Les tacitistes utilisent l’œuvre de l’historien pour en extraire des conseils aux gouvernants. Hobbes et Spinoza se servent au contraire des récits de Tacite comme matériaux pour constituer leur théorie des affects et expliquer le rôle que jouent ceux-ci dans la politique. Dans leur structure théorique, ils donnent aux exemples une fonction confirmative et une fonction anthropologique ; Spinoza leur donne en outre une fonction anticipatrice. La fonction confirmative a également pour rôle d’empêcher la théorie politique de se transformer en (...) utopie. (shrink)

Kant scholars have rarely addressed the notion of optimism as it was interpreted by the Königsbergian philosopher in the mid-18th century. The notion originates from Leibniz’s Theodi­cy and from debates over whether the actual world is the best of all possible worlds. The first of a two-part series, this article studies the historical context in which appeared Kant’s 1759 lecture advertisement leaflet entitled An Attempt at Some Reflections on Optimism. The study describes the requirements of the 1755 Berlin Academy of (...) Sciences’ competition for a comparison of G. W. Leibniz’s and A. Pope’s systems and an assessment of optimism. Another focus is the philological difficulties of translating Pope’s proposition “Whatever is, is right” into the French language — which was part of the competition task. The author considers the ways the proposition was translated into the Russian and German languages. The article shows the contribution of Voltaire and his Poem on the Lisbon Disaster and Candide: or, Optimism to the post factum changes in the perception of the competition results and to the emergence of new shades of meaning in the concept of optimism. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 had a profound effect on Europe and on the perception of optimism and of the idea that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds. However, Kant’s epistolary legacy leads one to the conclusion that the philosopher examined the problem in the framework of a polemic on Crusian philosophy. This article presents Crusius’s arguments against the theory that this is the best of all possible worlds and in favour of the theory that there are several good worlds. God’s choice of the actual world owes therefore to the freedom of contradiction (libertas contradictionis) and to the freedom of contrariety (libertas contrarietatis), which are eliminated in the teaching of optimism. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to investigate the intertextual relationship between Spinoza and Tacitus in the Political Treatise, underlining how Spinoza uses Tacitus’ quotes against his main political enemy: Tacitism. I will show that Spinoza’s use of Tacitus is very selective and can be aptly characterized as a twofold political use: Tacitus’ quotes shape Spinoza’s political insights, but they are also used to confront Tacitism. To develop this twofold reading, after a brief introduction, I will consider Tacitus’ reception (...) in Early Modern period, describing Tacitism and its political standpoints. Then, I will analyse Spinoza’s use of Tacitus, considering his approach to three core themes: the nature of peace and sedition, the nature of the masses and the use of secrets (arcana). Finally, I will draw a comparison between the use to which Tacitus’ quotes are put by Spinoza on the one hand and by the Tacitists on the other, stressing how this comparison contributes to our understanding of their opposed political positions: democracy for Spinoza and monarchy for the Tacitists. (shrink)

Libertas philosophandi è una indagine del rapporto disciplinare tra filosofia e teologia che ruota intorno alla celebre Lettera alla granduchessa Cristina di Lorena di G. Galilei, lettera-trattato con cui lo scienziato cerca di salvare uno spazio di libertà di ricerca nel contesto della cultura controriformata. La prima parte del libro illustra criticamente le polemiche sorte a partire dalla pubblicazione del Sidereus nuncius e proseguite fino alla condanna del copernicanesimo nel 1616. La seconda è dedicata all'analisi strutturale della Lettera e (...) alla ricerca delle fonti testuali che l'hanno ispirata, identificandone talora l'edizione precisa. La terza parte sviluppa i diversi temi della Lettera, presentando alcuni elementi fin qui ignoti o ignorati, tra i quali un forte indebitamento con la tradizione del trattato aristotelico De anima (in particolare con Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Pietro Pomponazzi e Cesare Cremonini); la scoperta di un plagio da parte di Cremonini; la sensibilità politica di Galileo. Viene poi discusso il problema del cosiddetto concordismo del trattato e proposta una lettura controcorrente; si presenta una analisi iconografica che evidenzia, tra l'altro, il legame tra la Lettera a Cristina e l'Accademia dei Lincei. Ancora, si offre un documento inedito che getta luce sul ruolo del cardinale Bellarmino nella condanna del 1616. Infine una rilettura dei documenti dei due processi a Galileo mostra come una lieve, ma decisiva manipolazione della sentenza del primo processo riproponga la problematicità del secondo. La quarta parte del libro contiene il testo della Lettera accompagnato da numerose note di commento storico. (shrink)

This is a comprehensive analysis of the idea of libertas and its conflicting uses in the political struggles of the late Roman Republic. By reconstructing Roman political thinking about liberty against the background of Classical and Hellenistic thought, it excavates two distinct intellectual traditions on the means allowing for the preservation and the loss of libertas. Considering the interplay of these traditions in the political debates of the first century BC, Dr Arena offers a significant reinterpretation of the (...) political struggles of the time as well as a radical reappraisal of the role played by the idea of liberty in the practice of politics. She argues that, as a result of its uses in rhetorical debates, libertas underwent a form of conceptual change at the end of the Republic and came to legitimise a new course of politics, which led progressively to the transformation of the whole political system. (shrink)

Il concetto di "libertà" descrive uno dei valori fondamentali della società occidentale contemporanea. Tuttavia, sebbene tutti concordino circa la necessità di difendere la libertà, persone che incarnano convinzioni politiche, morali e sociali diverse interpretano la libertà in maniere differenti, se non perfino contrapposte. Nonostante queste evidenti divergenze, è opinione diffusa che questo concetto si caratterizzi alla sua base per una sorta di denominatore comune, a proposito del quale sussiste un’unanimità pervasiva e che delinea l’orizzonte di una comune battaglia. Questo studio (...) investiga questa opinione da un punto di vista cognitivo allo scopo di determinare come sia costituito e di quale informazione si componga il concetto astratto di “libertà”. La ricerca – che si rifà in parte alla teoria di G. Lakoff – identifica un nucleo cognitivo comune concreto del concetto e chiarisce come questo si contamini ideologicamente nel corso del suo sviluppo da concetto concreto a concetto astratto. Le conclusioni di questo studio evidenziano tuttavia come il nucleo universale del concetto sia eccessivamente indeterminato per costituire un denominatore comune politicamente rilevante che fornisca una base di accordo a proposito di un valore condiviso ed evidenzia alcuni limiti dell'impostazione data da Lakoff al problema, avanzando delle ipotesi per futuri sviluppi della ricerca su questi temi. (shrink)

This introduction emphasises the relevance of the theoretical feminist reflection presented by Wendy Brown in her Politics Out of History . The Italian translation of the book, which introduces Brown’s thought to the Italian public for the first time, provides the opportunity to deepen the understanding of her feminist contribution to the comprehension of the crisis of sovereignty. The book, in fact, could be investigated as a sort of link between, on the one hand, 1990s Brown’s reflection on the crisis (...) of liberal universalism, political modernity and on the gendered constructions of such concepts as State and citizenship and, on the other, her more recent analysis on the reconfiguration of power and sovereignty in the age of globalization as expressed in her 2010 Walled States, Waning Sovereignty . At the core of her reflection, a crucial role has been played by the deconstruction of the nexus freedom-power-rights that enlightens the ambiguities, the semantic ambivalences and the political-theoretical traps inherent in the linear and progressive narration of political modernity. (shrink)