Coexistences: ethics, society, and forms of life. Guest editor’s preface

The article is a preface to the symposium "Coexistences: Ethics, Society, and Forms of Life". It briefly illustrates the conceptual space where the notions of forms of life and coexistencies shape an approach to ethics and social philosophy

Forms of life, forms of reality

The article explores aspects of the notion of forms of life in the Wittgensteinian tradition especially following Iris Murdoch’s lead. On the one hand, the notion signals the hardness and inexhaustible character of reality, as the background needed in order to make sense of our lives in various ways. On the other, the hardness of reality is the object of a moral work of apprehension and deepening to the point at which its distinctive character dissolves into the family of connections we have gained for ourselves. The two movements of thought are connected and necessary

Otello e la finitezza umana

L'articolo propone una lettura dell'Otello di Shakespeare nella scia dell'interpretazione elaborata da Stanley Cavell. Il dramma raffigura il ripudio della finitezza umana e della contingenza dei grandi valori della lealtà, della fiducia e dell'autorità nella forma della repressione del fatto della dipendenza di Otello dal desiderio di Desdemona. Attraverso l'esplorazione delle conseguenze tragiche della repressione di una tale conoscenza fondamentale della vita umana, la tragedia offre una lezione intorno ai fondamenti dell'ordine personale e politico dei legami umani. L'immaginazione fantastica con cui Otello ritrae se stesso come privo di una casa lo conduce alla follia e all'orrore del delitto; la moralità e la politica richiedono invece l'abitazione in un mondo precario e vulnerabile.The article suggests a reading of Shakespeare’s Othello following the lead of Stanley Cavell’s interpretation. Othello pictures the denial of human finitude and of the contingency of the great values of loyalty, faith and authority as this is enacted by Othello’s repression of the fact of his dependency on Desdemona’s desire for him. By exploring the tragic consequences of the repression of such a fundamental knowledge of human life, the tragedy offers a lesson about the basis of the personal and political order of human bonds. Othello’s fantastic imagination of his “unhoused” condition leads him to the folly and the horror of murder; morality and politics require instead a capacity for habitation in a precarious and vulnerable world

L’etica e la riflessione. Una risposta a Marrone e Magni

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Alle origini del concetto di linguaggio morale

The paper suggests a re-reading of the origins of analytic ethics. A certain notion of moral language—which came to be established through the work of G.E. Moore and W.D. Ross—made it easy to undermine problems of normativity and motivation. But on the other hand recent debate on these problems shows a disappearance of the old notion of moral language. There is another line in analytic ethics explored, among others, by I. Murdoch, J. McDowell and C. Diamond which shows an interest both in the problems of the self (reasons and motivation) and in the language of morality

Etica e analisi concettuale. La riflessione morale di Cora Diamond

Donatelli’s paper offers a critical reconstruction of Cora Diamond moral philosophy

Murdoch e la permanenza della realtà

Iris Murdoch employs the notion of ‘background’, and notions related to it, in order to pursue various philosophic projects. The author explores Murdoch’s use of the notion in order to focus on two interconnected questions. On the one hand, the notion signals the hardness and inexhaustible character of reality, as the needed background in order to make sense of our lives in various ways. On the other, the hardness of reality is the object of a moral work of apprehension and deepening to the point at which its distinctive character dissolves into the family of connections we have gained for ourselves. The author elaborates on the necessity of both sides of the concept, especially in connection to the notion of life: human, animal, and environmental

Mill’s Perfectionism

J. S. Mill lays great emphasis on the importance of the notion of the individual as a progressive being. The idea that we need to conceive the self as an object of cultivation and perfection runs through Mill’s writings on various topics, and has played a certain role in recent interpretations. In this paper I propose a specific interpretation of Mill’s understanding of the self, along the lines of what Stanley Cavell identifies as a “perfectionist” concern for the self. Various texts by Mill, ranging from the Logic to On Liberty, show an understanding of the self in which both the theoretical and the practical domain are presented as being internally connected to the transformation of the self. Mill elaborates a criticism of a notion of truth articulated by doctrines having a life independent of the self, as well as a notion of choice which is not the expression of one’s inner self. This internal relation of truth and choice to the self generates a special dialectic within the self, which Mill explores in On Liberty’s second and third chapters by means of several contrasts, such as passive vs. active knowledge, living vs. dead beliefs, or being oneself vs. liking and choosing in crowd