The aim of this paper is to argue that the lacanian interpretation of capitalism is strictly related to the concept of «giving capitalism», developed by Kojève during a famous conference in Düsseldorf, at the invitation of Carl Schmitt in 1957. Lacan’s point is that capitalism has established itself as the empire of standardised enjoyment, where consumers of gadgets become gadgets. This reification process is hidden behind the friendly face of «giving capitalism», but ends up to manifest itself as a mechanism of aggressive control of life. In a letter to Leo Strauss (1950), Kojève foreshadowed this outcome, which Lacan clearly saw in the sixties. The paper will be structured in three main parts. I. In the first part, the focus will be on the lacanian idea of capitalism as a system which collapses desire into production; II. The second part briefly sketches the dialogue between Kojève and Schmitt on the concept of «giving capitalism»; III. Finally, the paper examines two similar solutions, one from Kojève and one from Lacan, to escape the reification process of capitalism.
One of the most recurring themes of the last phase of Michel Foucault’s Denkweg is the resumption of Kantian criticism. The aim of this essay is to reconstruct the genesis of this link between archeology analysis and critical thinking. Although Husserl’s phenomenology was thought of as the overcoming of the Kantism, Foucault endorsed some of the interpretations present in the French philosophical debate to recover the critical instance. In the Introduction to Anthropology from the pragmatic point of view of 1961 Foucault highlights the birth of homo criticus. The Kantian criticism is not accomplished in the identification of a Wesen of the human, but is configured as an attitude of resistance in the face of all knowledge that reduces man to a datum of fact. It is from this perspective that Foucault’s genealogical thinking revaluates the Aufklärung, understood as the ontology of actuality and the diagnosis of the present.
Landscape as a philosophical theme is based on a contradiction: that of being at the same time a portion of Land, which however refers to a totality. This contradiction is linked to the origin of the landscape. After the break between man and cosmos, subject and object in the Renaissance period, man discovers nature as a landscape. It is the result of this division and therefore lends itself to being interpreted both as a projection of the modern subject (Florenskij) and as a way of resisting the loss of the original unity (Ritter). The two opposing possibilities, which have their roots in the initial contradiction, can be read together if interpreted as a dual way of recovering a home, at the time of the cosmic break between subject and world.
In this paper I will focus on Simplicius, in Physica 138,3 - 141,11, in which the Commentator discusses the Aristotelian expression «some people gave in to both arguments» (Phys. I 3, 187 a 1). These λόγοι are, respectively, that on the basis of which if «is» means only one thing, then all things are one, argument that leads some philosophers to admit the existence of non-being, and the argument from dichotomy and which leads some people else to admit indivisible magnitudes. Simplicius debates the dichotomy’s argument, about which he discusses the testimonia of Alexander of Aphrodisia and Porphyry, in order to demonstrate that this argument was of Zeno (founder of the dialectics) and not of Parmenides. Furthermore, he discusses the utility and the meaning of the argument. So Simplicius’ discussion is very valuable in order to explain Aristotelian text, to discuss a wide part of the philosophical tradition, and to give the Neoplatonic exegesis of Eleatic philosophy.
This paper discusses from a theoretical point of view the role of aporia in Plato’s philosophy and its systematic adoption by Damascius. After a brief analysis of the occurrences of the term ἀπορία in Plato’s dialogues, the article exposes a theoretical reading of the first nines aporias of Damascius’ Ἀπορίαι καὶ λύσεις περὶ τῶν πρώτων ἀρχῶν, showing the radical and innovative reinterpretation of the classical Neoplatonic topics developed by the diadochus: the role of the Principle, the status of knowledge and language, and the epistemology of the mind.
In Posterior Analytics, Aristotle deals with three predicative characters peculiar to the scientific argumentation: they are named κατὰ παντός, καθ’αὑτό and καθόλου. The third seems much less important than the first and the second in the medieval tradition. Buridan’s treatment of universale (καϑ όλου) requirement in his Questions on Posterior Analytics, however, is significant for many reasons. First, Buridan synthesizes the main themes about this topic in a personal and theoretically engaged way; so, his exegesis overcomes in width and depth the not so abundant suggestions we find in XIII-century exegesis. Second, also in this case Buridan shows his personal attitude to expand the boundaries of Aristotelian theory of science, in the direction to include more into Aristotelian paradigm the philosophy of nature (as recent studies tend to suggest in a general way). Third, in this case study the Questions on Posterior Analytics give a clearer and more thorough exposition than the Summulae de demonstrationibus, the most studied Buridan’s work on the theory of science; this is interesting as a contribution to better evaluate the respective value of these two works in order to fully appreciate Buridan’s reflections on the Aristotelian theory of science.
From an analysis of several passages where Marsilio Ficino mentions Numenius of Apamea’s sentence alluding to Plato as Moses attikizon, this article demonstrates how such a dictum became a strategy to avoid contradictions in his treatment of a theological issue, namely the relation between mutability and immutability in order to solve the problem of the immortality of soul and body in resurrection.
Thomas Hobbes’s theory of social contract has received much attention and commentary from scholars. Less attention has been given to his theory of contract as a theory of private law contracts. But it has not been noted by scholars that underlying Hobbes’s treatment of social and private law contracts there is a theory of an a priori notion of contract, that abstracts from any instance of contract, including the social contract, and that therefore claims a universality social and private contracts theories don’t do. In this paper we expose Hobbes’s theory of an a priori notion of contract that serves to organize sense experience, and we show how Hobbes justifies the tenets of that theory.
Of the seven recurrences of the term gypsy (Zigeuner) in Nietzsche’s works, only two possess deep philosophical implications: a short statement in RWB and the poem Yorick als Zigeuner. In this article I suggest that the gypsy figure in Nietzsche should be read in close interdependence with the problem of liberation, and that it shares three features in common with the figure of the «free spirit»: (i) the nomadic condition and the absolute freedom it entails; (ii) the struggle for surviving, in which death and destruction are essential experiences man must undergo so that he may create himself and «become who he is»; (iii) laughter, the surest sign of a fully enacted Dionysian human condition that is capable to «dance on the abyss». As the analysis of Yorick als Zigeuner will demonstrate, the gypsy figure possesses these three features, thus it is paradigmatic of a perfectly liberated mankind.
This paper deals with Max Scheler’s interpretation of the phenomenon of death as expounded in his posthumous writing Death and After-Life (1911-1916). Its first aim is to highlight the strength of Scheler’s view by focusing on its systematic bonds to other aspects of his philosophy, such as his depiction of body-consciousness or his theory of vital feelings. The second aim is to defend Scheler’s theory of death against two objections: the first concerns his view on the origin of man’s certainty that he will die; the second accuses him of having naturalized the phenomenon of death. In discussing the latter objection, close attention is paid to Paul Ludwig Landsberg’s alternative view of death.
In this essay I will analyze the notion of narrative identity proposed by Paul Ricoeur in Oneself as another highlighting a theoretical problem. My criticism stems from a simple but surprising claim: except for some minor references, in Oneself as another the phenomenological perspective is missing. I will try to explain the reasons and the theoretical consequences of this lack. I will highlight in particular a problem: without a phenomenological foundation the notion of narrative identity becomes potentially ambiguous and the narrative self risks – paradoxically – to look like a disembodied subject.
This contribution intends to briefly present Virgilio Melchiorre’s intense speculative path, tracing through the theme of ‘origin’ a possible coherent thread, aimed at uniting his multiple speculative interests. The starting and finishing point is in fact identified by him in the metaphysical place of consciousness. It is in fact the consciousness and its structural dimensions that have been densely investigated by him, imposing a journey backwards, towards the origin that is, where thinking begins and makes sense. Hence the phenomenological evidence: it is from the heart of the experience that the question about its meaning arises and it is this question that asks on what foundation of intelligibility it rests. The disturbing question, formulated by Leibniz and taken up by Heidegger: «Why is there something rather than nothing?» the Milanese philosopher also asks, convinced that the metaphysical gesture responds to the needs of knowing, as well as the expectations of doing.
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