Forum. Supplement to Acta Philosophica

Presentation of Volume 8

2023-06-30

Presentation

Valeria Ascheri — 2023-06-30

Abstract unavailable.

Environmental Crisis, Anthropological Crisis

Sergio Rondinara — 2023-06-30

This article aims to highlight and delve into – starting from the third chapter of Laudato si' – how the environmental crisis is an anthropological crisis. In particular, it manifests as a crisis of meaning and significance. We are increasingly losing our ability to recognise the meanings and, therefore, the values that nature possesses. Furthermore, we are losing our ability to give lasting meanings to natural objects and things of the natural world. The thesis proposed is that a renewed and good person-nature relationship today necessarily passes through the recovery and acquisition of new meanings of the relationships that connect each of us to nature. But how is such recovery possible? This question is not insignificant and can only be articulated on various levels of human action. The article will present four: cultural anthropological level, level of thought, ethical level, and religious level. The first three will only be briefly mentioned, and the religious level will be extensively presented.

Integral Ecology. A New Paradigm for the Care of Creation

Joshtrom Kureethadam — 2023-06-30

The article reflects on the integral ecological vision provided by Pope Francis, with special reference to the fourth chapter of the encyclical which carries the title of “Integral Ecology”. Laudato Si’ provides a metaphysics of relationality that is the basis of our interrelated and interdependent life and existence. The article develops seven characteristics of integral ecology in Laudato Si’: the perception of Earth as our common home, an integral understanding of the ecological crisis as the cry of the earth and of the poor, a positive vision of the natural world as the “gospel of creation”, the diagnosis of the deeper conceptual roots of the crisis in the dominant technocratic paradigm of Modernity, the outlining of a new way of inhabiting the world in terms of a new politics and economy, the emphasis on ecological education and spirituality, and the communitarian journey for the rebuilding of our common home.

Ethics of War (and Love for Enemies) in Thomas Aquinas

Giacomo Samek Lodovici — 2023-06-30

The purpose of this essay is to reconstruct and analyze Thomas Aquinas’ thought on the morality/immorality of the choice to fight a war and of certain conducts that happen during wars (ambushes, spreading false information to mislead the enemy, actions that harm civilians, etc.). Thomas lays out three conditions of the just war (legitimate authority, just purpose, righteous intention in fighting), and then the theory of just war must be reconciled with the thommasian condemnation of murder, with the precept to love one’s enemies, and with the precept to turn the other cheek. Finally, the essay identifies other conditions of just war that are hinted at or explicable in Aquinas’ texts. A critique of some of Thomas’ theses is deferred to a later article.

Monisms in Perspective. Whitehead, Spinoza, Leibniz

Alessia Giacone — 2023-06-30

In this paper, I shall argue against the standard interpretation of Whitehead as a pluralist by claiming that his system is a particular kind of monism. In my idea, the keyword of Whitehead’s process philosophy is the pivotal notion of solidarity, namely, the ontological kinship among the entities of the world and the world itself. To prove this contention, I firstly analyse the opposition between two metaphysical leading accounts: while, on the one hand, the classical view claims that entities are substances, on the other hand, the processist approach interprets reality in terms of processes. Whitehead’s foremost concern is to justify this latter and, at the same time, the fundamental interconnection of all things. Secondly, as the decision between monism and pluralism forcefully involves in the consideration of Spinoza and Leibniz, I compare their positions with Whitehead’s one. Because of Leibniz’s ideas of universal harmony and its notion of organism, I raise some doubts on his supposed well-acknowledged pluralism. At the same time, I show how Whitehead retrieves Spinoza’s modes to designate his events. Then, after having obtained strong analogies with both, I consider their systems in relation to God and attempt to show that Whitehead God’s subjective aim overcomes both Spinoza and Leibniz’s conception, even if Whitehead continuously refers to their philosophies. This leads to a perspectival monism that would link all three together.

Christian Images and Pagan Images. On the ‘Figure’ of Orpheus in the Transition from Pagan to Christian Culture

Daniele Guastini — 2023-06-30

Returning to the themes that the author discussed in his book Immagini cristiane e cultura antica, the contribution debates the re-use that Christian figurative culture has made of the pagan motif of Orpheus. Starting from this exemplary and widespread case of the survival of a pagan iconographic motif in the Christian context, the article reflects on the modalities and causes of the appropriation and re-signification realized by Christianity of some of the most important emblems drawn from the cultures that preceded it. This has allowed the contribution to return to the crucial question of the typological-figural structure of Christian culture, attributing also to the Christian iconographic tradition the figural character that Erich Auerbach identified in the literary tradition. And, more generally, to broaden the field on the theoretical, stylistic, and functional differences that occurred in the passage from pagan to Christian poetic practice, finding in them a more overall gnoseological divarication.

Insticts and Tendencies. Grounds and Consequences of an Anthropological Distinction

Antonio Malo — 2023-06-30

The question of instinct is one of the most controversial in science, because it concerns the operations of animals, especially the more evolved ones, which are characterized by a high degree of complexity. Instinct is not only a much debated topic, but also a transdisciplinary one, as it must take into account the data of different sciences, like biology, physiology, psychology, and philosophy and, in the case of man, of other spiritual sciences, such as sociology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, religion, etc. In this short essay I will try to deepen the philosophical foundation of the animal instinct, as well as its differences with respect to human tendencies, from which a series of important consequences for philosophical anthropology and ethics can be discovered.

Marsilio Ficino and Melancholy. Determinant Condition or Space of Freedom?

Valentina Zaffino — 2023-06-30

The purpose of this paper is twofold: on the one hand it aims to demonstrate that, despite what historiography has hitherto dealt with, according to Marsilio Ficino, the notion of melancholy does not just have a positive meaning, but he also assumes the traditional understanding of this phenomenon, which is considered as a proper disease. If in the former case the melancholic excels in the arts and sciences, in the latter case he lives a deep state of affliction and withdrawal into himself, which has serious consequences, such as doubt about the immortality of the soul. After highlighting This aspect of the problem, the paper will reconstruct Ficino’s position on free will. It will be investigated whether melancholy allows some kind of self-determination for people subjected to the determining action of Saturn and, more generally, of celestial bodies.

Presentation

Ariberto Acerbi — 2023-06-30

Affectivity and Rationality. Some Notes on the Modern Roots of the Present Time

Antonio Allegra — 2023-06-30

If modern philosophy is generally characterized by a focus on rationality, this does not detract from the fact that noteworthy reflections on various forms of affectivity are widely present in it. Vico, and in general the humanistic tradition, come to mind in this regard, but, in a different way, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, or Hume, who belong to the main line of Western thought, are no exceptions. Starting with a few examples, the paper seeks to indicate how both of these lines are constitutively present in contemporary approaches: artificial intelligence, in particular, uses the algorithmic model with regard to cognitive performance, and develops a certain affective perspective with regard to emotion-related performances.

The Education of Intelligence in Early Modernity. Locke, 'On the Conduct of the Intellect'

Ariberto Acerbi — 2023-06-30

The paper presents a posthumous writing by Locke devoted to the education of intelligence. Taking its cue from the English philosopher's emphasis in this writing on cognitive habits, it traces the implicit function of some fundamental intellectual virtues, according to the classical tradition, which are the subject of some rediscovery in contemporary epistemological literature: wisdom and prudence. Finally, the importance of freedom, as the purpose of the culture of intellectual education, is noted.

Teaching to Think Critically: The Socratic Method

Francisco Fernández Labastida — 2023-06-30

These pages present the method used by Socrates to teach his disciples to think critically, Leonard Nelson's attempt to apply it in the early 20th century to the teaching of philosophy in schools, and the potential of its use in the contemporary context.

How Does One Learn to Think? Reflections and Experiences on Intelligence Education

Alessandra Modugno — 2023-06-30

The essay aims to highlight the questions inside thinking’s learning-teaching issue. Very delicate and crucial themes are involved in this matter, such as mind’s nature and human ontological status, that are often omitted because respect with these there are not positions endorsed. However, exactly the requests provided from digitization and neuroscientific knowledge not only force to reflect on the best way to teaching how to think, but also require above all to ask oneself what does thinking means and what are the human thinking’s traits. On the basis of answers consistent with an anthropological framework based on experience and reality, can be identified methods of teaching communication able to foster mind’s learning according to human person truth.