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The image of the European culture is given by the association of the concepts people – culture – history – territory, which provides certain local features. From this relation, we identify a cultural area with local, regional and national features beyond a certain European culture. Thus, we identify at least two cultural identity constructions on the European level: a culture of cultures, that is a cultural area with a particular, local, regional and national strong identity, or a cultural archipelago, that is a common yet disrupted cultural area. Whatever the perspective, the existence of a European cultural area cannot be denied, although one may speak of diversity or of "disrupted continuity".
The paper is a survey on the European cultural space in two aspects: 1. Europe with internal cultural border areas; 2. Europe as external cultural-identity border area. From a methodological point of view, we have to point out that despite the two-levelled approach the two conceptual constructions do not exclude each other: the concept of "culture of cultures" designs both a particular and a general identity area. The specific of the European culture is provided precisely by diversity and multiculturalism as means of expression on local, regional, or national levels. Consequently, the European cultural area is an area with a strong identity on both particular and general levels.

Le scienze, come altri campi dell'attività umana, sono spesso vittime di pregiudizi. Tradizionalmente, il discorso stereotipato di certi mass media e generatori d'opinione ha sviluppato e diffuso un'immagine banalizzata e poco realista della ricerca scientifica, contribuendo ad accrescere il divario che separa le scienze umane e sociali (come
l'antropologia) dalle scienze esatte e naturali (come le neuroscienze). Eppure, tale divario si è costruito artificialmente e poco ha a che vedere con la realtà oggettiva e con la quotidianità dei ricercatori: si ha spesso la tendenza ad associare gli scienziati sociali ai flâneurs, passeggiatori che attraversano le culture, osservando e sistematizzando -più o meno soggettivamente- strutture e logiche sociali quando invece i "veri" scienziati, quelli in camice bianco, sono tendenzialmente associati ad un immaginario asettico fatto di macchinari, tecnologia
e strumenti di precisione atti a garantire l'oggettività del loro lavoro. Una menzogna ben orchestrata, questa, che non rende merito al processo dialogico che ha permesso ad entrambi i versanti della scienza (quella "molle", delle scienze umane e sociali, e quella "dura", delle scienze esatte e naturali) di costruire quel sapere polifonico che costituisce la nostra modernità. Quest'intervento vuole dunque contribuire a mostrare come l'antropologia e le neuroscienze, andrebbero considerate come due discipline "amiche" che, sin dalle origini, si son stimolate a vicenda, dato che condividono temi e metodi di ricerca.

Presents an analysis of Fenelon's critique (Refutation du systeme du P. Malebranche [Refutation of the System of P. Malebranche]) of Malebranche's Traite de la nature et de la grace (Treatise on Nature and Grace). In the first seven chapters, Fenelon shows that Malebranche destroys divine freedom, making this world the only world possible. Similar arguments showing the contingency of the world & divine liberty are traced to their post-Cartesian origins in exchanges between G. W. Leibnitz & Arnaud, as well as to the work of St. Thomas Aquinas & H. Gouhier. It is noted that Fenelon's critique stopped short of advocating an opposing form of determinism, such as in the case of Arnaud. J. Sadler

A reflection on A. M. Ramsey's Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion (1748-49) discussing liberty as free will, & liberty & self-determination belonging to the rational subject. Ramsey argues that liberty is the eternal, immutable, & universal law in the world, which applies equally to loving God for oneself, & loving all other creatures in proportion to their resemblance to God. Tolerance & political liberty are justified by virtue of universal salvation & freedom, & the universality of grace & the free cooperation of intelligent creatures. While Ramsey's politics aligned with exiled Jacobites, he was also guided by providentialism in protecting the integrity of divine & human freedom, & in choosing a conciliatory, but skeptical, approach to English rule. His classic defense of Freemasonry drew on his position in the organization in France in the 1730s. J. Sadler