Montesquieu.itPub Date : 2019-12-12DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10136
F. Focher
{"title":"The logic of life in Maupertuis: from Newtonian attraction to psychobiological determinism","authors":"F. Focher","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10136","url":null,"abstract":"After successfully relaunching the epigenetic theory of generation, reinterpreted in the light of Newtonian attraction and chemical affinities (\"Venus physique\", 1745), Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759) deepened his theoretical investigations in the field of the genesis of organisms and species in the \"Systeme de la Nature\" (1754). In this work, in order to reconcile the scientific postulate of objectivity - which rejects the recourse to final causes - with the evident teleonomic properties of living beings, and at the same time recognizing inadequate for this purpose the mechanistic principles he advanced in the \"Venus physique\", Maupertuis proposed a bold panpsychist theory of life, of Spinozian inspiration. Therefore, by postulating the matter alive, endowed with instinct and feeling, Maupertuis imagined that some form of intelligence or psychic memory, associated with matter, directed the development of living beings. In light of recent discoveries in biology, the original psychobiological determinism advanced by Maupertuis in the \"Systeme de la Nature\" appears to be a brilliant intuition of the logic of genetic and evolutionary processes.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83532264","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 : 2019-11-28DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10065
Natale Vescio
{"title":"Nicola Nicolini and moderate constitutionalism","authors":"Natale Vescio","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10065","url":null,"abstract":"Nicola Nicolini, grande penalista, allievo di Pagano, e stato tra i principali protagonisti della codificazione napoletana (1819). Di formazione storicista, ha tentato di sostenere una graduale, ma significativa, evoluzione del diritto e del processo penale. Ha sostenuto l’esperimento costituzionale del 1820 e l’adozione del modello gaditano, in cui ha individuato uno strumento fonda-mentale per lo smantellamento dell’armamentario assolutista ed una progressiva trasformazione del sistema in senso piu ‘liberale’.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73148491","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 : 2019-10-30DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9957
Paolo Frisi
{"title":"Eulogy of Mr. d'Alembert","authors":"Paolo Frisi","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9957","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9957","url":null,"abstract":"Reproduction of the first Italian edition (Milan, Galeazzi, 1786) of the \"Eulogy of Mr. d'Alembert\" of the Milanese mathematician and astronomer Paolo Frisi (1728-1784), who studied and trained on the scientific writings of the co-director of the \"Encyclopedie\", with whom entertained a dense correspondence that testifies to their custom and their friendship, sealed in several Parisian meetings. In the \"Eulogy\", warmly composed shortly after hearing the news of d'Alembert's death (29 October 1783), the Milanese enlightenment reconstructs minutely and with extreme precision the succession of the works and publications of the great encyclopedist, placing it in the history of the revolution scientific after Galileo and Newton, and formulating sober and balanced judgments also on dalembertian philosophical and literary writings, such as the \"Discours preliminaire\" (1751), the \"Essai sur la societe des gens de lettres et des grands\" (1753), the \"Analyse de l 'Esprit des lois (1755) and \"Sur la destruction des jesuites en France (1765).","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77605785","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 : 2019-10-17DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9926
Davide Arecco
{"title":"Giuseppe Baretti, English Enlightenment and Eighteenth century Italy: a review in the three hundredth anniversary of birth","authors":"Davide Arecco","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9926","url":null,"abstract":"Three centuries ago, Giuseppe Baretti was born in Turin. This essay traces its personality, voyages and movements, with particular attention to never easy relationships with the Italian Enlightenment and for those decidedly better with British intellectual world, known by the Piedmontese journalist and writer through two long stays full of books and various activities. After three hundred years, a controversial and not without charm, emblematic and fascinating figure of XVIIIth century culture emerges again.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77267077","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 : 2019-10-12DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10401
Ernesto Ferrero
{"title":"\"PREFACE\" TO VOLTAIRE, \"THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. THIRD MILLENNIUM GUIDE \", ED. BY D. FELICE, MILAN, MIMESIS, 2019","authors":"Ernesto Ferrero","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/10401","url":null,"abstract":"\"Preface\" to Voltaire, \"Thoughts on Various Subjects. Third Millennium Guide\", edited by Domenico Felice, Milan, Mimesis, 2019, 533 p.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90645748","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 : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9918
J. D'alembert
{"title":"Reflections on history, and the different ways of writing it","authors":"J. D'alembert","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9918","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9918","url":null,"abstract":"La presente traduzione si basa sul testo delle \"Reflexions sur l’histoire, et sur les differentes manieres de l’ecrire\", pubblicato nelle \"Œuvres completes de d’Alembert\", Paris, Belin, 1821-1822, 4 voll., vol. II (contenente: \"Reflexions sur l’histoire\" – \"Sur la destruction des jesuites \"– \"Memoires sur Christine\" – \"Eloges historiques\"), parte I, pp. 1-10. La prima edizione del testo delle \"Reflexions sur l’histoire, lues a l’Academie Francaise dans la seance publique du 19 janvier 1761\" fu stampata nei \"Melanges de litterature, d’histoire, et de philosophie\", 5 tt., Amsterdam, Chatelain, 1764-1767, t. V (1767), pp. 469-494.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91332744","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 : 2019-07-29DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9738
Gaetano Antonio Gualtieri
{"title":"THE OBSERVER OF HUMAN MATTERS. About Montesquieu, Scritti postumi (1757-2006). I miei pensieri. I miei viaggi. Saggi. Romanzi filosofici. Memorie e discorsi accademici. Poesie, Italian translation with French parallel text, edited by Domenico Felice, Milano, Giunti-Bompiani, 2017, pp. LXXXI-2668","authors":"Gaetano Antonio Gualtieri","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9738","url":null,"abstract":"La recensione mette in evidenza la complessita dell’operazione compiuta da Domenico Felice e dai suoi collaboratori nel preparare il volume dedicato agli Scritti postumi di Montesquieu. Gli scritti raccolti nel volume sono di lunghezza e valore assai diversi e si riferiscono a tematiche molto variegate, che spaziano da brevi componimenti poetici a scritti scientifici e filosofici, senza trascurare veri e propri saggi monografici incompiuti o non del tutto rifiniti e romanzi filosofici. In tutto questo, il volume fa emergere, accanto alla versatilita del filosofo francese, il suo ruolo di fondatore sistematico di una scienza dell’uomo, del diritto e della scienza politica moderna. I ragguagli tecnici e editoriali, nonche le considerazioni, inseriti nella Nota al testo da cui ogni opera e preceduta, offrono una completezza di informazioni che rende manifesta una visione a tutto tondo del filosofo di La Brede.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85831926","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 : 2019-03-10DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9188
Riccardo Bonfiglioli
{"title":"Karl Marx: A Life between History and Theory","authors":"Riccardo Bonfiglioli","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9188","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this review is to highlight the main features of the book \"Karl Marx. Biografia intellettuale e politica. 1857-1883\" written by Marcello Musto. An attempt will be made to underline the importance of the relation between theory and biographical events of Marx’s life, in the background of his historical time, as a key for a greater understanding of Marx’s works.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84396928","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 : 2019-02-02DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9029
Marco Storni
{"title":"Maupertuis’s Principle of Least Action: Epistemology and Metaphysics","authors":"Marco Storni","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/9029","url":null,"abstract":"The paper deals with Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis’s (1698-1759) writings on the principle of least action (PLA). I discuss Maupertuis’s philosophical interpretation of the PLA by analysing three of his papers (1740, 1744, 1746), in order to assess the overall consistency of his argument. As I shall argue, Maupertuis presents the PLA as a universal principle of nature, this being at odds with the empiricist inspiration of his epistemology. Maupertuis’s attempt to introduce conceptual elements borrowed from the Leibnizian tradition into a Newtonian-inspired framework creates in fact a tension that is difficult to overcome.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88814082","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 : 2019-01-30DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/8989
Piero Venturelli
{"title":"Alexandre Deleyre, Agostino Paradisi il Giovane and the 1765 literary controversy over the (presumed) Italian decadence","authors":"Piero Venturelli","doi":"10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/8989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.2421-4124/8989","url":null,"abstract":"The present article takes into exam the French-Italian literary controversy that took place in 1765 and which, despite its brief duration, revived the national sentiment in a wide portion of the Italian cultured world. The dispute began in response to an anonymous \"Lettre\", although sent by the French Alexandre Deleyre (1726-1797), published on march 1765 in the Parisian journal \"Gazette litteraire de l’Europe\": according to the controversial Encyclopedist, eighteenth century Italy was in full moral, cultural, political and economic decadence. The Italian poet Agostino Paradisi il Giovane (1736-1783) sent to the Venetian journal «La Minerva» a very well informed anonymous \"Epistola\". It was printed on october 1765, and is to be considered the clearest and most thoughtful response from the Italian side to Deleyre’s denounces and accusations.","PeriodicalId":36096,"journal":{"name":"Montesquieu.it","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88689990","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}