Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2012-12-01DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5161
Marc Hersant
{"title":"Il Dictionnaire philosophique: opera a pieno titolo o un «guazzabuglio in prosa»?","authors":"Marc Hersant","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5161","url":null,"abstract":"From a philological point of view, a Dictionnaire philosophique never existed as such in Voltaire’s mind: it is but a posthumous ‘work’ created by the editors of his complete works (published at Kehl in 1784) who collected all the editions of the alphabetical works of Voltaire, and other short texts published elsewhere or unpublished at all. In this paper, the author shows how the question whether the Dictionnaire is a ‘rhapsody’ of various texts or a well-structured and coherent unity is anachronistic and distorting in so far as the concept of ‘literary work’ has profoundly changed since the Eighteenth century. He defends the legitimacy of the Kehl’s edition (and of the Nineteenth century editions by Beuchot and Moland that conformed with it) against the criticism of modern philologists. What is more, he justifies it not only historically, but also as a way of reading Voltaire’s polemical prose that still enables us to appreciate the richness and complexity of his thought.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81982015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2012-12-01DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5156
Lorenzo Passarini
{"title":"Naturalismo e visione della società in Giulio Cesare Vanini","authors":"Lorenzo Passarini","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5156","url":null,"abstract":"The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the philosophy of nature of G.C. Vanini from a social and anthropological point of view. In this way, recognizing the authentic nature of human being is the first step to building an equitable society, because no one is ethically free without an anthropological self-understanding of his own nature. In conclusion, we’ve thematized the enlightened function of philosophy as a critical tool finalized to overcome each kind of theological imposture.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82790895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2012-12-01DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5158
A. Lupoli
{"title":"On Hobbes’s distinction of accidents","authors":"A. Lupoli","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5158","url":null,"abstract":"An interpolation introduced by K. Schuhmann in his critical edition of De corpore (chap. VI, § 13) diametrically overturns the meaning of Hobbes’s doctrine of distinction of accidents in comparison with all previous editions. The article focuses on the complexity of this crucial juncture in De corpore argument on which depends the interpretation of Hobbes’s whole conception of science. It discusses the reasons pro and contra Schuhmann’s interpolation and concludes against it, because it is not compatible with the rationale underlying the complex architecture of De corpore, which involves a symmetry between the ‘logical’ distinction of accidents and the ‘metaphysical’ distinction of phantasms.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78947881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Alle radici della parola cultura","authors":"M. Angelini","doi":"10.1400/203350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/203350","url":null,"abstract":"The article examines the concept of culture and his roots: kwel, colere, colturus, coltus, cult (religious practice). Culture is generated and oriented by the cult","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73945299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tagliare a pezzi : Cesare Borgia tra rimandi biblicie fonte senofontea in Machiavelli","authors":"G. Scichilone","doi":"10.1400/203336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/203336","url":null,"abstract":"Only in three parts of Machiavelli’s writings occurs a stark expression: «tagliare a pezzi». Two of them are in The Prince, the third one in Discorsi. Two of them concern ancient examples (Hiero and Clearchus), the other one a modern experience, the famous and violent episode in which Cesare Borgia executes his lieutenant Rimirro, a capital punishment that Machiavelli watched in Cesena. The essay tries to show how all of Machiavelli’s examples deal in a subtle way with a topical Machiavelli’s view – civil principality. From this discussion, a survey (or journey) between Machiavelli’s text and historical context begins, where some other striking questions are approached, such as the absence of Cesare Borgia in Discorsi (so sensational as neglected), the relationship between Machiavelli and Michelangelo linked by a ‘republican’ David, or the figure of pope Leo X, that would be, according to this essay, that «certain prince of present times, whom it is best not to name», and not, according to the common opinion, Ferdinand the Catholic.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90595921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Itinerari libertini tra Parigi e Vienna : l'abate Lenglet du Fresnoy dalla storia erudita all'ermetismo","authors":"D. Arecco","doi":"10.1400/203340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/203340","url":null,"abstract":"Between XVII and XVIII centuries, along Europe, the libertine culture assimilates new natural philosophy’s laical and rational achievements . Indeed, on one side it delves into the ancient Pyrrhonism’s points; in the same time and on the other side it considers the Hermeticism’s Renaissance legacy. This is an erudite and daring operation, which is against the tide and disparaging of ecclesiastical bans. Prime movers were key people as John Toland and Anglo-Dutch free-thinkers, Eugene Prince of Savoy and his intendant Baron Hohendorf, Pietro Giannone and – in Paris – abbot Lenglet du Fresnoy. The abbot, prolific writer and reader, easily moves from his first period studies about French history – in keeping with the European erudition over Deism and radical Enlightenment – to the rescue of magical – hermetical tradition in his last years. His own extensive literary work, known but never fully analyzed, is important and valuable.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76565262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2012-12-01DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5159
L. Dileo
{"title":"Montesquieu e la décadence. Alcune annotazioni intorno ai Romains","authors":"L. Dileo","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5159","url":null,"abstract":"Here I examine the issue of decadence in Montesquieu’s political philosophy, as it raises especially from Considerations sur les Romains, as well as from some significant parts of L’Esprit des lois devoted to ancient Romans. The Roman case is important as it may offer an account of the author’s view of philosophy of history and of his conception of “general causes” that determine the progress, the preservation or the decline of societies and political institutions. It is also important as it involves Montesquieu’s theory of “good government”, that is both the ethical principles which the life of nations and institutions should be founded on, and the political argument of “mixed government”, a government in which political liberty is granted by a system of balance of powers that ensures the participation of each social and political force. The ancient Roman republic is an example of this kind of political system, and Roman imperialism was one of the main causes of its corruption. Even if the fate of the Roman empire cannot be easily explained – due to the role played by a complexity of different causes – following Montesquieu, we might say that its history especially tells us something extremely important about the necessity (and difficulty) of equity in governing and, consequently, about the infinite dialectic of liberty and oppression.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90148799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Officium erat imperare, non regnum: riflessioni su Seneca politico","authors":"C. Torre","doi":"10.1400/203334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/203334","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a path through the vast realm of Senecan Politics, from a theoretical and not historical or biographical approach. Starting from an overview of main methodological issues as well as the critical debates, several topics linking Senecan political thought to both Stoic doctrine and the core of Senecan ethics (law, cosmopolitism, theory of action and rules, theory of kingship, budding utopian thinking) have been selected and herein discussed. In so doing, we attempt to define a “space of Politics” considered as a science. Lastly, we take a glance at the Aesthetics of power with special interest in the relationship between tragedies and philosophical works.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85526792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2012-12-01DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5163
Giovanni Galli
{"title":"La persistenza di Montesquieu: interpretazioni e letture novecentesche","authors":"Giovanni Galli","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5163","url":null,"abstract":"Montesquieu is widely known as one of the most important and influential authors of the French Enlightenment. The anthology of collected essays reviewed below, Lo spirito della politica. Letture di Montesquieu, edited by Domenico Felice, finds its name from one of the Montesquieu’s books entitled, De l’esprit des lois, written in 1748. Many authors from the twentieth century have studied different issues about Montesquieu’s opus maius. Some of the main arguments they discuss, like the method of his work and its relation with the Aristotelian empirical enterprise, or the differences between the claims of his thinking and that of Rousseau and many other, are now presented inside this collection of essays. It could be a useful guide for those who would like to start the study of Montesquieu’s ideas","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89639201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2011-12-01DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5146
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
{"title":"Elogio di Montesquieu. Letto all’Accademia Prussiana delle Scienze di Berlino nella seduta del 5 giugno 1755","authors":"Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/5146","url":null,"abstract":"Italian translation of Maupertuis' Eloge de Montesquieu (1755), by Domenico Felice and Piero Venturelli","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80213845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}