The question concerning the meaning of the figures of the second stage of the Phenomenology of Spirit - desire, the master/slave relation, and universal self-consciousness - opens up a vast territory of possible interpretations. These few pages have indeed a density and a richness which is rare in philosophy. One could say that this section alone of the Phenomenology contains more matter for thought than the complete works of many philosophers. Hegel synopsizes this well known section with one paragraph.

Possenti's volume collects his most recent essays on metaphysical and ethical topics. In the first part Possenti deals particularly with Heidegger. The second part, dealing with ethics and ethical questions, contains a polemical piece against critical rationalism. The last essay of the section, "Universality of Human Rights", is exceptionally noteworthy for its concise clarity, and we shall deal with it in this short review.

This book is about Buttiglione's teacher and friend, Augusto Del Noce, an Italian philosopher who died in 1989. It would be hard to describe the relevance of Del Noce's thought to twentieth-century Italian cultural and philosophical history, both because of the complexity of Del Noce's thought and because of the limited space of this review. Therefore I will outline three components of the thought of Del Noce as presented by Buttiglione in this book: Christianity and modernity, the criticism of the (...) idea of one modernity, Marxism, and "Western irreligion.". (shrink)

"Marxism is far too important to be left to Marxists". One can continue by saying that Gramsci's place in the history of Marxism is far too important to leave his thought for communist parties in the West to make use of. So Finocchiaro's book treats Gramsci's thought outside the "tradition" that has used and still uses Gramsci's thought as a good tactic in the Western world, an exceptional tool to gain power democratically. And if the power of a tool must (...) be measured by the results of its application, then his thought is, without a doubt, the best tool to attain "hegemony" in a liberal democracy. (shrink)

In the attempt of post-Hegelian philosophies to substitute ethics with politics, failure is most evident in Marxism, the most powerful, politically speaking, post-Hegelian philosophy. This failure points out the need to rethink ethics. In La Crisi della Morale Buttiglione does not claim to satisfy this need, but this is for him the horizon to deal with a specific moral question: sexual ethics. The focus of this book is Humanae Vitae and the teaching of Karol Wojtyla, as Pope John Paul II. (...) This collection of essays is particularly interesting for Catholic philosophers, and for whomever is interested in a rational discussion and justification of Catholic "opinions" on sexuality, marriage, contraception. Moral norms are rational norms for Catholicism, and even if the adherence to these norms may be external to a rational-philosophical process, as is normally the case, their content is rational. In this review I will not be able to summarize the entire book essay by essay, but will try to give a taste of some of the major points, as an invitation, for those who read Italian, to read this book directly. (shrink)

Francesco Botturi, professor of the philosophy of history at The Catholic University of Milan, is the author of several essays on Vico; in this book he takes a larger look at Vico's entire work through the guiding thread of the concept of wisdom. The idea of wisdom is the "foundation of Vico's practical philosophy", a kind of wisdom whose locus is between poetic wisdom and reflected wisdom, between imagination and concept. From a genetic point of view, poetic wisdom upholds a (...) primacy, but philosophical wisdom retains the structural primacy. According to Botturi, Vico, who wants to maintain the unity of these forms of wisdom, tries to keep them together by placing them in temporal succession. Both forms of wisdom are "complementary and irreducible paths of Vico's metaphysical transcendentality", and both constitute wisdom synchronically. Botturi articulates Vico's thought in four chapters on the concept of wisdom: chapter 1, "The Ideal of Wisdom and Epistemology of the True"; chapter 2, "Poietic Wisdom"; chapter 3, "Wisdom as Justice"; and chapter 4, "Communication of Wisdom.". (shrink)

This is the latest book of Vittorio Possenti, professor of history of moral philosophy at the University of Venice and one of the major experts on the thought of Jacques Maritain. Possenti deals here with the situation of liberal Western societies from the point of view of classical political philosophy, understood as the tradition of political thought originating in Aristotle and adopted by Aquinas and modern Thomists such as Jacques Maritain.