In past millennia religious traditions suggested a kind of
wisdom from which science divorced since its beginning,
belief being then considered as a backwards attitude with
respect to the triumphant scientific reason. Apparently, no
sacred text suggested an adequate analysis on both the
admirable intellectual construction built by scientific reason
and modern way of life, essentially advantaging progress
with respect to all traditions.
Since one century a new attitude on scientific knowledge
was proposed by a particular renewal of religious belief,
the non-violent philosophy of life suggested by Tolstoy
(Tolstoy 1880), Gandhi (Gandhi 1908) and Lanza del
Vasto (Lanza del Vasto 1959). All they criticized Western
science inasmuch as it is severed from both ethics and
common life of mankind. The criticism was qualified by
Lanza del Vasto (= LdV, 1901-1981, graduated in Philosophy
at Pisa University in 1928) through an analysis of two
Christian texts, i.e. Genesis 3 and Apocalypse 13, in the
same years Catholic Council Vatican 2 instead accepted
modern science as an ineluctable modernity (incarnationist
thesis vs. apocalyptic thesis)

Drago, Antonino

English

DRAGO, ANTONINO

Archivio della ricerca - Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II

KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF ACCORDING TO LANZA DEL VASTO

Name not available

  103Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto  Antonino Drago, Naples 1. Religious belief and scientific knowledge  In past millennia religious traditions suggested a kind of wisdom from which science divorced since its beginning, belief being then considered as a backwards attitude with respect to the triumphant scientific reason. Apparently, no sacred text suggested an adequate analysis on both the admirable intellectual construction built by scientific reason and modern way of life, essentially advantaging progress with respect to all traditions.  Since one century a new attitude on scientific knowledge was proposed by a particular renewal of religious belief, the non-violent philosophy of life suggested by Tolstoy (Tolstoy 1880), Gandhi (Gandhi 1908) and Lanza del Vasto (Lanza del Vasto 1959). All they criticized Western science inasmuch as it is severed from both ethics and common life of mankind. The criticism was qualified by Lanza del Vasto (= LdV, 1901-1981, graduated in Philoso-phy at Pisa University in 1928) through an analysis of two Christian texts, i.e. Genesis 3 and Apocalypse 13, in the same years Catholic Council Vatican 2 instead accepted modern science as an ineluctable modernity (incarnationist thesis vs. apocalyptic thesis).  2. Lanza del Vasto's interpretation Let us remark that LdV considered the two above-mentioned texts as substantially shared by a great number of religious traditions; the first text concerns what is com-monly called the problem of theodicy; the second one describes a period of social persecution of religious belief.  The following synthesizes chapter I of LdV's main theologico-social analysis of Western society (LdV 1959). Essentially, he changes the traditional interpretation of the word "original"; he locates the original sin not at the temporal origin of mankind, but at the origin of the widest aggregation of men in a society, i.e. whatsoever civilisa-tion. This sin is defined as a diversion of the human being from the direct knowledge on the intimate nature of every being - God first -, to an interested knowledge-calculation upon all beings, in the aim to exploit them. In a social aggregation a man/woman tends to hide under some conventional or legal customs his relationships of exploit-ation. In the historical development of a civilisation a lot of formal rules and artefacts are introduced, that expand monstrously the artificial level, at the expenses of both the natural level and the super-natural level of personal life. By shaping the main structures of a society, mainly those of the widest society as possible, i.e. a civilisation, the orig-inal sin is thus characterised as a structural sin. Sharing common customs, both evil men and benevolent ones are evenly merged in the original sin; at last, all they sustain the pyramidal structure of our society, where weakest and naive men/women are forced to support heaviest social weights. In the latter text two monstrous animals grow up respec-tively from sea and earth. They subdue all peoples, till up to impress a seal on both the mind and the hands of whatsoever person. In continuity with previous interpreta-tion, LdV sees the two monsters as two social structures substantiating in a given civilization the social result of the infinite collective multiplication of original sin. Through a communitarian interconnection of several minds this original sin grows up to became two cpecific social institutions for exploiting Nature, that is Science and its application, Technology. By means of such two actors LdV vividly illustrates the advanced life of modern times as already represented by the biblical story. In fact, in modern times they gained, more than any cultural force of modern society, an unprecedent authority on all peoples; till to lead them to entry in a society subjugated by the spirit of possession. According to this interpretation LdV holds, in a parallel way to Induist tradition and some other religious traditions too, that present Western civilisation represents the great-est renewal of the original sin, since for the first time it was institutionalized in Science and Technology and then it was applied world-wide.  3. The suggestion of LdV for instrumentaliz-ing scientific knowledge Science and Technology are condemned by LdV not forever, but only in the particular Western civilization, owing to the specific finalization it gives them. This appraisal is corroborated by the meaning LdV gives to the final words of latter text. They suggest to the reader a way for saving himself from this kind of structural sin; this way consists in gaining the knowledge of the nature of evil, which is symbolised by the name of the latter beast; which is a number, i.e. 666. LdV interprets this enigma (LdV 1959, p. 39-40) according to the main notion of Western science (Koyré 1957), the limit of a series. In other terms, he subdue an element of the basic science, Mathematics, to suggest a spiritual hint; hence, he instrumentalizes scientific knowledge to know the path of salvation.  He reads 666 as an infinite series of the same cipher 6, i.e. as 666…, a series of 6 tending, at the right hand, to a limit number. In agreement to the meanings that all peoples give to numbers, 6 is then intended as represent-ing a man/woman. Hence, the number 666 represents an infinite expansion of the man/woman on a merely natural level; yet, this series is unable to reach the number 7, i.e. the typical number of a spiritual man/woman.  By means of the oldest Western science, Geometry, I suggest one more interpretation (Drago 1997). Three ciphers 6 joined in one number means three men wanting to reach unity, likely as three vertices shape a triangle; just the figure Christian tradition and by other religious traditions attribute to God; actually, in Genesis 3 to become similar to God was the promise by the snake. Actually, the efforts to reach unity through merely natural drives (6) in a long-term perspective is doomed to fail to achieve a higher spiritual status.  Among past Christian interpretations of Apocalypse 13, LdV's one has to be qualified as the first structural interpretation, since the two social actors are no more recognised as celebrated evil personalities (e.g. Nero), but as specific social structures (after forty years an encyclical text joined the notion of a structural sin), i.e. Science and Technology; and even the salvation is intended in structural terms. Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto - Antonino Drago    104 4. The conversion of religious belief Although, to my knowledge, in no other religion some authoritative scholar interpreted sacred texts with refer-ence to modern Science and Technology, after this inter-pretation, no more Science and Technology are allowed to consider belief as essentially unable to understand the modern way of living. Hence, LdV gave again authority to old sacred texts with respect to modern Science and Technology. By a comparison of the two texts, we see that they represent the same kind of sin, yet in two different civilisations, a primitive one and a mature one. In fact, LdV's main category is the notion of a civilisation, which is narrower than metaphysical and ethical notions, and broader than society and other political notions. It leads LdV to characterise anew ancient theological notions, mainly the sin, now intended even in a structural sense, and the correlated notion of a conversion from this kind of sin, as a conversion from even social structures.  By following Gandhi's attitude, LdV's interpretation offers an unprecedent linkage between Eastern and Western religions, concerning both the interior life and the active participation, inspired by the awareness of social struc-tures, to social life. But this new attitude converted a religion, in agreement with Gandhi's teachings, to mainly an ethical commitment for improving not only the welfare of our little neighbourhood, but the whole mankind; a welfare to be obtained by even fighting against oppressive social structures. Indeed, while in the past religions suggested efforts addressed to mainly achieve transcendental life, by non-violent teachers they are thus converted in a creative effort for substantiating inside the present society God's kingdom as best as possible; or even, in layman terms, a free, peaceful and just society. As a consequence, this new attitude does not belong to any specific religion; rather, it can be shared by whatsoever person, even a person not believing in God, provided that he is believing in the essentially positive nature of each man/woman; i.e. in the infinite potentialities of a person.  This attitude was illustrated by the first European non-violent, the philosopher Aldo Capitini. Inside the historical development of Western philosophy he focussed his attention on Kant's crucial step. By recognizing the failure of a millennial effort elicited by mankind to know the “thing in itself”, Kant suggested to regain reality by means of a different effort, the ethical one, to be performed through an “adjunction” of ethical nature. This adjunction then origi-nated Hegel's notion of Aufhebung, representing a move of Absolute Spirit. Rather, it was intended by Capitini as the proposal, inside a given unsatisfactory situation, for an immanent ethical effort, performed by whatsoever person sincerely wanting to produce transcendent values inside a community; that means "to do oneself a centre" in order to achieve the "compresence" and at last that “you-all people” which constitutes a "freed reality" substantiating an "omnicracy", where life is developing in a "choral way" and "politics is religion at the highest level". Capitini's philoso-phy can be defined as a pan-personalist philosophy (Bobbio 2002); I add, as a personalist left of Hegelian philosophy (Drago 1998). 5. Generalizing the main suggestions to religious teaching, scientific knowledge and philosophy According to non-violent teachers, both science and technology , when scrutinized under an ethical viewpoint, present, contrarily to a prima facie appraisal, an essentially double nature: good and evil. In synthesis, the ethical nature of science too is a conflict; just the opposite of the common image, according to which science is capable to solve almost all conflicts.  Moreover, both the above-illustrated interpretations of the structural evil, symbolized by 666, suggest that the failure, and hence the salvation too, has two dimensions, i.e. infinity and organisation. Upon each of the latter ones a man can take his two basic choices.  These two dimensions are relevant in theology too. For instance, out of the ten commandments the first three concerns infinity and the last seven one the (familial and social) organization. The same holds true for Christ's synthesis of them in two commandments only; as well as for the prayer Our Father. According to Bagavad Gîta, human hearth includes two chords, Infinity and Unity, i.e. a unitarian organization (quoted by LdV 1993, p. 18).  In my opinion the best hint for revealing in science the basic option on the infinity was Koyré's analysis (Koyré 1957), which emphasized Newton's option for actual infini-ty in opposition to both Descartes' and Galilei's choices for potential infinity only. Moreover, by following d'Alembert, L. Carnot (Carnot 1783, 102-105; 1803, xiii-xvii.) supported the view that there are two kinds of organisation of a scientific theory, i.e. an "empirical" one and a "rational", deductive one. I characterised the foundations of science as constituted by these two options. By means of them I interpreted Koyré's characteristic statements "Dissolution of finite space and geometrisation of space", and then generalized them in new categories capable to interpret the history of modern science. Moreover, I interpreted all the categories suggested by previous historians of science. (Drago 2001) In recent philosophy, Levinas emphasized both dimen-sions (Levinas 1961). But already Leibniz emphasised the two labyrinths of human reason, i.e. the notion of infinity and the dilemma on freewill or law (truly, a dilemma on the two kinds of organisation, as they are viewed from a subjectivist viewpoint). They can be associated respec-tively to the two great principle Leibniz recognized, i.e. the principle of non-contradiction and the principle of sufficient reason. When interpreted through the two basic options, Leibniz’ program for a metaphysics of science - i.e. his Scientia Generalis - results to be successful (Drago 1994). This fact gives new relevance to his philosophy of science and moreover it suggest to change the common interpre-tation of the historical development of philosophy.  Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto - Antonino Drago    105Moreover, the two basic options suggest a general theory of conflict resolution (Drago 1996). According to it, the non-violent attitude makes appeal to the principle of sufficient reason, governing a heuristic method for solving the conflict at issue. The rational reason for associating non-violence and that principle is their common feature to be double negated sentences, to each one of them cor-respond a positive sentence lacking empirical, operative support. Since the failure of the double negation law characterizes intuitionistic logic, all that means that they essentially pertain to a different logic to common one; or even, they open the minds to see a new world. Remarka-bly, in Capitini's philosophy of non-violence the main characteristic words are double negated words. Moreover, in agreement to his characteristic way of arguing, he proposed a reform of dialectics (Capitini, 1959).  In sum, we obtained a structure of knowledge consti-tuted by two dimensions; each one can be considered as splitting in two dichotomic choices; in total, four pairs of choices, giving up to four models of theory (Drago 1991), to be considered as the four cardinal point for our knowledge inside an essentially pluralistic framework (just in the spirit of non-violence).  Literature  Bobbio, N. 2002 "Religion and Politics in Aldo Capitini", Gandhi Marg, 24, (1) 5-26. Capini, A. 1959 "L'avvenire della dialettica", Rivista di Filosofia, 50, 224-230. Carnot, L. 1783 Essai sur les machines en général, Dijon: Defay.  Carnot, L. 1803 Principes fondamentaux de l'équilibre et du mouvement, Paris: Crapelet. Drago, A. 1991 Le due opzioni, Molfetta: La Meridiana. Drago, A. 1994 "The modern fulfilment of Leibniz' program for a Scientia generalis", in H. Breger (ed.): VI Int. Kongress: Leibniz und Europa, Hannover, 185-195.  Drago, A. 1996 " A paradigm-shift in conflict resolution", in P. Koller, H. Puhl (eds.): Current Issues in Political Philosophy. 19th Int. Wittgenstein Symposium, Kirchberg, 106-114.  Drago, A. 1997 "Umanizzazione della tecnica e progresso comunitario della società", Progresso del Mezzogiorno, 21, 317-334. Drago, A. 1998 "L'azione politica di Capitini nel dopoguerra", Il Ponte, 54, 144-198. Drago, A. 2001 "The several categories suggested for the "new historiography of science": an interpretative analysis from a foundational viewpoint", Epistemologia, 24, 48-82. Gandhi, M.K. 1908 Hindi Swaraj, banned edition, Amhedabad. John Paul II., 1987 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Rome. Koyré, A. 1957 From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, Baltimore: Baltimore U. P. Lanza del Vasto, 1959 Les Quatre Fléaux, Paris: Denoel.  Lanza del Vasto, 1993 Le grand Retour, Monaco: Le Rocher. Levinas, E. 1961 Totalité et Infini, M. Nijhoff. Tolstoy, L. 1880 Confession, Moscow.  

Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto

Elektronisch archivierte Theorie - Sammelpunkt

  103
Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto  
Antonino Drago, Naples 
1. Religious belief and scientific knowledge  
In past millennia religious traditions suggested a kind of 
wisdom from which science divorced since its beginning, 
belief being then considered as a backwards attitude with 
respect to the triumphant scientific reason. Apparently, no 
sacred text suggested an adequate analysis on both the 
admirable intellectual construction built by scientific reason 
and modern way of life, essentially advantaging progress 
with respect to all traditions.  
Since one century a new attitude on scientific knowledge 
was proposed by a particular renewal of religious belief, 
the non-violent philosophy of life suggested by Tolstoy 
(Tolstoy 1880), Gandhi (Gandhi 1908) and Lanza del 
Vasto (Lanza del Vasto 1959). All they criticized Western 
science inasmuch as it is severed from both ethics and 
common life of mankind. The criticism was qualified by 
Lanza del Vasto (= LdV, 1901-1981, graduated in Philoso-
phy at Pisa University in 1928) through an analysis of two 
Christian texts, i.e. Genesis 3 and Apocalypse 13, in the 
same years Catholic Council Vatican 2 instead accepted 
modern science as an ineluctable modernity (incarnationist 
thesis vs. apocalyptic thesis).  
2. Lanza del Vasto's interpretation 
Let us remark that LdV considered the two above-
mentioned texts as substantially shared by a great number 
of religious traditions; the first text concerns what is com-
monly called the problem of theodicy; the second one 
describes a period of social persecution of religious belief.  
The following synthesizes chapter I of LdV's main 
theologico-social analysis of Western society (LdV 1959). 
Essentially, he changes the traditional interpretation of the 
word "original"; he locates the original sin not at the 
temporal origin of mankind, but at the origin of the widest 
aggregation of men in a society, i.e. whatsoever civilisa-
tion. This sin is defined as a diversion of the human being 
from the direct knowledge on the intimate nature of every 
being - God first -, to an interested knowledge-calculation 
upon all beings, in the aim to exploit them. In a social 
aggregation a man/woman tends to hide under some 
conventional or legal customs his relationships of exploit-
ation. In the historical development of a civilisation a lot of 
formal rules and artefacts are introduced, that expand 
monstrously the artificial level, at the expenses of both the 
natural level and the super-natural level of personal life. By 
shaping the main structures of a society, mainly those of 
the widest society as possible, i.e. a civilisation, the orig-
inal sin is thus characterised as a structural sin. Sharing 
common customs, both evil men and benevolent ones are 
evenly merged in the original sin; at last, all they sustain 
the pyramidal structure of our society, where weakest and 
naive men/women are forced to support heaviest social 
weights. 
In the latter text two monstrous animals grow up respec-
tively from sea and earth. They subdue all peoples, till up 
to impress a seal on both the mind and the hands of 
whatsoever person. In continuity with previous interpreta-
tion, LdV sees the two monsters as two social structures 
substantiating in a given civilization the social result of the 
infinite collective multiplication of original sin. Through a 
communitarian interconnection of several minds this 
original sin grows up to became two cpecific social 
institutions for exploiting Nature, that is Science and its 
application, Technology. By means of such two actors LdV 
vividly illustrates the advanced life of modern times as 
already represented by the biblical story. In fact, in modern 
times they gained, more than any cultural force of modern 
society, an unprecedent authority on all peoples; till to lead 
them to entry in a society subjugated by the spirit of 
possession. 
According to this interpretation LdV holds, in a parallel 
way to Induist tradition and some other religious traditions 
too, that present Western civilisation represents the great-
est renewal of the original sin, since for the first time it was 
institutionalized in Science and Technology and then it 
was applied world-wide.  
3. The suggestion of LdV for instrumentaliz-
ing scientific knowledge 
Science and Technology are condemned by LdV not 
forever, but only in the particular Western civilization, 
owing to the specific finalization it gives them. This 
appraisal is corroborated by the meaning LdV gives to the 
final words of latter text. They suggest to the reader a way 
for saving himself from this kind of structural sin; this way 
consists in gaining the knowledge of the nature of evil, 
which is symbolised by the name of the latter beast; which 
is a number, i.e. 666. LdV interprets this enigma (LdV 
1959, p. 39-40) according to the main notion of Western 
science (Koyré 1957), the limit of a series. In other terms, 
he subdue an element of the basic science, Mathematics, 
to suggest a spiritual hint; hence, he instrumentalizes 
scientific knowledge to know the path of salvation.  
He reads 666 as an infinite series of the same cipher 6, 
i.e. as 666…, a series of 6 tending, at the right hand, to a 
limit number. In agreement to the meanings that all 
peoples give to numbers, 6 is then intended as represent-
ing a man/woman. Hence, the number 666 represents an 
infinite expansion of the man/woman on a merely natural 
level; yet, this series is unable to reach the number 7, i.e. 
the typical number of a spiritual man/woman.  
By means of the oldest Western science, Geometry, I 
suggest one more interpretation (Drago 1997). Three 
ciphers 6 joined in one number means three men wanting 
to reach unity, likely as three vertices shape a triangle; just 
the figure Christian tradition and by other religious 
traditions attribute to God; actually, in Genesis 3 to 
become similar to God was the promise by the snake. 
Actually, the efforts to reach unity through merely natural 
drives (6) in a long-term perspective is doomed to fail to 
achieve a higher spiritual status.  
Among past Christian interpretations of Apocalypse 13, 
LdV's one has to be qualified as the first structural 
interpretation, since the two social actors are no more 
recognised as celebrated evil personalities (e.g. Nero), but 
as specific social structures (after forty years an encyclical 
text joined the notion of a structural sin), i.e. Science and 
Technology; and even the salvation is intended in 
structural terms. 
Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto - Antonino Drago 
 
 
 104 
4. The conversion of religious belief 
Although, to my knowledge, in no other religion some 
authoritative scholar interpreted sacred texts with refer-
ence to modern Science and Technology, after this inter-
pretation, no more Science and Technology are allowed to 
consider belief as essentially unable to understand the 
modern way of living. Hence, LdV gave again authority to 
old sacred texts with respect to modern Science and 
Technology. 
By a comparison of the two texts, we see that they 
represent the same kind of sin, yet in two different 
civilisations, a primitive one and a mature one. In fact, 
LdV's main category is the notion of a civilisation, which is 
narrower than metaphysical and ethical notions, and 
broader than society and other political notions. It leads 
LdV to characterise anew ancient theological notions, 
mainly the sin, now intended even in a structural sense, 
and the correlated notion of a conversion from this kind of 
sin, as a conversion from even social structures.  
By following Gandhi's attitude, LdV's interpretation offers 
an unprecedent linkage between Eastern and Western 
religions, concerning both the interior life and the active 
participation, inspired by the awareness of social struc-
tures, to social life. But this new attitude converted a 
religion, in agreement with Gandhi's teachings, to mainly 
an ethical commitment for improving not only the welfare of 
our little neighbourhood, but the whole mankind; a welfare 
to be obtained by even fighting against oppressive social 
structures. Indeed, while in the past religions suggested 
efforts addressed to mainly achieve transcendental life, by 
non-violent teachers they are thus converted in a creative 
effort for substantiating inside the present society God's 
kingdom as best as possible; or even, in layman terms, a 
free, peaceful and just society. As a consequence, this 
new attitude does not belong to any specific religion; 
rather, it can be shared by whatsoever person, even a 
person not believing in God, provided that he is believing 
in the essentially positive nature of each man/woman; i.e. 
in the infinite potentialities of a person.  
This attitude was illustrated by the first European non-
violent, the philosopher Aldo Capitini. Inside the historical 
development of Western philosophy he focussed his 
attention on Kant's crucial step. By recognizing the failure 
of a millennial effort elicited by mankind to know the “thing 
in itself”, Kant suggested to regain reality by means of a 
different effort, the ethical one, to be performed through an 
“adjunction” of ethical nature. This adjunction then origi-
nated Hegel's notion of Aufhebung, representing a move of 
Absolute Spirit. Rather, it was intended by Capitini as the 
proposal, inside a given unsatisfactory situation, for an 
immanent ethical effort, performed by whatsoever person 
sincerely wanting to produce transcendent values inside a 
community; that means "to do oneself a centre" in order to 
achieve the "compresence" and at last that “you-all people” 
which constitutes a "freed reality" substantiating an 
"omnicracy", where life is developing in a "choral way" and 
"politics is religion at the highest level". Capitini's philoso-
phy can be defined as a pan-personalist philosophy 
(Bobbio 2002); I add, as a personalist left of Hegelian 
philosophy (Drago 1998). 
5. Generalizing the main suggestions to 
religious teaching, scientific knowledge 
and philosophy 
According to non-violent teachers, both science and 
technology , when scrutinized under an ethical viewpoint, 
present, contrarily to a prima facie appraisal, an essentially 
double nature: good and evil. In synthesis, the ethical 
nature of science too is a conflict; just the opposite of the 
common image, according to which science is capable to 
solve almost all conflicts.  
Moreover, both the above-illustrated interpretations of 
the structural evil, symbolized by 666, suggest that the 
failure, and hence the salvation too, has two dimensions, 
i.e. infinity and organisation. Upon each of the latter ones a 
man can take his two basic choices.  
These two dimensions are relevant in theology too. For 
instance, out of the ten commandments the first three 
concerns infinity and the last seven one the (familial and 
social) organization. The same holds true for Christ's 
synthesis of them in two commandments only; as well as 
for the prayer Our Father. According to Bagavad Gîta, 
human hearth includes two chords, Infinity and Unity, i.e. a 
unitarian organization (quoted by LdV 1993, p. 18).  
In my opinion the best hint for revealing in science the 
basic option on the infinity was Koyré's analysis (Koyré 
1957), which emphasized Newton's option for actual infini-
ty in opposition to both Descartes' and Galilei's choices for 
potential infinity only. Moreover, by following d'Alembert, L. 
Carnot (Carnot 1783, 102-105; 1803, xiii-xvii.) supported 
the view that there are two kinds of organisation of a 
scientific theory, i.e. an "empirical" one and a "rational", 
deductive one. I characterised the foundations of science 
as constituted by these two options. By means of them I 
interpreted Koyré's characteristic statements "Dissolution 
of finite space and geometrisation of space", and then 
generalized them in new categories capable to interpret 
the history of modern science. Moreover, I interpreted all 
the categories suggested by previous historians of 
science. (Drago 2001) 
In recent philosophy, Levinas emphasized both dimen-
sions (Levinas 1961). But already Leibniz emphasised the 
two labyrinths of human reason, i.e. the notion of infinity 
and the dilemma on freewill or law (truly, a dilemma on the 
two kinds of organisation, as they are viewed from a 
subjectivist viewpoint). They can be associated respec-
tively to the two great principle Leibniz recognized, i.e. the 
principle of non-contradiction and the principle of sufficient 
reason. When interpreted through the two basic options, 
Leibniz’ program for a metaphysics of science - i.e. his 
Scientia Generalis - results to be successful (Drago 1994). 
This fact gives new relevance to his philosophy of science 
and moreover it suggest to change the common interpre-
tation of the historical development of philosophy.  
Knowledge and Belief according to Lanza del Vasto - Antonino Drago 
 
 
 105
Moreover, the two basic options suggest a general 
theory of conflict resolution (Drago 1996). According to it, 
the non-violent attitude makes appeal to the principle of 
sufficient reason, governing a heuristic method for solving 
the conflict at issue. The rational reason for associating 
non-violence and that principle is their common feature to 
be double negated sentences, to each one of them cor-
respond a positive sentence lacking empirical, operative 
support. Since the failure of the double negation law 
characterizes intuitionistic logic, all that means that they 
essentially pertain to a different logic to common one; or 
even, they open the minds to see a new world. Remarka-
bly, in Capitini's philosophy of non-violence the main 
characteristic words are double negated words. Moreover, 
in agreement to his characteristic way of arguing, he 
proposed a reform of dialectics (Capitini, 1959).  
In sum, we obtained a structure of knowledge consti-
tuted by two dimensions; each one can be considered as 
splitting in two dichotomic choices; in total, four pairs of 
choices, giving up to four models of theory (Drago 1991), 
to be considered as the four cardinal point for our 
knowledge inside an essentially pluralistic framework (just 
in the spirit of non-violence).  
Literature  
Bobbio, N. 2002 "Religion and Politics in Aldo Capitini", Gandhi 
Marg, 24, (1) 5-26. 
Capini, A. 1959 "L'avvenire della dialettica", Rivista di Filosofia, 50, 
224-230. 
Carnot, L. 1783 Essai sur les machines en général, Dijon: Defay.  
Carnot, L. 1803 Principes fondamentaux de l'équilibre et du 
mouvement, Paris: Crapelet. 
Drago, A. 1991 Le due opzioni, Molfetta: La Meridiana. 
Drago, A. 1994 "The modern fulfilment of Leibniz' program for a 
Scientia generalis", in H. Breger (ed.): VI Int. Kongress: Leibniz und 
Europa, Hannover, 185-195.  
Drago, A. 1996 " A paradigm-shift in conflict resolution", in P. 
Koller, H. Puhl (eds.): Current Issues in Political Philosophy. 19th 
Int. Wittgenstein Symposium, Kirchberg, 106-114.  
Drago, A. 1997 "Umanizzazione della tecnica e progresso 
comunitario della società", Progresso del Mezzogiorno, 21, 317-
334. 
Drago, A. 1998 "L'azione politica di Capitini nel dopoguerra", Il 
Ponte, 54, 144-198. 
Drago, A. 2001 "The several categories suggested for the "new 
historiography of science": an interpretative analysis from a 
foundational viewpoint", Epistemologia, 24, 48-82. 
Gandhi, M.K. 1908 Hindi Swaraj, banned edition, Amhedabad. 
John Paul II., 1987 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Rome. 
Koyré, A. 1957 From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, 
Baltimore: Baltimore U. P. 
Lanza del Vasto, 1959 Les Quatre Fléaux, Paris: Denoel.  
Lanza del Vasto, 1993 Le grand Retour, Monaco: Le Rocher. 
Levinas, E. 1961 Totalité et Infini, M. Nijhoff. 
Tolstoy, L. 1880 Confession, Moscow.  


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