This article intends to read the profound dynamics that characterise the current war in the light of certain classical philosophical categories such as the relationship established by Hegel between substance and subject, the difference between the concept of substance and the concept of function as it was discussed by Cassirer, and finally the binomial power over life and right of death reread by Foucault in a biopolitical key. In the light of these polarities, it is in fact possible to identify (...) two opposing worldviews – on which depend two completely different ways of understanding the function of the state, the weight to be ascribed to rights, and even two different ways of conceiving and conducting war – that do not necessarily coincide with the two opposing sides in the field. (shrink)

El artículo versa sobre el concepto de símbolo en el pensamiento de Giambattista Vico. El símbolo en Vico no se encuentra indagando una presunta “naturaleza de las cosas” detrás de la mente, ni puede ser entendido como un producto que surge en la mente humana como si esta última existiese ya en su pureza prescindiendo de la dinámica simbólica. Más bien, el símbolo hace a la mente y la mente hace al símbolo: la mente se desvela en Vico como facultad (...) originariamente simbólica, capaz de conectar, de unir los muchos, contando fábulas, como se muestra en el caso de Homero. Desde este punto de vista, se puede instaurar un paralelismo entre la dinámica del símbolo en Vico y la determinación de extensión que caracteriza la noción de símbolo en Warburg. (shrink)

The present essay focuses on De Sanctis’ Lectures on Dante, held during his exile in Turin and Zürich, in order to show how aesthetics, politics and religion converge in his works. De Sanctis reads Dante’s journey throughout Hell, Purgatory and Paradise both as a diary and a drama, which reintroduces action, passions and a multitude of feelings in the peace and stillness that rule the kingdom of God after the final Judgment. De Sanctis tries to illustrate how Dante unifies body (...) and concept, moving from allegories and personifications towards figures and real people, such as Beatrice, Francesca, Vanni Fucci and Ugolino. Dante’s conception of the relationship between history and eternity plays a leading role in De Sanctis’ reworking of Hegel’s Aesthetics. (shrink)

The present essay aims to show the relationship between the Hegelian concept of the End of art and some currents in nineteenth century art, particularly referring to painting moving away from mere imitation and thus becoming a recreation of the object. Kandinskij’s, Mondrian’s and Klee’s writings, as well as their works, confirm Hegel’s conceiving of art as a sublation of immediate nature - a tendency that has its origins already in Plato’s dialogues. In Hegel’s Aesthetics lectures music is the main (...) model in which all figurative arts are assimilated and transcended. This dissolution of forms appears in the political sphere and in the scientific fields as a peculiar character of modern age. (shrink)

According to Vico «metaphor makes up the great body of the language». This sentence has to be read and discussed in connection with Vico’s definition of metaphor as «a fable in brief». Within the relation between these two sentences we have the possibility to conceive the importance of metaphor as a bridge between the “wholly corporal imagination” of the body and the very begin of our mind. By “bringing forth of forms from matter” metaphor enables the gesture of reflection, which (...) is the epitome of mind in his effort to reflect and to understand the world. (shrink)

This article aims to show the development of Wittgenstein’s conception of language from a pictorial model to a musical model. At first language is considered as a “means of representation” but in the second phase of Wittgenstein’s work the problem of understanding a proposition and the different shades of meaning supports an analogy with the musical dimension. In this perspective, Wittgenstein approaches the idea of language-game.