinus was a crucial author for the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov (1866-1938). He represented to him in many ways a real «philosophical alter ego» of Dostoevsky, since both – in Shestov’s view – indicated a way of internal rebellion of thought against the excessive power of the Western logos. The Plotinian ecstasy is, for Shestov, the highest moment in the historical development of Greek thought and at the same time it is its breaking point...

A hermeneutics of finitude not insensitive to religious concerns may be expressed as a «temerarious discourse», which runs the risk of not pleasing either the disciples of an intangible Absolute that can never be endangered or questioned, or the supporters of a finitude destined without alternatives to the natural law of death...

The publication of Christophe Grellard’s recent volume La possibilità dell’errore presents the Late-Medieval debates on erroneous conscience as a basis for the developments of the modern notion of tolerance. This work proposes a fruitful historiographical way of approaching the relationship between late-medieval debates and modern innovations; it also makes a reflection on the role that Thomas Aquinas played in the history of the idea of tolerance...

This essay traces the main stages in Maria Rosa Antognazza’s research path, from her doctoral thesis on Leibniz to her latest, still unpublished volume on epistemology, and highlights that her work is a shining example of how the history of philosophy, properly understood, can be of great benefit to philosophy...

R. Di Ceg lie, Aquinas on Faith, Reason, and Charity (F.L. Gallo), p. 511 – F. Minazzi, Epistemologia storico-evolutiva e neo-realismo logico (A. Lizzadri), p. 512 – H. Nowotny, Le macchine di Dio (R. Pozzo), p. 515 – F. Tomatis, Il Dio vivente (T. Mauri), p. 517 – S. Weil, La rivelazione indiana (E. Simonotti), p. 520 – Zenone di Elea, Frammenti e testimonianze (F. Eustacchi), p. 524

This article focuses on the final sentences of the treatise attributed to Timaeus of Locri, which offers an interpretation of the closing section of Plato’s Timaeus. The passage has long provoked debate on Timaeus of Locri’s understanding of metempsychosis, some holding that he rejected it and reduced it to a persuasive myth, others holding that he accepted it without specifying his own interpretation of the matter...

This paper presents an interpretation of the early thought of Putnam about a priori knowledge, after Quine’s Two Dogmas of Empiricism. While Quine’s rejection of the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements and his epistemological holism involved the denial of a priori knowledge, this paper will show how, according to Putnam, they are coherent, underlining the epistemological value of pragmatic and extra-theoretical warrented assertibility criteria in the justification of empirical and formal scientific theories...

In The Christian Religion, As Profess’d by a Daughter of the Church of England (London 1705) by Mary Astell, the author challenges many aspects of John Locke’s philosophy concerning theology, politics, ethics and religion. This manuscript focuses on one of her main criticisms against Locke, that is, her rejection of his view on thinking matter...