Forum. Supplement to Acta Philosophica

The Idea of Philosophy in Luigi Stefanini

Ariberto Acerbi — 2024-09-30

The Essay outlines Luigi Stefanini’s philosophical work (1891-1956), by showing how his Platonic exegesis, the aspect for which the author is best known, was developed by him into an original philosophical conception and a corresponding educational theory that has as its inspirational centre the vital unity of the human soul, brilliantly described in Plato’s Symposium.

Identity and Openness to Otherness in the Personalism of Luigi Stefanini

Giuseppe Pintus — 2024-09-30

The article revisits certain constitutive aspects of the concept of person as developed in the philosophical proposal of Luigi Stefanini. It aims to illustrate how the act through which an individual relates primarily to oneself (thought-speech) is indistinguishable from the act of communicating and relating to others. This act serves as the primary locus from which the necessity of asserting a spiritual creative instance emerges.

Pareyson: Personalism and Hermeneutics

Claudio Ciancio — 2024-09-30

Personalism not only defines the existentialist phase of Pareyson’s thought, but is also present in his aesthetics, in his hermeneutic and also, albeit not explicitly thematized, in his ontology of freedom. In his existential phase Pareyson defines human existence not simply as a relationship with being, but as itself constituted by this relationship. From this it follows that his understanding of being is always a personal perspective. This perspective is a manifestation of being, but always also of the person. This does not mean that it is partial, but that the truth is given to us as inexhaustible. Finally the personality of the relationship with truth highlights the freedom of that relationship.

Form, Truth and Interpretation. Vattimo, Eco and the Lesson of Pareyson

Stefano Oliva — 2024-09-30

In his hermeneutics Luigi Pareyson fixes the reciprocal involvement of two instances, truth and interpretation, inseparable and irreducible from each other. Similarly, in the theory of formativity, Pareyson indicated two principles, the forming form and the formed form, and explained how interpretation in aesthetics should not rigidly adhere to the work as it appears at the end of the production process, but should re-actualise the spirit that guided its formation. By relating the two terms of Pareyson's hermeneutics (truth and interpretation) to the two instances of his aesthetics (forming form and formed form), it is possible to grasp the differences between the master and two of his best-known students: Umberto Eco and Gianni Vattimo. Going back to Pareyson's hermeneutic model thus allows us to observe similarities and differences between some of the most relevant positions in the debate that, even in recent times, has seen realists and anti-realists opposed.

How to Rethink the Human Being – Male and Female?

Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz — 2024-09-30

Edith Stein, one of the first women to enter a male-dominated philosophical world, took an interest in women’s emancipation and rights, deepening her political interest through socio-theoretical work in the field of sociology, whose approach is still little studied today. In a context in which we are witnessing the transformation of the image of women and especially the deconstruction of binary genders brought about by gender theory, we need to rediscover the intellectual contribution made by Edith Stein, who preferred the vision of truth to other references. Edith Stein approaches the question of gender in an explicitly phenomenological way, considering the body as the first phenomenal self-expression of the essence of man and woman. Although she does not have the last word on an issue as complex and intricate as gender, her words — through her life and even more so through her inflicted but accepted death — acquire a special value, that of testimony.

"What makes you yourself?" Scotus' Question, a Pitfall for Thomists

Stephen L. Brock — 2024-09-30

The article’s main thesis is that Thomas Aquinas’s teaching that the principle of individuation for corporeal natures is “signate matter” has been misunderstood for centuries, because the matter in question has been taken to be prime matter. Thomas never says it is prime matter, and he very often identifies it with particular sensible matter or with the individual’s body. This misunderstanding may account for much of the serious disagreement that can be observed among the accounts of individuation offered by past and present Thomists. The article suggests that the misunderstanding might have arisen from excessive haste on the part of Thomists to respond to John Duns Scotus’s account of individuation and to his criticisms of accounts resembling Thomas’s. Correcting this misunderstanding helps to see how very different Scotus’s and Thomas’s approaches to individuation are and to bring out what would be needed for a genuine encounter between the two positions.

Death, Border and Crossing Point for the Human Person

Francesco Russo — 2024-09-30

Death is often considered taboo. It is problematic to talk about the experience of death, because it is always a future event. We perceive death as a boundary or limit of our existence, marking the way we experience temporality. At the same time, death is also seen as a gateway to a different dimension of our own and others' existence. The death of others highlights the role that relationships play in our lives.

Desiring Aristotle. Philosophy as a life direction

Claudia Baracchi — 2024-09-30

Although Aristotle emphasizes sophia, contemplative excellence, as the most felicitous accomplishment, and even the fullest realization, of the human being as such, the fact remains that the human being savors it only intermittently. The human still is an animal, zoon, and belongs in the unstable flow of the passions, in the mutability and caprice of chance, and in the unpredictability of becoming. The human is inhabited by impulses, desires, appetites. It is moved by them and unable to govern them at will. The phenomenology of such movements is articulated through the language of epithymia, thymos, pathos, eros, orexis. The essay focuses on the theme of desire and on the primordiality that Aristotle acknowledges in this element constitutive of the human and of its mystery.

Science as ‘Personal Knowledge’ in the Epistemology of Michael Polanyi

Valeria Ascheri — 2024-09-30

Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), chemist and epistemologist of Hungarian origin, later naturalized English, placed the trans-objective character of knowledge at the center of his reflection. Stopping at the myth of the objectivity of science hides the personal element which is instead decisive not only for the choice of the best models, but also for the meaning that the scientist gives to his hypotheses and discoveries. Precisely, scientific knowledge must e can only be ‘personal’: it is an activity in which the participation and contribution of the whole person is fundamental to reach any discovery or to formulate theories. In every act of knowledge there is a unique and passionate contribution from the person who knows what is known, and this component is not an imperfection but a vital aspect of knowledge. This ‘tacit’ dimension of personal knowledge plays an irreplaceable role, even if most of the time it is unaware and almost inexpressible, according to a Gestalt vision that Polanyi considers fundamental, and which reflects, in a certain sense, the ontological structure of reality, organized according to ‘ascending levels of existence’, which at the same time corresponds to a hierarchy of intelligibility.

Ethics of War: Some Criticisms to Thomas Aquinas. And Some Additional Moral Reflections

Giacomo Samek Lodovici — 2024-09-30

After reconstructing in a previous article the thought of Thomas Aquinas on the morality of the war, if certain conditions are respected, in the present article I critique some of the theses of Thomas himself, in large part by applying the ethical thought he expounded in various works, reaching, on some points of the ethics of war, to different conclusions from his own. In addition, I attempt some personal moral reflections on the morality of certain conducts that take place in war. The themes I deal with are the looting committed by soldiers fighting a just war and, in general, the actions against civilians (including embargoes and sanctions); the morality of soldiers fighting an unjust war (e.g.: should they desert/surrender? Must they do so even when the war is in an advanced state and the civilians of their people are at risk of massacre?); the condemnation of any false assertion during a war (I argue that there are false assertions uttered in the course of wars that are not lies); the prohibition/permission for clerics to fighting.

Music and Rhetoric in the Perception of Human Unity

Rafael Jiménez Cataño — 2024-09-30

The more human a reality is, the greater is the proximity between form and content. This is the reason for the closeness of Rhetoric and Music, the former as art of harmonizing form and content, the latter as the realm where they are most identified, and both as expressions of the human condition. An analysis of the place of Music and Rhetoric in the context of human knowledge and life allows us to see that perhaps we appreciate Rhetoric more than we think, for now we perceive the relevance of form better than we did in the recent past (the generation of ‘68, for example). To reach this conclusion, Music is a bridge.

The Musical Man: Paths of Consonance and Deep Relationships

Cecilia Franchini — 2024-09-30

In its purest essence, music represents a universal language capable of transcending geographical, ethnic and cultural boundaries, able to serve as a powerful medium of human expressiveness. For centuries, music has played a very important social role, influencing emotions, behaviors and even personal, individual and collective decisions. This article aims to explore what impact music has on the lives of human beings, analyzing the broad spectrum of areas over which it exerts its influence, from the emotional, cognitive and spiritual spheres to the social and cultural ones.

Presentation of Volume 10

2024-09-30