'Conventional' models of how the field of international political economy should engage with ethics have proposed or assumed the normative primacy of ethical principles and often sought to add reliable empirical economic analysis so that political perspectives on economic systems, institutions and practices can result. James Brassett and Christopher Holmes (2010) have criticized such approaches for overlooking the potentially violent character of ethics as a constitu- tive discourse like any other. The present article defends the conventional method against Brassett and Holmes's critique. Focusing especially on Thomas Pogge's ethics of world poverty as Brassett and Holmes's main conventionalist target, the article argues that: (i) Brassett and Holme s's understanding of 'ethics' is seriously inadequate; (ii) Pogge's 'negative duty not to harm' principle should be maintained against Brassett and Holmes's troublingly 'political' account and facile relativist critique of Pogge's ethics; (iii) Brassett and Holmes, while conceivably critical of Pogge's global level reformist solution as superficially 'neo liberal', cannot see that their own arguably valuable proposal of radical local forms of 'resistance' can coherently complete Pogge's poverty ethics and thus confirms, rather than undermines, the conventional method. Ultimately, Brassett and Holmes's post structural attempt risks being 'violent' itself for implying a renewed international moral skepticism.
The convergences of Giacomo Leopardi, Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff in reading the Iliad are impressive. This holds not only as regards the meaning and value of the poem but also concerning the almost equal interpretation of fundamental passages and the use of expressions that sometimes coincide literally. These convergences open up to a both original and originary ethical dimension, a dimension that allows us to think about ourselves in a condition of radical equality. We are thus dealing with an ethics that precedes morality, law, politics and cultures, an ethics originating from the recognition of the condition of dependence: yesterday from the fatum, today from our biological constitution and the complex of social relations. Such an ethics reaches its goal in the compassion as well as in the awareness that the liberation process must take on this ethical perspective. Keywords: Homer, Ethics, Cosmos, Fatum, Violence
Napoli, quale luogo nodale dello sviluppo e delle relazioni umane dovrà scegliere fra il privilegiare beni relazionali: amicizia, scambi culturali, possibilità di moto, sport, presenza del verde, ecc. o beni che affermano "rendite di posizione" : dimensione e qualità delle abitazioni, possesso di beni mobili, auto ecc. per tendere ad un modello che nelle società avanzate vede in contrasto l'aumento del reddito con l'acquisizione del benessere . Conservazione e rigenerazione della fabbrica della città dipendono dagli orientamenti culturali che i cittadini hanno maturato a partire dai grandi ideali sociali di giustizia, libertà e partecipazione democratica; i termini sono altresì collegati alle scelte tra libero mercato ed "economia civile" quale prassi che dovrebbe mirare al benessere collettivo riservando al linguaggio etico uno spazio di rinnovato protagonismo. ; Naples as a centre of development and human relations must choose amongst the relational goods: friendship, cultural exchange, mobility, sports, green spaces etc. or goods which reflect "acquired positions": the size and quality of the houses, monetary wealth, automobiles etc. to go towards a model in modern society where the increase in income is in contrast with the increase in well-being. Conservation and regeneration of the fabric of the city depend on the cultural orientation which its citizens have attained coming from the great ideals of social justice, liberty and democratic participation; these terms are also related to the choice between free market and "civil economy" which should aim at the common well-being, reserving for ethics the place of a renewed protagonist role.
A origem judaica do crítico contemporâneo Francisco Fortini (em sua origem Franco Lattes), posteriormente renegada, justifica, talvez em parte, suas posições politicamente engajadas, de caráter fortemente polêmico. ; nulo ; The Jewish roots of the contemporary critic Franco Lattes, alias Franco Fortini, subsequently denied, perhaps justified his political engajement, extremely polemical.
Il lavoro si propone di affrontare un problema urgente e non rimandabile: la condizione di emergenza ambientale del pianeta terra. Il fenomeno viene ricostruito storicamente, focalizzando l'attenzione sugli aspetti filosoficamente rilevanti – come, per esempio, il rapporto tra scienza e tecnica – e dimostrando la necessità di un cambiamento di rotta, soprattutto in riferimento al fenomeno del surriscaldamento climatico. A questo riguardo viene passata in rassegna una tassonomia delle etiche ambientali, dividendole tra antropocentriche e anti-antropocentriche e considerando la rilevante eccezione a questo schema rappresentata da Hans Jonas. Vengono sottolineati i problemi che incontra l'etica nell'affrontare un compito complesso, globale, a responsabilità diffusa e per il quale è difficile individuare basi motivazionali come quello della difesa dell'ambiente. Per compensare queste mancanze viene preso in analisi il concetto di beni comuni, sulla scia della sua diffusione avvenuta negli ultimi anni. Questo è analizzato nel suo sviluppo a livello di storia delle idee. Sono presi in considerazione in modo critico i contributi di Garret Hardin, di Elinor Ostrom e dei diversi rappresentati dei fronti italiani, divisi in tre approcci: quello dei benecomunisti, quello giuridico e quello dell'etica della cura. Inoltre tale concetto viene posto in relazione dialogica con quelli di bene comune, democrazia e diritti e viene proposta una tassonomia dei suoi usi che si divide in quattro modalità: economica, giuridica, etica e sociale. Infine, viene valutato in modo critico l'effettivo contributo dei diversi fronti dei beni comuni e di un loro possibile approccio integrato possono fornire a livello etico e normativo per contribuire ala difesa dell'ambiente. L'attenzione viene posta anche sul rapporto tra crisi e opportunità e sull'etica animale. In conclusione, l'approccio dei beni comuni sembra essere insufficiente perché manca di una prospettiva globale per affrontare un problema che invece la richiede come quello ambientale. Vengono, quindi, proposte alcune possibili integrazioni. ; This work wants to face an urgent and not postponable issue: the environmental emergency on Planet Earth. The topic is explored from an historical point of view, focusing on some philosophically considerable issues – as, for example, the connection between science and technology – and showing how a change of human behaviour is needed, especially regarding global warming. A taxonomy of the environmental ethics is described, dividing them in anthropocentric and anti-anthropocentric and considering the exception of Hans Jonas. Ethic has problems to face such a complex, global, and with widespread responsibility task which does not offer a sound ground for motivation as environmental protection. In order to exceed these limits, the attention is focused on the notion of common goods, which has encountered a large use over the last few years. This topic is firstly described under the perspective of the history of ideas. Then some proposals are critically examined as the one of Garret Hardin, Elinor Ostrom and some among the different line-ups of the Italian debate as the "benecomunisti", the juridical and the ethic of care approach. Moreover the notion of commons is related in a dialogic way to other concepts such as common good, democracy and rights and a taxonomy of its uses is proposed diving them into: economical, juridical, ethical and social uses. Finally the different proposals of the commons and the one of their integrated approach are critically analysed regarding the help they can offer from an ethical and normative point of view to the task of environmental protection. Also the crisis/opportunity dialectic and topics from animal ethics are described. In conclusion, the common goods approach is considered not sufficient to face a global issue as environmental emergency because of its lack of a global perspective. Therefore some possible integrations are offered.
The aim of this paper is to analyse and comment on the meaning of Portugal in three novels of the Italian writer: Requiem: Un'allucinazione, Sostiene Pereira, and La testa perduta di Damesceno Monteiro. The author of the paper demonstrates how Tabucchi uses the image of Portugal to discuss the ethical dimension of three issues: language, the individual vs. the state, and literature vs. law. ; The aim of this paper is to analyse and comment on the meaning of Portugal in three novels of the Italian writer: Requiem: Un'allucinazione, Sostiene Pereira, and La testa perduta di Damesceno Monteiro. The author of the paper demonstrates how Tabucchi uses the image of Portugal to discuss the ethical dimension of three issues: language, the individual vs. the state, and literature vs. law.
This paper aims at demonstrating that the explication of the existential ethics of capabilities is necessary in order to enhance the quality life of people living in contemporary contexts. In fact, the latter have been characterized by the failure of market economy, thus requiring new economic policies that are not only efficient, but also efficacious. Social and economic development is possible only as the result of insights into human nature and knowledge—the latter, meant as the result of experience and education.This point of view takes also in account the factors involved into the convertibility of resources in different contexts. ; In questo saggio si vuole dimostrare che esplicitare la logica esistenziale dell'etica delle capacità è fondamentale per riuscire a migliorare la qualità della vita delle persone nei contesti attuali, caratterizzati da fallimento di mercato e soprattutto per delineare interventi di politica economica efficaci e non solo efficienti. Lo sviluppo economico e sociale è realizzabile, infatti, solo conoscendo la natura umana, il valore della conoscenza acquisita con l'esperienza e con l'educazione, tenendo conto dei fattori di convertibilità delle risorse dei diversi contesti.
Among the aristotelian works which have been passed on to posterity there isn't one specifically dedicated to the description of the man of politics : little can be said of the lost dialogue Politikós. In this choice Aristotle is very evidently in contrast with Plato who, in his political and philosophical theory, considered of great importance the doctrine of the man of politics. This research sets out to indicate a solution to this problem by analysing the Protrepticus and the passages of the two Ethics which refer to the man of politics and to the legislator. The analysis demonstrates that Aristotle, already in his early dialogue, favours the legislative function over the political function :this preference for the role of the nomothétês can be explained with reference to the importance Aristotle gives to law with a view to the education to virtue. However, the absence of a clear collocation of the man of politics in the more general field of political science leaves open the question of the addressee of the "architectural politics": this problem can only be solved by drawing on implicit references. The discussion on phrónêsis offers some explanation , even if in a doxographical form, of how Aristotle conceived the different levels of the political activity and the corresponding different types of politicians. Nonetheless these passages are always asides to the more general discussion on virtue.
In this paper I discuss Davide Sparti's book Wittgenstein politico and I examine the possibility to read Wittgenstein's later works from an ethical and political point of view. I defend the following thesis: we can understand the political interest of Wittgenstein's philosophy only if we analyse its ethical value. I pay attention especially to the main themes presented in Sparti's book, and I sketch an analysis of the relationship between Philosophische Untersuchungen's ethical meaning and the ethical meaning of the whole wittgensteinian approach to philosophy. Moreover, I argue against the tendency currently shown by philosophy of politics to judge Wittgenstein's thought a conservative one.
This paper focuses on the thoughts about the body in Judith Butler's works. It observes how the core theme of corporeality, when merged with Hegelian idealism, can become the driving force of ethics that originate from bodies, cross-domain and active. We will start our analysis from gender-related problems – that is, from a corporeality affected by sexual differentiation; then we extend the range of analysis to political minorities. This drifting from a properly feminist thinking to a political reflection with much wider resonance, has led to a reinterpretation of the scene of acknowledgement in a post-Hegelian view: it becomes purely ek-static, the mark of a process by which the I, immersed naturally in a social consortium, is continually deprived of itself. More so, the ek-static structure becomes a pervasive model, endemic even to the corporeal dimension: in Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly bodies emerge as entities marked by a constitutional vulnerability and, in our opinion, this is nothing but the exstatic datum of the self, moved to the corporeal dimension of existence. ; L'intervento s'incentra sulla corporeità nella riflessione di Judith Butler. Si osserva come tale nucleo tematico possa profilarsi, intersecato con la matrice idealistica hegeliana, divenga il motore propulsivo di un'etica che si dirami dai corpi, trasversale e militante. Dallo svisceramento dei nuclei problematici sul genere - su un corpo attraversata dalla differenziazione sessuale -, si giungerà a estendere il campo d'analisi al versante delle minoranze politiche. Questo slittamento graduale da un pensiero propriamente femminista a una riflessione politica con uno spettro d'incidenza più ampio, comporta una rilettura in chiave post-hegeliana della scena del riconoscimento: quest'ultimo diviene peculiarmente ek-statico, il contrassegno di un processo per cui l'io, immesso naturalmente nel consorzio sociale, è continuamente spossessato da se stesso: la struttura ek-statica risulta infine un modello pervasivo, endemico persino rispetto alla dimensione corporea. I corpi emergono, ne L'alleanza dei corpi, come enti segnati da una vulnerabilità costitutiva e quest'ultima, per chi scrive, non è altro che il dato ek-statico del sé traslato alla dimensione corporea dell'esistenza.
Among the main topics discussed by Sarpi scholarship, the question of the Servite's religious attitude is undoubtedly the most popular. No other topic attracted more interest and produced such deep disagreement, especially since the rediscovering of his manuscript Pensieri (whose first trustable edition dates only to 1996). In this essay, I will analyse the most important interpretations of Sarpi's attitude towards religion and theology that have emerged so far. This analysis will open the way for a more direct examination of some of Sarpi's texts that have been used to support the different readings of his thoughts. Finally, I will propose some considerations regarding the possibility to include Sarpi in the history of early modern atheism. ; ABSTRACT Among the main topics discussed by Sarpi scholarship, the question of the Servite's religious attitude is undoubtedly the most popular. No other topic attracted more interest and produced such deep disagreement, especially since the rediscovering of his manuscript Pensieri (whose first trustable edition dates only to 1996). In this essay, I will analyse the most important interpretations of Sarpi's attitude towards religion and theology that have emerged so far. This analysis will open the way for a more direct examination of some of Sarpi's texts that have been used to support the different readings of his thoughts. Finally, I will propose some considerations regarding the possibility to include Sarpi in the history of early modern atheism.
In his reflections on the problems raised by the Christian ethics, Troeltsch's starting point has always been a general theory of ethics, which should have been structured of a theoretical and of a practical part. In this sense he can be seen as a representative of the development of the modern moral thought; in particular his intention was to develop Herrman's idea of integrating Kant's subjective ethics with Schleiermacher's objective ethics. This Grundkonzeption of Troeltsch's is extremely evident when analysing his courses of lessons held at WS in 1905/06 and in 1911/12, where he indicates the concepts of moral duty or moral law, of evil (or of what is against morality), of a system of moral aims or of objective or cultural values, as the "fundamental concepts" of ethics. As for the Christian ethics, if the fact that morality and religiosity are tightly intertwined implies that "all the moral commandments of reason, which aim at the conquest of personality, are presented as emanations of God's divine will", then "theonomy speaks in autonomy's name", and the respect of the moral law is immediately recognised as a "divine obligation". From this point of view the Christian ethics intersects the law of nature, and its story can be identified with that of the Christian natural law, interpreted and practiced from time to time "either in a more conservative, either in a more radical or democratic form".
The organisation of a conference on "Virginia Carini Dainotti and library politics post world war II" has acted as a stimulus to re-exam a period of recent history of the library profession often noted in a rather summary way. The viewpoint taken by myself is that of professional ethics, a sort of mirror in which we find clearly reflected the key problems that librarians and Italian libraries tried to face at that time - particularly in the Sixties - and that are still relevant today.Virginia Carini Dainotti entered, via her writings, into the debate on the big themes of democracy and freedom, and in particular the right to information, choosing the best minds of the left, from Norberto Bobbio to Lelio Basso, as her debating opposites and targets. Another theme that reoccurs in the writings of Carini Dainotti and in the professional literature of those years is that of the librarian as educator.In her theoretical skirmishes Virginia Carini Dainotti remembered that in practice the librarian will always, inevitably be measured by three adversaries, the authority on which he depends, the community in which he works and its own temptations. According to Virginia Carini Dainotti the only point of reference could be professional standards, in particular where they define the criteria for materials selection, what is acceptable and what is not, and set the limits of the librarian's independence in respect to the political authority.In one of her essays she also published a draft proposal for an articulated code of ethics, inspired essentially by the declaration of principles of the American Library Association (Library bill of rights), even if she presented it as a simple suggestion to the Italian Library Association (AIB).Carini Dainotti was uncompromisingly faithful to these ideas, at least from when, at the start of the Fifties, she concentrated her activities on the problems of the public library and the creation of a nation-wide network of librarian services, that later became the National Reading Service (Servizio nazionale di lettura).These themes were brought up very often by Carini Dainotti at the AIB congresses and at government conferences but in reality remained dead issues: only in 1994, more than twenty years later, the question was taken up by the Association and only in October 1997, at the Congress in Naples, the first Librarian's code of ethics was carried with unanimous approval.As for the theory, Carini Dainotti collected documentation, mainly but not exclusively from the United States, and also reflections on problems such as how to reconcile the freedom of the reader with the selection of books entrusted to the librarian. Emphasis was placed on the refuse of labelling pratices - a problem we have today as well if one considers the debate on rating Internet resources.One of the many merits of the works of Virginia Carini Dainotti is definitely the fact that she tried with all her might to introduce into Italy not only the concept but also the actual expression public library, to denote a library designed to meet the information needs of all members of the community and not, as was usual in Italy, a learned library formally open to all adults. She often argued against the division of libraries and librarians by the governing administrations rather than by the functions of the institutions.The last point of reference to emphasize is the decidedly supranational dimension of the profession. If sometimes the abrupt Americanism of Virginia Carini Dainotti, for example in the debate at the AIB congresses on the question of cataloguing, may seem irritating, one need only remember and acknowledge that on the relevant issues mentioned here there existed at an international level and in more advanced countries a body of practical accomplishment and an acquisition of principles that in our country barely existed.Her interventions constant calls for Italy to remain attached to Unesco and IFLA statements, and therefore to the need to respect and spread in our country the international principles of library policy and library organisation.However, a break in Italian librarianship in the course of the Sixties lead to a certain isolation from the international professional community, after all the efforts made above all in the years immediately preceding and that are generally associated to the name of Renato Pagetti, president of the Italian Library Association.The accounts of the discussions of these themes, often very lively, that cover the second half of the Sixties and the early Seventies are often despairingly provincial and inaccurate. Another characteristic is the lack of a sense of the quantitative dimensions of the problem of public libraries and more generally the lack of a scientific attitude to facts, as regards both planning and evaluation.In the Seventies there was a strong generational and ideological break between Italian librarians. However, the real turning point in the life of the Italian Library Association is to be seen in 1969, with the election of Renato Pagetti. On the other hand, in the actual development of public libraries in the Seventies, due to a political and social push that also involved the local administrations and a new generation of librarians, it is difficult to see original professional contributions. The weak attempts to elaborate a new conception of the public library or new models of service seemed to dry up in a rather vacuous ideological debate on one side and in traditional practices on the other.
