STUDI FILOSOFICI XXXVII-2014
MONIA MANCINELLI, La materia primordiale nel pensiero di Teodorico di Chartres e di
Clarembaldo d’Arras
Abstract
Matter has always been a problem for philosophical research. Since Aristotle brought it
out of metaphysics, matter has been characterized with negative or privative features as
opacity, resistance, absence of order and unsteadiness. Nevertheless, matter has a
fundamental role in the foundation and explication of reality,
so it has been also associated with positive features as possibility, potency and
pregnancy. Thierry of Chartres and Clarembald of Arras stress these last aspects.
Thanks to Calcidius‟s and Macrobius‟s commentaries, to Martianus Capella‟s De Nuptiis,
to the hermetic text Asclepius and to Boethius‟s theological works, these authors linked
to the school of Chartres succeed in giving matter a metaphysical status and in regaining
its central role for the existence of sensible
things and for change.
Keywords
Matter – School of Chartres – Possibility – Absolute Potency – Pregnancy
MASSIMILIANO CHIANESE, La psicologia naturalis di Pietro Pomponazzi nell‟ Expositio
super I De anima
Abstract
The aim of this contribution is to display the fundaments of Pomponazzi‟s theory of the
soul in the Expositio super I De anima Aristotelis et Commentatoris (Ms. Neap. VIII.D.81,
ff. 86r-116v), analyzing the concept of „natural psychology‟ in the prologue and in the
question Numquid anima an corpus animatum sint subiectum libri De anima (ivi, ff. 86r-v).
Keywords
Aristotelianism – Metaphysic – Naturalism – Psychology – Soul
ELEONORA BARRIA-PONCET, Montesquieu, collectionneur des «Philosophi» et voyageur à
la rencontre des «philosophes» italiens
Abstract
Inspired by the meaning given in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the terms
philosophy and philosophers in France, this investigation concerns the authors whose
works are listed in the “Philosophi” division of the Catalogue de Montesquieu à La Brede:
it testifies to the uniqueness of Montesquieu‟s collection and his interests as a reader.
Mention is also made of certain cultural environments and Italian characters as well as
some acquisitions that have certainly helped to satisfy the curiosity of Montesquieu for
transalpine philosophers during his stay in Italy (1728-1729).
Keywords
Montesquieu – Library history – Italian philosophers – Trip to Italy – Eighteenth
century
ANTONIO GURRADO, Una polemica di Voltaire con i Gesuiti: il caso delle fonti sul
Paraguay
Abstract
In the chapter of the Essai sur les moeurs dealing with the government of the Jesuits in
Paraguay, Voltaire is not only relating a piece of history but is as well expressing his own
position in the debate about this extremely rare, and odd indeed, kind of government: a
theocracy in fact, established amid savage natives by extremely well-read and politically
powerful priests. Yet in doing so, Voltaire does not expose a theory as much as he
provides the reader with a list of matters of fact by which he could himself infer
conclusions about such a peculiar State. Voltaire obtains this effect by an extremely wise
usage of the historical sources he could dispose of; and his ability lies in the accurate
combining of most diverse sources. Infact he puts together both sources produced by the
Jesuits themselves – and, as such, capable to be considered as propaganda – and the
sources of opposite sign, i.e. those which have been produced by opponents who
intended to radically criticize the Paraguayan peculiar kind of government, by declaring it
unacceptable. Thus, Voltaire can express a moderate position without even being explicit
about his own views. This short essay provides a detailed list of Voltaire‟s sources (some
of them still left unidentified by previous studies) and gives clear examples of the way
Voltaire used those in order to compose this masterly chapter of the Essai.
Keywords
Voltaire – Paraguay – Jesuits – Theocracy – Historical Sources
VINCENZO BOCHICCHIO, Orientarsi nel pensare e nell’agire. Sentimento
cosmopolitico e destinazione dell’uomo nella filosofia kantiana
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to discuss the nature and the relevance of the cosmopolitan
feeling in the Kantian theory of judgment. Starting from the question of the Bestimmung
des Menschen, I will try to demonstrate that the cosmopolitan feeling has a remarkable
practical and theoretical role in the Kantian philosophy, because it orients and guides
individuals towards an enhancement of societies and habits. For this reason, I maintain
that in Kant‟s theory of judgment “to feel” means “to judge”, and therefore the
cosmopolitan feeling entails a judgment concerning the final destination of humankind
and orients individuals in their conducts.
Keywords
Bestimmung des Menschen – Kantian philosophy – Cosmopolitanism – Judgment–
Pedagogy
TIZIANA PANGRAZI, Vis magnetica contra Vim veneficam: Athanasius Kircher ‘fonte’ di
Ernesto De Martino
Abstract
The article examines Athanasius Kircher‟s „anthropological‟ interest in tarantism.
Contrary to the „medical‟ interpretations circulating at the time, he places his
phenomenon in the general area of magia naturalis magnetica thus providing a solid
foundation for its consideration in a cultural and historical key in which imagination
plays a decisive role. In this sense the well-known Jesuit can be seen as a „precursor‟ of
Ernesto De Martino.
Keywords
Magnetic Philosophy – Analogy – Affektenlehre (doctrine of the affections) – Music
SILVIA MARIA ESPOSITO, L‟unité des Flammes. Analisi della rivista «Acéphale»
Abstract
The review «Acéphale» was founded by Georges Bataille and André Masson in 1936 and
printed in Paris until 1939 with various interruptions and delays. The article proposes a
critical analysis of the essays published during the activity of the review and written by
Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, Roger Caillois, Jean Wahl, Jules Monnerot, Jean Rollin. The
principal aim of the study is to clarify the aesthetic and philosophical values the review
was built on. Subjects like Death, Myth, Community were the centre of the reflections
offered by the authors, whose main intellectual references were thinkers such as
Nietzsche, Freud, Kierkegaard, Sade.
Keywords
Acéphale – Bataille – Nietzsche – Sade – Klossowski – Kierkegaard
DIEGO FUSARO, Heidegger lettore di Marx. La metafisica marxiana come verità
dell’idealismo
Abstract
With the present essay, we will examine Martin Heidegger‟s interpretation of the
philosophy of Karl Marx. We will not examine the reflections that Heidegger made in Sein
und Zeit: our attention will be referred especially to the heideggerian texts written after
the so-called Kehre. We will try to underline the interpretation that the thinker of
Meßkirch gives of Marx‟s philosophy in relation to the development of metaphysics and
its Vollendung in the global technology. For Heidegger, Marx‟s philosophy can be read as
a phase of the Seinsvergessenheit and of the idealistic interpretation of being.
Keywords
Being – History – Marx – Heidegger – Technology – Capitalism
MASSIMO DELL‟UTRI, Il funzionalismo in filosofia della mente: sua ascesa e caduta nella
vicenda di un protagonista
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to follow the steps along which one of the most promising
conceptions of the nature of the human mind – the functionalist hypothesis – gained a
central place in the philosophical discussion of the Sixties owing to the seminal work of
Hilary Putnam, and was then after two decades put to harsh criticism by Putnam
himself, who only in recent years managed to distil from it what he deems the only
acceptable nucleus.
Keywords
Mind – Functionalism – Behaviourism – Identity theory – Hilary Putnam
ANTONIO RAINONE, Eziologia dell‟agire, ragionamento mezzofine e pianificazione
Abstract
In this paper two theories of practical reasoning, or means-end reasoning, are discussed:
the desire-belief model and the action planning model. The former is the minimal
standard model of action explanation and aetiology of agency; the latter is a more
sophisticated and comprehensive model of human means-end reasoning and purposive
actions aetiology. Thomas Nagel was perhaps one of the earliest contemporary
philosophers to point out the typical aspect of planning of human agency in his The
Possibility of Altruism. However, the concept of actions planning was already emphasized
by Aristotle in his theory of deliberation. From this wider historical perspective the paper
analyzes the differences between Donald David - son‟s theory of practical reasoning
(based on the desire-belief model and decision theory) and Michael E. Bratman‟s
planning theory of intention, in an attempt to clarify the affinity of Bratman‟s theory with
the Aristotelian conception of the rational deliberation based on the analytic method in
mathematical research.
Keywords
Agency – Desire-belief model – Intention –Means-end reasoning – Planning theory
VALERIA MARZOCCO, Causalità senza necessità. Neuroscienze, azione, senso comune
Abstract
Are we able to find regularities in human facts? And, if it is so, how cognitive
neuroscience can offer an innovative contribution? Focusing on the causalitynecessity
model, both the psychological and cognitive perspectives, especially advanced in the
second half of the last Century, have shown how causality can be understood out from
necessity. This opens not only to a more complex comprehension of causality model
itself, in a philosophical and logical dimension, but allows us even to point out the
contribute that it can offer in understanding social facts. This paper, moving from the
falsification that cognitive neuroscience offers for the psychological intentional states,
aims to discuss both the perspectives and limits that this can represent for social
sciences.
Keywords
Causality – Neuroscience – Naturalism – Folk Psychology