Philosophers From Italy

"Fascism in Italy brought together disparate social forces from a wide range of political backgrounds (socialists, anarchists, revolutionary syndicalists, clerical Catholics, nationalists, atheist republicans, former monarchist officers), united by their discontent with the agitation of workers and peasants and the peace treaty. There was also a lack of serious programmatic elaboration because fascism originated as a street movement organised by squadrist actions and “punitive expeditions” carried out in retaliation against leagues, chambers of labour, socialist sections and newspapers. (chap. 3, p. 36)"

"The role played by the Catholic Church in Italian history and culture has generally been assessed from a highly ideological perspective. The main emphasis has been on the spiritual role played by the Church in inspiring Italian culture and art. Less attention has been paid to analysing the political and institutional role played by the Church. In particular, the role played by the “'Papal States”', the only case of temporal power in the West, has been completely overlooked. Instead, emphasis is placed on the balancing function that it is said to have played in Italy, which was in fact inspired by the Church's desire to protect itself from any attempt to unify the Italian peninsula. (chap. 1, p. 11)"

"[...] Machiavelli is the first great Italian political thinker completely and definitively freed from any cultural dependence on theology and Catholic culture: he is also the first entirely secular European political thinker, who no longer refers to the sacred scriptures, to which Hobbes and Locke will still refer. (chap. 4, p. 35)"

"Based on the observation that the economic conditions of the proletariat had improved, thanks in part to political struggles, Eduard Bernstein set out to “revise” the entire Marxist tradition. He rejected the “theory of collapse” of capitalist society due to the impossibility of overcoming crises of underconsumption. From there, Bernstein went on to deny the need for a revolutionary transition to socialism and argued for the possibility of social transformation through reforms. Reformism and the introduction of universal suffrage would deliver power to the workers. (chap. 1, pp. 10-11)"

"Italian politics left the European stage, becoming vulgarised in partisan competitions, and culture was saved only by distancing itself from politics and living in a national political vacuum."

"Controversial with populist traditionalism, Lenin argued that new social forces had to take the lead in the modernisation process by fighting for representative democracy and political freedoms. This analysis prompted the economist Lenin to devote himself to political action. And it was certainly this analysis that led to the development of his theory of socialist leadership of the democratic movement in a peasant country. (chap. 1, p. 13)"

"Frederick II's attempt was part of the European process of forming the first modern states, which culminated first in the Battle of Bouvines (1214) and then in the bitter clash between secular powers and the Church. In this conflict, which led to the conquest of full secular sovereignty by France and England, Frederick failed. He failed as emperor but also as unifier of Italy. He was, after all, Italian, the son of a Sicilian mother, heir to the Norman kingdom of the South, educated in the nascent Italian culture of which he was a promoter and also a protagonist."

"In philosophy, searching is everything: we search because we are not. It is like the moral imperative: only those who feel they must always continue to act on it actually act on it. The verb of philosophy, as in morality, is not “to be” (sein), but “to ought” (sollen)."

"The philosophical word, in its questioning, always gives voice to the Other, to silence, to death. Its task is to “speak Silence.” The Silence “of” things, “in” things, “in” names, ‘in’ the “sounds” of things [...]. In saying things, the Silence present in the sounds of things, the philosophical word rekindles wonder for the being, the wonder “that the being is.”"

"Interviewer: What is topology? Vincenzo Vitiello: It is a hermeneutic practice rather than a theory. And it is a practice linked to a very personal way of “reading”: it is impossible for me to read Aristotle with eyes other than those with which I read Hegel or Heidegger. There is a contemporaneity in philosophy—but not only in philosophy—that is at the basis of its “history.” As I like to say, by way of example: Hegel is more “contemporary” with Augustine than with Schelling, and the latter is more contemporary with Plotinus than with Hegel – ‘’ en philosophe', of course; because the two – Schelling and Hegel – exchanged friendly letters and fierce criticism between themselves and not with Plotinus and Augustine. The fact is that historical time is constructed in layers; it does not have a single dimension. What Kant considered u'‘ngereimt’', senseless, the contemporaneity of different times, is a fact of experience; ‘'ungereimt’' is only the reduction of every time to the linear succession “past-present-future” of physical-mechanical time. Moreover, it is from Kant that we learn the difference between “moral” time and “physical” time."

"The Truth is what you seek when you do not yet know what it is, but you know it exists."

"Poised between a last, desperate attempt to outline a strategy for the construction of a unified state and the dramatic awareness of the political impotence to which the Italians are reduced, Machiavelli is a great, solitary witness to the political decline of a highly intellectual civilisation. He has something of Dante in him, a passionate politician and disdainful exile, and of Luther. He is the last great voice of our realistic tradition and the first modern reformer of Italian consciousness. (chap. 4, p. 36)"

"If we want to resist the exodus from historic centers, we must give people the opportunity to live there on equal terms with those who live elsewhere. The cost of living for those who live in the center cannot be double that of those who live ten kilometers away. Today, however, living in the center is very expensive. The tax and subsidy system needs to be reviewed, both for residents and for craft and commercial activities."

"The phenomenon we are experiencing in Italy is similar to that of all the historic centers of major cities around the world, where more profitable functions than residential ones become competitive."

"In Venice, there were two million tourists a year in the 1970s; now there are thirty million. And it is an irresistible pressure, a demand that will continue to grow. A few years ago, there were no Chinese, no Russians. Now there are, in droves. It will be tough. Consumption in the city is increasing dramatically."

"The true form of atheism, which has nothing to do with either Nietzsche or Heidegger, is the view that, in a nutshell, we are merely beings in the world: we are settled, domesticated in our worldly existence."

"(About the COVID-19) I got the vaccine. You have to do it; you have to obey the law. Philosophers obey the law, even when they think it's completely insane. Socrates teaches us that."

"Nietzsche's assertion of the death of God is not at all as vulgar and atheistic as some might think."

"(About the contrast between those who are in favor of civil unions and same-sex parenting and those who are against them) [...] I would like someone to explain to me what a traditional family is. Is it that of fifth-century Athens? That of Sparta? That of Rome? [...] The patriarchal family of fifty years ago? The “wife, husband, two children” family? Is that it? Is the traditional family that of the last fifty years? [...] The family is a socio-cultural product. [...] It is therefore quite clear that its concept is changing. [...] These changes [...] should take place with a minimum of [...] cultural foundation, awareness, and conscience. Not in the spirit of “We want everything” and everything that comes to mind is a “natural right” because then two “naturalisms” are opposed: the Catholic one, which is totally absurd because everything can be Christian except a ‘naturalist’; and the other one, the so-called “natural rights,” which are a phantom [...]."

"It is worth repeating. In the name of humanity, the most brutal atrocities have been committed – first and foremost, declaring one's enemy to be a beast. And so, in the name of equality, individuality, cultures, and destinies have been massacred. It is time to silence all the “big words” – or at least prevent the loudmouths from using them. But is it really inevitable, in order to understand the meaning of “equality,” to think of a natural essence of man, that is, to strip him of all his personality, to ‘free’ him from his history? If so, “equality” would tragically conflict with freedom. But perhaps, instead, it is legitimate to understand equality as the condition that allows us to express our individual diversity, as having equal means precisely in order to be able to freely diverge. And to be able to become ‘friends’ precisely because of, and not in spite of, this free distinction. In the ‘fatal’ term fraternité I think this should be preferred to friendship. ‘Egalité thinks of friendship as, precisely, friendship between equals; and therefore speaks of brotherhood. The equality and freedom we have mentioned, on the other hand, think of friendship that can bind even the most distant stars."

"Sgalambro was a follower of Schopenhauer, he was Schopenhauer. I don't think this critical and essentially pessimistic approach did Battiato much good, as he lost some of that irreverence, that paradoxical, ironic, sometimes even completely light-hearted energy that he had in his work, such as Bandiera bianca."

"An author such as Friedrich Nietzsche has nothing to do with vulgar atheism."

"The more the metropolitan “nervous network” expands, the more it devours the surrounding territory, the more its ‘spirit’ seems to be lost; the more “powerful” it becomes, the less it seems able to order and rationalize the life that takes place there. The metropolitan intellect, its Nervenleben, undergoes a sort of “spatial crisis” – which is perfectly analogous to that undergone by the Leviathan State, the modern State in its territorially determined sovereignty. The powers that determine metropolitan growth are finding it increasingly difficult to “territorialize” themselves, to “embody” themselves in a territorial order, to give rise to forms of coexistence that are legible and observable in the territory, spatially."

"No one can look into another person's soul. If a person has truly lost all hope and life has become pure and simple suffering for them, we have a duty to believe them. Politicians and legislators must act on the basis of their own convictions, but they must also be able to draft laws that respect the inalienable freedom of the individual. Our culture has elevated freedom to the highest criterion, and a decision contrary to freedom would have no basis. First of all, it must be verified with the utmost rigor that the request [for euthanasia] does not stem from any form of pressure or necessity, that it is absolutely free."

"We will never achieve the “truth,” but the purpose of seeking its affirmation allows us to approach it, which is already beautiful in itself."

"It is a very long story, in which I found myself completely alone, with my administrations, opposing this project, which was [considered] highly critical from a technical and environmental point of view by a large number of experts."

"(About the MOSE, in Venice) Is the water high? Put on your boots!"

"(About Pontius Pilate) He was neither impartial nor democratic. And he could not understand Jesus."

"Corriere della Sera, July 5, 2007."

"What are we facing today? A mass of individuals who are anything but liquid: they are gaseous! Individuals who, with the disappearance of all forms of social, union, corporate, and political aggregation, find themselves alone. This is what is new. This is what creates the social base for the Trumps, the Le Pens, the Salvinis, and the Grillos. At the root of it all is not only the impoverishment and downgrading of the middle class: there is also mass individualization."

"Philosophy is the hermeneutics of meaning, especially as historical data, so that it becomes significance, that is, decision, through cultural comparison that goes beyond mere memorization, by virtue of evaluation (theoretical moment) and practical-political impact (practical moment). Critical comparison of practical forms, to bring meaning (the data, we might say) to the value of significance."

"I understand philosophy as the transition from sense to meaning, through cultural and doctrinal mediation, through the structure of pure thought, and through the mediation of practice."

"The theocratic ideal is based not only, as is often repeated, even by distinguished writers and by Maritain himself, on the unity of faith, but also on the medieval non-problematization (at least not experienced problematization) of faith as truth. The theocratic ideal is unfeasible today, and not only from a prudential point of view and taking into account the actual situation, as too many theologians and, behind them, too many Catholics think; but it is unfeasible for ideal and logical reasons, because the spiritual condition of the modern age is precisely the problematization of faith as truth (how truth can become my truth). The theocratic ideal is therefore not, at least in my view, the absolute ideal of Christian politics, but its specification in relation to the spiritual situation of the Middle Ages: even if the unity of faith were to be reconstituted, the theocratic ideal would no longer be feasible, because it would be a reconstruction of unity subsequent to its problematization."

"These days, I am writing an introduction to Monarchia by Dante. It is a work that contains some very interesting insights into current affairs, including what I believe to be an unsurpassable definition of “laity”."

"[...] it is within the theology of original sin that the mutual autonomy of the Empire and the Church is understood."

"The hierarchy of dignity must not be confused with the hierarchy of jurisdiction. Such confusion, far from being homage to the order established by God among things, is a violation of it: and it is this confusion that allows “cupiditas” to prevail, which in philosophy means the opposite of justice, and in theology means the will perverted by sin. Therefore, recognition of the autonomy of orders is the authentic form of respect for the order established by God, or for the sovereignty of God himself."

"The originality of Dante lies not so much in his affirmation of the autonomy of the state, but in the religious reason for which it is affirmed. This is the path to asserting the religiosity of politics and the religious meaning of secularism."

"It is a matter of [...] shifting the focus of knowledge towards what I would call an ethical emphasis: the subject is the subject of life, behaviour, moral feelings – and here the “subject” should also be understood in a passive sense, whereby the self experiences sensations, actions and feelings for which it is not itself responsible, which occur within it and belong to it but are not originated by it, to which it is subject, in fact. So perhaps “active” and “passive” are no longer opposed as we are accustomed to thinking, and the subject-passivity is that paradoxical subject that withdraws but continues to be the intrusive yet necessary tenant [...]."

"Gilson criticizes attempts to trace Dante's position back to Thomism or Averroism. For St. Thomas, every hierarchy of dignity is at the same time a hierarchy of jurisdiction, while for Dante—except for God—a hierarchy of dignity is never the foundation of a hierarchy of jurisdiction, and this corresponds to Dante's specific philosophical problem, which is not so much to define the essence of philosophy as to determine functions and jurisdictions. The principle governing this determination is absolutely irreconcilable with Thomism. St. Thomas knows only one ultimate end: eternal bliss, which can only be attained through the Church; moreover, the spirituality of the ultimate end implies that between temporal and spiritual power there is a hierarchical subordination of the means to the end. For Dante, on the other hand, man can obtain, through the exercise of political virtues, a human happiness completely distinct from heavenly bliss, even if the latter represents a higher end. The thesis of the “duo ultima” legitimizes the complete distinction between the political order and the religious order, which is equally universal to that of the Church, but autonomous and pursuing an end of earthly happiness."

"Of course, Catholics have a terrible habit: thinking about the power of modernity and ignoring how this modernity, insofar as it seeks to deny religious transcendence, is currently experiencing its greatest crisis, as recognized even by certain secular writers."

"(About the book of Simone Weil entitled The Need for Roots) Of course, one cannot expect the formal perfection of other writings, but that is simply because “it is a book,” whereas the natural expression of tragic consciousness, such as Weil's, is the aphoristic form."

"Take Calogero, for example: secularism is a method of coexistence between all possible ideologies and philosophies, which must respect, as a primary rule, the principle that no one can claim to possess the truth."

"The freedom that must be loved is [...] the freedom of others. Only on this condition is the love of freedom not a selfish aspiration, but a moral idea, indeed the sole and exclusive content of moral experience."

"Anyone who looks through the telescope and sees things differently from me is always someone who can teach me a lot, and I will read it with the attitude of a disciple who wants to understand what is not yet clear to him; if I then discuss their conclusions, I will do so with the respect and gratitude we owe to those who have paved the way for us to go further, evaluating their approach retrospectively on the basis of their arguments, not a priori by comparing their conclusions with my own. This is the attitude that my teacher Guido Calogero taught me to call ‘the will to understand’ or ‘the spirit of dialogue’."

"(About Dante Alighieri) Of course, one cannot expect the formal perfection of other writings, but that is simply because “it is a book,” whereas the natural expression of tragic consciousness, such as Weil's, is the aphoristic form."

"The country taxed itself with a new kind of tithe, and the children of Abruzzo had to feed themselves even less than before, to prevent the blond young men of Scotland and the giant blacks of South Africa from starving to death in the caves of Genzana."

"It is not that Dante intends to combat the cupiditas of the clergy in order to save the autonomy of the State; rather, “it is the struggle against cupiditas, the need to thoroughly permeate public life with religion, that leads him to distinguish between the orders.” In other words, the central point of his thinking, which leads him to overcome both Guelphism and Ghibellinism, is "the intuition of the concordance between the affirmation of the autonomy of the Empire, hitherto supported by heterodox thinkers, and that of the purification of the Church affirmed by spiritual writers," which is in line with what the best interpreter of Dante's philosophy, Étienne Gilson, defines as the singular and unique feature of his thought, irreducible to any source."

"Between being and nothingness there is no middle ground."

"If it fails in this commitment to penetrate the human, to spread socially, philosophy has missed the opportunity offered to it by the times."

"The thirst for knowledge is there, we know this from many signs: everything that can contribute to satisfying it, even if by modest means and to a modest extent, must be considered providential and cultivated with care."