Capacità e diritti umani

The issue of human rights continues to be a battleground between divergent beliefs. Currently, it does not seem to be a unifying idea, but a cause of division that may strengthen the “clash of civilizations” or the “war of cultures”. This article stresses that the universality of human rights could only be sustained by stating the organic relation of human rights with some general facts that characterize human nature and explain why moral indignation is so common and negative reactions so widely spread when gross violations of human rights occur. This relationship can be shown by incorporating into the doctrine of human rights a general notion of “capabilities” and functioning of every “human being” and every “form of human life” as that one expressed in the texts by Sen and in Nussbaum particularly

From ethics without ecology to ecology without ethics. On the difficult moral relations between human beings and nature

Modern philosophical tradition has generally paid little attention to nature as an object of moral inquiry. In this tradition, only human beings are entitled to have moral rights. Recently, however, growing ecological problems and the shift from metaethics to normative ethics have changed this conceptual framework. The aim of the article is to show that, on a kantian basis, an interpersonal ethics can be applied to nature itself, precisely because, in the kantian paradigm, the rationale for excluding nature from moral citizenship are metaphisical and not persuasively moral

I confini della cittadinanza

The idea that citizenship is the fundamental expression of the right of membership in a territorially defined political system is usually taken for granted, both from common sense and academic theories. In political and social theory, however, is beginning to emerge the idea that citizenship can be projected beyond the borders of the nation-state. This alternative conception has taken different classification: “global citizenship”, “transnational citizenship”, “post- national citizenship”. The thesis of this article is that the proposals of deterritorialization of citizenship represent an aspiration or a goal to reach rather than a fact that is simply to record. Essentially, it is a way to defy the nation-state perspective, according to which the boundaries of the civic community necessarily coincide whit the geographic boundaries of the State

Diritti minimi

The point of this essay is that the arguments advanced by thinkers like John Rawls e Michael Ignatieff in favour of a core rights to life and liberty are not consistent with their positions in favour of human rights minimalism. Just the fact that human rights minimalism implies the right to physical security and to basic freedom of movement should lead these philosophers not only to recognize both the importance and the value of other rights, but also to include certain aspects of the sphere of private life and of cultural practice in the field of international law. Human rights, that are going to become popular through international debates, compell us first to reconsider the dichotomy between public and private sphere; second, the dichotomy between social and political interests; third, the necessity of subordinating politics of human right, with no exception, either to prudential and historical convenience (see Ignatieff), or to the observance of pluralism (see Rawls)

Community without communitarianism.

The dispute that divided political philosophy during the eighties into two camps, liberals versus communitarians, would now appear to be over. On both sides an atmosphere of détente seems to be prevailing over the reasons for dissent. Even an author such as Charles Larmore, one of the most well-known advocates of a strictly political view of liberalism, has recently anticipated the possibility of integrating the romantic and the communitarian legacy within the context of liberal individualism.In his latest book, The Romantic Legacy, Larmore elaborates on this possibility by analyzing four fundamental features of romanticism: imagination, a sense of belonging to a community, irony and authenticity. In this essay, the author highlights the ensuing difficulties and defends the need to maintain the liberal distinction between political and cultural rights and the corresponding separation of the respective spheres of pertinence

Hannah Arendt e il cosmopolitismo “dal basso”

In the boundless literature dedicated to Hannah Arendt’s thought, interpreters and commentators have rarely focussed on cosmopolitanism, even for reasons that appear well founded at first sight. Taraborrelli's book finally fills the gap. It offers a clear, coherent and systematic reconstruction of her political thought sub specie: cosmopolitanism to demonstrate how the thesis - according to which Arendt voluntarily abstained from any cosmopolitan perspective for various reasons - does not have reason to exist. To the theses proposed in the book, the commentator adds a further thesis and namely that H. Arendt's theory of action allows to focus on a look that retrieves a vision of political notions such as “bottom-up” practices through the action of they who recognize themselves as politically equal on a common meeting ground. In this case the political sphere arises directly from acting-together and sharing words and deeds despite the different positions and the resulting variety of perspectives. The most important consequence of the perspective is that its field of application is not established by state borders or legal jurisdictions, but by political action itself, whose scope extends potentially to all citizens of the world

Le “nuove guerre” della globalizzazione

In speeches on global security is recurring the idea that the «new wars» are the expression of a type of organized violence that differs substantially from armed conflicts typical of previous eras. According to several authors, the factors which could bring in an overall perspective this diversified set of phenomena is globalization: the «new wars» are, namely, an integral part of the transformation of modernity that are changing the scale of the organization of human society.In speeches on global security is recurring the idea that the «new wars» are the expression of a type of organized violence that differs substantially from armed conflicts typical of previous eras. According to several authors, the factors which could bring in an overall perspective this diversified set of phenomena is globalization: the «new wars» are, namely, an integral part of the transformation of modernity that are changing the scale of the organization of human society

Disposable Places. Hannah Arendt and the Question of Refugees

Generally speaking, political theory avoids considering the kind of damage suffered by he who lives excluded from any political community or perhaps sees such damage as a juridical and political phenomenon that is the loss of nationality. One must instead be aware that they who are compelled to live within the circumscribed space of a set of regulations, institutions and spaces that can be labelled under the umbrella term of camp are subject to a specific existential deprivation and not only to a juridical damage. To justify this argumentation it is worth going back to Hannah Arendt's works where the condition of people without citizenship is understood under ontological-existential terms thus offering a wiser perspective to understand one's moral obligations towards stateless people and refugees

Lotte per il riconoscimento e politiche dell'identità nella filosofia politica contemporanea

2009/2010Sino a tempi recenti, la correzione delle diseguaglianze ascrivibili a un’ingiusta distribuzione della ricchezza e delle risorse ha rappresentato la preoccupazione normativa condivisa dalle principali teorie della giustizia sociale. Attualmente, l’attenzione dei filosofi politici sembra rivolgersi a un nuovo di tipo di rivendicazioni, così diffuse da avere occupato una parte sempre più ampia dello spazio pubblico: le “politiche dell’identità”. Il riconoscimento di identità collettive a livello pubblico, che dipende dal modo in cui le stesse minoranze hanno ridefinito che cosa significhi essere una minoranza, appare come un “bene” sociale che merita stima e apprezzamento da parte della società nel suo complesso. L’idea che ispira questo lavoro cerca però di dimostrare come non debba essere il carattere distintivo dell’appartenenza identitaria a giustificare le rivendicazioni di riconoscimento, ma come siano piuttosto le rivendicazioni di giustizia ed inclusione a poter (eventualmente) legittimare forme di trattamento differenziato dei gruppi identitari.XXIII Cicl