Augusto Del Noce is widely considered one of Italy’s foremost philosophers and political thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century. He is also remembered as an original and profound cultural critic, and in particular as a great scholar of the process of secularization that took place in the West during the 1960s. A collection of eleven essays and lectures by Del Noce that originally appeared between 1964 and 1969, and which the author published as a book (...) in 1971, The Age of Secularization quickly became recognized as one of the most original and penetrating attempts to interpret the cultural and political turmoil of the period. In its pages Del Noce discusses, among other topics, the student protests of 1968, the counterculture of the 1960s, the significance of the sexual revolution, the nature of the technological society, and the relationship between Christianity and modern culture. The Age of Secularization documents the encounter between a key period of contemporary history and the full intellectual maturity of one of its most perceptive observers. It makes available to English-language readers a lasting reflection on the philosophical roots of contemporary culture, and it is just as illuminating and topical today as it was nearly fifty years ago. (shrink)

In his native Italy Augusto Del Noce is regarded as one of the preeminent political thinkers and philosophers of the period after the Second World War. The Crisis of Modernity makes available for the first time in English a selection of Del Noce's essays and lectures on the cultural history of the twentieth century. Del Noce maintained that twentieth-century history must be understood specifically as a philosophical history, because Western culture was profoundly affected by the major philosophies (...) of the previous century such as idealism, Marxism, and positivism. Such philosophies became the secular, neo-gnostic surrogate of Christianity for the European educated classes after the French Revolution, and the next century put them to the practical test, bringing to light their ultimate and necessary consequences. One of the first thinkers to recognize the failure of Marxism, Del Noce posited that this failure set the stage for a new secular, technocratic society that had taken up Marx’s historical materialism and atheism while rejecting his revolutionary doctrine. Displaying Del Noce's rare ability to reconstruct intellectual genealogies and to expose the deep metaphysical premises of social and political movements, The Crisis of Modernity presents an original reading of secularization, scientism, the sexual revolution, and the history of modern Western culture. (shrink)

In 1964, Augusto Del Noce assembled in a book some of his best works on Marxism, atheism, and the history of modern philosophy. The result was Il problema dell’ateismo, which he always regarded as foundational to his way of thinking. The book remains his best-known work and is still in print in Italy almost sixty years later. The Problem of Atheism offers the first English translation of this landmark book, one of the earliest works to recognize the new secularizing (...) trends in Western culture following World War II. Del Noce situates atheism historically, reconstructing its philosophical trajectory through European modernity. Documenting the author’s entire intellectual experience, these essays explore the birth of modern philosophy, reckon with the great European crisis of 1917 to 1945 and the Cold War that followed, and mine the opposition between Marxism and the rise of the affluent society. The result is rich with premonitions of the cultural landscape that would take shape throughout the 1960s and the decades that followed. Proving its English translation to be long overdue, The Problem of Atheism remains relevant to contemporary debates about secularization, political theology, and modernity. (shrink)

A selection of essays on modernity and secularization by one of the most distinguished Italian thinkers of the mid-twentieth century.

In his critique of Modernity and the modern Gnosis, the prominent Italian Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce was particularly influenced by Eric Voegelin’s use of the two concepts in his political theory. The aim of this article is to present the various aspects of the idea of history proposed by Voegelin followed by Del Noce’s response and interpretation of them in order to show the similarities and differences between their views. More specifically, the comparison between Voegelin and Del (...) Noce centers on the question of the eidos or “form” of history and on the difference, important for Del Noce, between ancient and modern Gnosis. (shrink)

1968 has been considered by Augusto Del Noce as “the richest year in implicit philosophy since 1945”. Indeed, the student protests of the time, far from being a circumstantial movement, constituted a rebellion against the “technocratic society”, that is, a protest against the model of society that the West built after the Second World War to oppose communism. However, this rebellion was frustrated because it assumed a large part of the criteria that had led the left to change the (...) struggle for the emancipation of the proletariat, fruit of their concern for the weak, for the banners of sexual emancipation. Del Noce warns that, lacking an adequate philosophical foundation, the May 68 movement ended up being unable to resist the instrumental rationality of the society it sought to combat. (shrink)

Lo scopo di questo articolo consiste nel rilevare il peso del pensiero di Machiavelli, a volte tralasciato dagli studiosi di Del Noce, non solo nella ricostruzione della modernità delnociana a partire dal pensiero di Cartesio, ma anche nell’elaborazione di una proposta politica cristiana durante il secondo dopoguerra italiano, proposta che si presenterà proprio nei termini di superamento del dualismo cartesiano e recupero della dimensione storico-politica al pensiero religioso. Cercheremo di offrire innanzitutto un’esatta ricostruzione dei caratteri del dualismo cartesiano, inquadrandolo (...) fin da subito all’interno di quello che Del Noce definisce come l’orizzonte condizionante rappresentato dall’eredità del pensiero di Machiavelli. Riteniamo che tale prospettiva possa dare nuova luce all’interpretazione del pensiero di Marx da parte di Del Noce, punto di partenza della sua intera riflessione. Analizzeremo nessi e differenze tra l’impostazione marxista e quella di Machiavelli, per poter infine concludere accennando ai compiti che il pensiero cristiano deve oggi assumere rispetto alla sfera politica. (shrink)

A educação sempre foi um fator determinante na vida dos homens e das sociedades, mas hoje ganhou enorme relevância sendo um dos grandes temas da atualidade pela sua importância tanto no presente como para o futuro. Para a educação confluem hoje inúmeros contributos científicos, tanto das ciências sociais e humanas como das ciências empíricas, sem que o fundo social, cultural, espiritual e moral que a educação é deixe de correr incessantemente como um rio profundo que, todavia, os ventos e as (...) turbulências da superfície agitam e perturbam. A problemática que atravessa hoje a educação, bem como a informação científica e a investigação empírica que a podem esclarecer, não dispensam análises teóricas para novas formas de compreensão tanto mais complexas quanto mais problemáticos e difíceis são atualmente os temas educativos. O presente livro congrega múltiplas perspetivas sobre o fenómeno educativo, levadas a cabo por numerosos professores e investigadores de Portugal e de Espanha, em trabalhos individuais e coletivos nos domínios da teoria e da filosofia da educação. Congregando representantes de vinte e duas universidades da Península Ibérica, os trabalhos refletem uma multiplicidade de abordagens teóricas da educação, dando uma visão global do que nesta realidade cultural e geográfica do oeste europeu hoje se pensa sobre o assunto. É, pois, uma excelente ocasião para aprofundar estes temas e perspetivá-los sob pontos de vista inovadores e férteis. (shrink)

In a recent article in Commonweal, Carlo Lancellotti presents the unusual and prescient perspective of Italian-Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce on the social and political trends that manifested themselves across the West in the tumultuous events of 1968. In this paper I shall support Del Noce's thesis in two ways. First, I shall summarize then-Professor Joseph Ratzinger's reactions to 1968 and relate them to the conclusions of Del Noce and others Lancellotti cites. While Lancellotti does not cite (...) Ratzinger, what motivated the latter's shift away from "progressivism" toward a more conservative reception of Vatican II well illustrates Del Noce's thesis. I shall then argue at greater length than Lancellotti, whose purpose is primarily expository, that Del Noce's perspective, while needing qualification and expansion in light of what has happened since his death, is essentially correct. (shrink)

El propósito del artículo es el de determinar, en la reflexión de Augusto Del Noce, la significación que ha tenido el deno-minado personalismo en el pen-samiento filosófico en general, y en el campo de la teología cató-lica, en particular. La primera parte del escrito se ocupa del ideario del mentor del personalismo, Jules Lequier. En esta instancia, se pre-cisa no sólo que el personalismo ha sido configurado en torno a la oposición libertad-necesidad, sino que, a partir de esta dialéctica (...) opo-sitiva, el pensamiento del filósofo francés se ve obligado a constreñir la noción de libertad a una libertas minor. En un segundo momento, el trabajo establece la continuidad de la concepción personalista de Lequier, concretamente en el per-sonalismo actual de Juan Manuel Burgos. (shrink)

The Hamiltonian for n relativistic electrons without interaction but in a Coulomb potential is well known. If in this Hamiltonian we take r ′ u =r′, P ′ u =P′ with u=1,2,..., n, we obtain a one-body problem in a Coulomb field, but the appearance of n of the α u , u=1,..., n, each of which corresponds to spin $\tfrac{1}{2}$ , indicates that we may have spins up to (n/2). We analyze this last problem first by denoting the 4×4 (...) matrices α, β as direct products of 2×2 matrices which correspond to the ordinary spin, and a new concept, also related to the SU(2) group, which we call sign spin. In this new notation our problem depends on the sixteen generators of a U(4) group reduced along the chain Û(2)⊗Ŭ(2) sub-groups associated with the ordinary and sign spins. We now make a change of variables in our Hamiltonian so a term ε related to the frequency ω of an oscillator, which will be our variational parameter, appears in it, and later construct the full states of the problem with a harmonic oscillator of frequency 1 and ordinary and sign spin parts. Finally we obtain the matrix representation of our Hamiltonian with respect to the states mentioned and discuss the energy spectra of the problem where the partition {h} representing the irrep of U(4) and j the total angular momentum, take the values {h}=[1], j= $\tfrac{1}{2}$ ; {h}=[11], j=0; {h}=[2], j=0. (shrink)

Shows the relevance of Schiller’s thought for contemporary philosophy, particularly aesthetics, ethics, and politics. This book seeks to draw attention to Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) as a philosophical thinker in his own right. For too long, his philosophical contribution has been neglected in favor of his much-deserved reputation as a political playwright. The essays in this collection make two arguments. First, Schiller presents a robust philosophical program that can be favorably compared to those of his age, including Rousseau, Kant, Schelling, and (...) Hegel, and he proves to be their equal in his thinking on morality, aesthetics, and politics. Second, Schiller can also guide us in our more contemporary philosophical concerns and approaches, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and politics. Here, Schiller instructs us in our engagement with figures such as Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Jacques Rancière, Roberto Esposito, and others. (shrink)

El interés de la presente compilación es el de recoger algunas de las principales reflexiones del pensamiento político contemporáneo. Se propone como tarea central el examen y la problematización de algunos presupuestos extendidos en la tradición de la filosofía occidental. Por medio de este cuestionamiento, se busca desestabilizar asunciones que atraviesan nuestros modos habituales de concebir el sujeto, la acción y el espacio políticos, y de comprender la manera como estos son configurados por el lenguaje. Es así como una amplia (...) gama de autores encuentra un espacio común de discusión: la urgencia de plantear alternativas tanto crítica como de compresión de lo político, que permitan movilizar nuevas maneras de concebir la acción y la configuración de nuestros modos de ser en común; alternativas que incluso pueden encontrarse ya allí, a la sombra de lo político, en sus recodos escondidos, silenciados; en lugares o motivos que tal vez han pasado desapercibidos por no hacer parte de un discurso e interpretación dominantes. En particular, interesa aquí rescatar aquellas reflexiones que abordan esta tarea desde tres ejes temáticos concretos: la pregunta por la relación entre ley y violencia, la necesidad de repensar el ser en común, y, por último, el problema de cómo concebir los pasajes y discontinuidades entre la singularidad de la contingencia histórica, cultural, lingüística, y la posibilidad o promesa de lo universal. (shrink)