As known, Menger endorses a typically Weberian thesis: Economics should be conceived as a value-free science. On the contrary, Keynes seems to argue that economics should be considered a moral science. This paper intends to prove a) a possible compatibility at the epistemological level and b) an agreement even at the ethical level. For these reasons, this paper is structured in two parts: 1) The first part examines the two ‘competing’ models in order to argue that a) the Mengerian model does not entail hostility against the ethical evaluation on economics and b) the Keynesian model does not mean that theoretical economics should be considered as epistemologically dependent upon a given system of moral precepts. 2) The second part intends to highlight that the epistemological agreement is linked to a similar standpoint in ethics: the common rejection of the love of money.
The epistemic status of introspection remains a controversial topic. Due to its subjective character, introspection is not an easy fit with natural sciences or a physicalistic picture of the mind. In literature, introspection is conceived as dealing only with macro-cognition and not with micro-cognition, the supposed object of study of scientific psychology. This essay discusses the epistemic status of introspection in light of its relationship with folk psychology and spells it out through an analysis of the positions of Wilkes, Alston, Schwitzgebel, and Churchland. Specifically, the essay makes a distinction between folk and scientific psychology and addresses the issue of the incorrigibility/infallibility of introspective judgments. The essay endorses a view according to which introspection should be conceived as a cognitive process the contents of which are provided by folk knowledge. It shows how this view can be appreciated as scientific, provided that a physicalistic image of the mind is rejected.
The concept of virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre has been treated by his critics in an unsystematic and incomplete or partial and way. They have focused mainly on the relationship of virtue with the concepts of practice and –secondarily- flourishing. The aim of this paper is to offer a systematic and complete view of the concept of virtue in MacIntyre’s thought. This view should include, in our opinion, three different levels: a practical level, an anthropological level and a theological level.
Despite recent attempts, the theme of the soul appears to be so worn out that retrieval is difficult. This article emphasizes the speculative position that the term μεταξύ plays – at least conceptually – in relation to the theme of the soul. The reading of Plato, Aristotle and Hegel, three giants of thought, that this article can offer will be necessarily limited. Hopefully, however, it will be sufficient to hypothesise an itinerary.
In this article I interpret the Platonic concept of Eros as exposed in the Symposium. As many modern interpretations focus almost exclusively on the interpersonal or ‘romantic’ meaning of Eros (in spite of Plato explicitly refuting such interpretations), I recall that the philosophical value of Eros is first and foremost ontological and has thus but little to do with interpersonal relationships. To demonstrate this, I show the ontological horizon of the preexisting tradition and its striking similarity with Plato’s own doctrine. I then go on to interpret Plato’s own text (Aristophanes’ and Diotima’s speeches) and show that it is compatible with the Aristotelian doxographic tradition which presents Plato’s oral teachings. This article thus aims at presenting Plato as the heir of a preexisting tradition and his Eros theory as ontological. It also shows the benefits of using the Aristotelian doxography for Platonic hermeneutics.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the concept of divinity expressed in Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, presenting the philosophical allegory as the key to reconcile the structural ambiguities and apparent contradictions present in the Stoic theology expressed therein. Cleanthes’ conception of divinity is inserted into the broader context of Stoic theology; moreover this text focuses on the echoes of Cleanthes’ thought that can be traced in Seneca. In fact, despite the latter having to live a different moment of Stoicism, the content of the Hymn to Zeus is congenial to Seneca’s thought both in content (the conception of divinity) and in form (the value of poetry and the effect of the word allegorically intended).
The problem of the civil religion has received much attention and commentary from the historians of modern political ideas. Less attention has been given to the medieval frame and tradition on this topic. The article focuses on the civil role of the pagan religion in some medieval authors, and particularly in Marsilius of Padua’s political thought (ch. V, first Dictio of Defensor pacis).
The contribution proceeds to the second question of Marsilius of Inghen’s commentary on the Sentences, where science is depicted as a specific form of propositional knowledge, one which is consensual and can be proven. This definition of science makes use of the combination of two traditions; while both have their roots in Aristotelian thought, they aim to construct two different epistemological ideals, which are differentiated by the source of their evidence. Marsilius comes up against the problem of the lack of evidence for theological principles, a problem which can already be found in Aquinas’ theory of subalternation and Henry of Ghent’s theory of the lumen medium, both of which were rejected by Marsilius. Marsilius’ solution consists in the attempt to adapt the Aristotelian ideal of deductive science, which proceeds propter quid from principles to conclusions, to theology. This adaptation gives rise to an inductive science.
The following paper aims to present and analyze Piero Martinetti’s thought on the theme of psychic status of non-human animals and, more narrowly, plants. It will be discussed the theoretical schemes embraced by Martinetti and some of his most important textual sources. In order to achieve this goal and to show which are the most important references of the examined texts, unpublished documents will be widely used. In doing so, the animal psychology provided by Martinetti will be analyzed, in particular, in light of his relationship with two of the most important representatives of 19th century philosophy and psychology: Wilhelm Wundt and Gustav Theodor Fechner.
This essay traces the spiritual genesis of Zubiri’s constant intellectual concern for the theme of reality in a short article entitled Las fuentes espirituales de la angustia y de la esperanza (1961). Zubiri recognizes in anxiety one of the most serious evils of his time, analyzing it not only from an ontological point of view but also as a mainly social phenomenon. If the ultimate root of man’s stability lies in his being bound to reality as the very possibility of his life, in what Zubiri calls religación, in anxiety, conversely, man experiences a sort of uprooting from reality, he finds himself lacking of foundation, returned to its original «radical ontological nullity». Anxiety, however, is revealed to man physically unsustainable, since it is a negation of himself. In this perspective, Zubiri believes that anxiety must become a kind of warning so that man can regain a sense of reality, intimately recovering his moralization.
The aim of this essay consists in investigating the ‘sources’ of freedom in Charles Taylor’s philosophy. In particular, I consider his studies focused on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Isaiah Berlin and Michel Foucault, as Taylor develops his own view of freedom engaging a ‘dialogue’ with their philosophical perspectives. He rejects a view of ‘absolute’ freedom, which reflects a radical imposition of one’s will, independently from her/his conditions as natural and social being. Radical freedom interpreted as autonomy leads to believe that all options are equally worthy because it is choice that confers them worth. According to Taylor, however, the denial of meanings and purposes in human agency engenders a nihilist will of power. To face this situation, Taylor’s proposal consists, on one side, in ‘situating’ freedom and, on the other side, in formulating qualitative valuations to discern the most important purposes.
The new Italian edition of Bruno Bauer’s politically uncorrect The Jewish Question (1843), edited by Giovanni Bonacina, stands out both for its accurate translation and its learned introductory essay, which situates the pamphlet within Bauer’s intellectual development and the heated debates on Jewish emancipation in Pre-March Germany. While showing that Bauer’s critical stance against Jewish religion, culture, and ‘nationalism’ is not to be derived neither from Hegel nor from the radical intellectual circles he belonged to, Bonacina points out that the Judenfrage succeeded in confounding the liberal supporters of Jewish emancipation because of its challenging thesis that discriminated minorities may in turn be a hindrance to human progress.
In this paper I will try to outline how the new technologies have redefined our embodied life and embodied interactions shaping a new digital environment and how space and time, in their digital version, affect the body in its spatial perception and memory skills. In order to do so I will read the digital environment as a peri-personal space and the digital device as a prosthesis of human being. Secondly I will offer a critique of the validity of the computer model of memory (storage and recovery) when applied to mental mnemonic phenomena.
H. Blumenberg, Beiträge zum Problem der Ursprünglichkeit der mittelalterlich-scholastischen Ontologie (G. Basile) - F. Cerrato (a cura di), Attualismo e storia (G. Argentieri) - M. Dell’Utri, Putnam (A. Lizzadri) - F. Fistetti, Hannah Arendt a Gerusalemme (R. Roni) - L. Floridi, Pensare l’infosfera (M. Krienke) - I. Kant, Neue Reflexionen (R. Pozzo) - M. Pulpito - P. Spangenberg (eds.), Ways to Think (M. Seregni) - R. Roni, Victor Egger (1848-1909) (G. Campioni) - M.S. de Carvalho - M.L. Pulido - S. Guidi (eds.), Francisco Suárez (S. Torre)
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