Giulio Giorello

"Dylan teaches us that philosophical work is essentially work on our incompleteness, on our finitude, on the fact that we are conditioned by a whole host of things."

"(About the death of Margherita Hack) She was a great researcher, a great fighter for the secular concept of freedom of research, and a great woman. Margherita was not afraid to be an atheist in the name of scientific freedom. :*‘’2013/06/29/morta-margherita-hack-trieste-astrofisica-aveva-91-anni/641222/ Margherita Hack dies at 91: astrophysicist between research and civil rights‘’, ‘'Il Fatto Quotidiano’', June 29, 2013."

"The libertine is constantly seeking new intellectual experiences. And so, in this sense, lust is the passion for knowledge, for moving forward, for never stopping, for never being satisfied with a point of view that has been reached."

"The core of Catholic interventionism is not, in principle, too different from so-called Islamic fundamentalism (although I personally dislike this term). In both cases, our response must be the same: ‘'They shall not pass!’'"

"Recently, I saw a photograph of Queen Elizabeth and the Pope meeting. They were the image of two remnants. The monarchy within the church and the monarchy within the state."

"Darwin's ‘'Autobiography’' is not only a valuable testimony to the genesis of a concept and the personality of the man who produced it, but also a civic lesson in freedom."

"Geymonat believes that scientific progress can be summed up in the slogan: “challenge and create”: the best service we can render it is therefore to challenge it."

"Yes, we have a soul. But it is made up of many small robots."

"For centuries, even millennia, we have been dragging along the dualism of mind and body, of soul and flesh. Even before the findings of biology and neurophysiology, this dualism was dismantled by two great figures of modern philosophy: the rationalist Baruch Spinoza and the empiricist David Hume. Starting from very different premises, the two converge in telling us that our ego, which claims to be immortal, is nothing more than a mode of nature."

"All evidence of the existence of God implies a kind of submission."

"I fully identify with the anti-idolatrous component of Christianity."

"Every culture has a need for the divine, more like a need for love."

"Scientists are wrong when, faced with a part of reality that does not correspond to their theory, they try to erase reality instead of modifying the theory."

"The best thing is to discuss with confident, passionate people. And in this, Giussani was a true master."

"Against this fundamentalism, I believe we must return to the Enlightenment. [...] I particularly like what is called radical Enlightenment, that of Spinoza for example, that of Diderot, that of the Marquis de Sade. [...] How much violence... yes, he theorizes it, describes it in his novels, while some guardians of morality, such as various pedophile priests and those who have covered up for them and continue to do so, actually commit it."

"The foundation of ethics is the practice of ethics; there is no need to base it on anything else."

"Fundamentalism arises, precisely with this word, in the context of Christianity, particularly Protestant Christianity, especially American. [...] There is also Catholic fundamentalism."

"I believe that we can make sense of the world without necessarily bringing God into it."

"Any human behavior, even the most horrible in the light of certain values, is natural because it is permitted by the laws of nature."

"Methodological atheism is precisely a way of living as if God did not exist, or regardless of God, or regardless of those who claim to impose their values in the name of God."

"Too often we forget that the opposite of relativism is absolutism. (p. 15)"

"Once upon a time, the heavens were populated by Deities whom we now consider to be more or less naive human projections. But for centuries, indeed for millennia, they appeared more powerful than men, if not their very creators. There is a Latin word that aptly describes this superiority: ‘'superstitio’'. (p. 18)"

"It seems clear that the current debate on the alleged dictatorship of relativism is a philosophical debate on the meaning and scope of science, critical reflection, political tolerance, and moral choice. (p. 20)"

"Fallibility is not a theory, but an attitude, a way of life, a philosophical option that Peirce did not see as dominating the practice of research, but rather as lurking in the folds of science. Absolute knowledge, that is, knowledge free from the constraints of criticism, would, in his view, have precluded any renewal of inquiry. (pp. 28-29)"

"Criticism is not only corrosive—if it dissolves old bonds, it is because it creates new solidarity. (p. 73)"