L'utopia aristotelica di Alasdair MacIntyre

In his essay on The Aristotelian Utopia of Alasdair MacIntyre Giovanni Giorgini investigates MacIntyre’s philosophical and political project, trying to find unity and coherence in the Scottish philosopher’s critique of the liberal State and in his proposal to create local forms of community based on shared values so that citizens may live an authentic and meaningful life. Following Aristotle, MacIntyre believes that a good political arrangement is conducive to human flourishing and criticizes the liberal State for lacking an overarching notion of the good and for not allowing citizens to actually live according to their vision of the good. MacIntyre’s project, however, faces the same difficulties as Aristotle’s: it mixes reality and ideal and does not take into account the changes in the historical context (Alexander’s conquests on the one hand, the novelties of political modernity on the other). Aristotle’s and MacIntyre’s political visions share thus a utopian vein.In questo saggio Giovanni Giorgini analizza il progetto filosofico e politico di MacIntyre, cercando di trovare unità e coerenza nella sua critica allo Stato liberale e nella sua proposta di creare forme di comunità locale basate su valori comuni in modo che i cittadini possano vivere una vita autentica e dotata di significato. Sulla scia di Aristotele, MacIntyre ritiene che per la realizzazione delle nostre potenzialità umane sia necessario vivere in una società buona e critica pertanto lo Stato liberale in quanto non avrebbe una nozione di bene comune e non consentirebbe in realtà ai cittadini di vivere secondo la propria immagine del bene. Il progetto di MacIntyre, tuttavia, incontra gli stessi problemi di quello di Aristotele: unisce aspetti descrittivi e prescrittivi, idealità e realtà, e non prende in considerazione i mutamenti nel contesto storico (le conquiste di Alessandro, nel caso di Aristotele, e i cambiamenti intervenuti con la modernità politica, nel caso del filosofo scozzese). Le visioni politiche di Aristotele e di MacIntyre hanno pertanto una vena utopica in comune

The place of the tyrant in Machiavelli's political thought and the literary genre of The prince

"My project at the Italian Academy concerns how to create good citizens in a multicultural society through a reform of education. In my previous paper I tried to show how an Aristotelian approach seems to be the most promising model of education. The typical objection to such an approach is that it “idealizes” too much the real situation of human beings and their ‘nature,’ which has a lot of negative features neglected by the neoAristotelians. In this paper I aim to show how Machiavelli’s political writings aim at permanently educate the real statesman, teaching him the primary duty of responsibility and the virtue of prudence. Machiavelli, the champion of political realism, becomes thus an ally of Aristotle in educating good citizens.

The concept of liberty in the Republican tradition

The author investigates the origin and development of the concept of liberty and its special meaning in the Republican tradition of political thought. The origin of the Western concept of liberty lies in ancient Greece, in the opposition between liberty and slavery conceived after the liberation of Athens from tyranny and the victory over the Persian empire. The author then investigates the Republican notion of liberty that originates in ancient Rome and reaches its peak with Cicero. This conception of liberty emphasizes self-government and partecipation in common deliberation and runs through Western political thought up to Rousseau, Tocqueville and the authors of the Federalist Papers

The place of the tyrant in Machiavelli's political thought and the literary genre of The prince

"My project at the Italian Academy concerns how to create good citizens in a multicultural society through a reform of education. In my previous paper I tried to show how an Aristotelian approach seems to be the most promising model of education. The typical objection to such an approach is that it “idealizes” too much the real situation of human beings and their ‘nature,’ which has a lot of negative features neglected by the neoAristotelians. In this paper I aim to show how Machiavelli’s political writings aim at permanently educate the real statesman, teaching him the primary duty of responsibility and the virtue of prudence. Machiavelli, the champion of political realism, becomes thus an ally of Aristotle in educating good citizens.

Cicero and Machiavelli: Two Visions of Statesmanship and Two Educational Projects Compared

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Cicero’s writings or his historical significance as an example in politics and in rhetoric for Italian Humanist and Renaissance culture. Machiavelli, well-educated in the classics, drew from Cicero the inspiration for embarking on a project of education of a new ruling class: Machiavelli’s “principe nuovo” is new when compared to his contemporary counterparts, imbued with Christian and Humanist notions of virtue; however, the “principe nuovo” has an old soul, since the new notion of prudence elaborated by Machiavelli has its roots in classical images of ethical and political virtue, in Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. Machiavelli, just like Cicero, felt that what he had not been able to do in deeds with his political action at the service of the Florentine republic, he could do through his writings: putting his knowledge of men and politics, his expertise gained through practical experience and constant reading of ancient authors at the service of his fellow-countrymen and of his patria. The novelty of Machiavelli’s teaching consists in advocating a new kind of prudence, which consists in the capacity to do evil in view of a good and elevated purpose: to save, preserve and aggrandize the State

Editor’s and Guest Editor’s Preface

This special issue of Ethics&Politics aims to shed a new light on Cicero as political thinker and to foster an appreciation of his thought by bringing into focus some of its main theoretical underpinnings. The general idea that inspires the collection of paper here collected is that Cicero’s voluminous corpus of writings allows the reader to trace the seeds of an authentically pioneering political theory, one that might give us insights into a network of key philosophical questions to which he seems to give pride of place: justice (iustitia), equity (equitas), the nature of the res publica and its most desirable internal arrangement (the best regime), the role of natural law and individual virtues in shaping the moral texture of the members of the societas humana

Nicola Matteucci. Un liberale eretico

Nicola Matteucci (Bologna, 1926-2006) was an Italian political philosopher and historian of political thought. Having studied under Benedetto Croce and Federico Chabod, he combined historical approach with a theoretical investigation of liberalism. His first works were mostly historical in character, but his interest in constitutionalism, especially English and American, led him already in the 1960s to attack legal positivism, whose most famous exponents were Hans Kelsen and, in Italy, Norberto Bobbio: Matteucci argued that this doctrine, by seeing the constitution merely as a tool to organize state powers and institutions, does not discriminate between liberal and totalitarian political arrangements. Matteucci instead argued that the constitution represents the choice of a political form and contains the fundamental norms for the protection of individual rights and liberties. In his later and more theoretical writings Matteucci developed a view of liberalism as “response to a challenge”: liberal authors developed a series of conceptual and legal tools to counter the challenges of their age -the absolutist state, the totalitarian state and so on. An original Tocqueville scholar, Matteucci was very critical of populism and considered the “tyranny of the majority”, the conformism typical of mass society, one of the subtlest and biggest threats to democracy.Nicola Matteucci (Bologna, 1926-2006) was an Italian political philosopher and historian of political thought. Having studied under Benedetto Croce and Federico Chabod, he combined historical approach with a theoretical investigation of liberalism. His first works were mostly historical in character, but his interest in constitutionalism, especially English and American, led him already in the 1960s to attack legal positivism, whose most famous exponents were Hans Kelsen and, in Italy, Norberto Bobbio: Matteucci argued that this doctrine, by seeing the constitution merely as a tool to organize state powers and institutions, does not discriminate between liberal and totalitarian political arrangements. Matteucci instead argued that the constitution represents the choice of a political form and contains the fundamental norms for the protection of individual rights and liberties. In his later and more theoretical writings Matteucci developed a view of liberalism as “response to a challenge”: liberal authors developed a series of conceptual and legal tools to counter the challenges of their age -the absolutist state, the totalitarian state and so on. An original Tocqueville scholar, Matteucci was very critical of populism and considered the “tyranny of the majority”, the conformism typical of mass society, one of the subtlest and biggest threats to democracy

Tirannie antiche e moderne

Tyranny is a word imported into Greek vocabulary in the 7th century BCE to identify a new kind of ruler, who does not belong to a dynasty and has a great power. Tyrants started to appear in Greece in that century: sole rulers, they were the extraordinary response to a situation of civil conflict inside the poleis. In this essay I argue that there is a discrepancy between the historical actions of tyrants and the conceptualization of this regime: leaving aside the merits or demerits of the individual tyrants, tyranny came to be seen as the emblem of evil in politics. The crucial fact for this cultural operation was the emergence of democratic ideology in Athens: the tyrant became the mirror-opposite of democratic practices. I then argue that this emblem of political evil re-emerged in many epochs in the history of Western political thought and I focus on the cases of Machiavelli and Tocqueville. I conclude with a view to what kind of tyrant should contemporary democracies fear

OAKESHOTT E IL RAZIONALISMO IN POLITICA

L'attacco al razionalismo in politica costituisce il fulcro degli interessi teorici, e delle preoccupazioni pratiche, di Oakeshott negli anni Cinquanta. Con il termine razionalismo egli intende il supposto uso senza vincoli e senza pregiudizi della ragione e la fede che in questo modo si arriverà a un sicuro miglioramento della condizione umana. Nella sua ricostruzione, il primo autore a proporre l'uso della ragione, acuminata dal metodo induttivo e purificata da pregiudizi, come strumento della conquista della natura da parte dell'uomo fu Francis Bacon; una ragione strumentale che aveva fatto tabula rasa dei pregiudizi derivanti dalla società, dal principio di autorità, dalle opinioni comuni (i vari tipi di idola)

Does the molecular and metabolic profile of human granulosa cells correlate with oocyte fate? New insights by Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy analysis

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