Ethical Code

Università Europea di Roma

Guido Traversa insegna Filosofia Morale presso l’Università Europea di Roma. È presidente dell’Istituto di Filosofia applicata alla Consulenza e all’Etica. www.ifacecrf.it. Ha pubblicato negli ultimi anni: L’identità in sé distinta. Agere sequitur esse, (Roma, Editori Riuniti University Press, 2012); La critica, il linguaggio, il trascendentale, la libertà. Scritti su Vico, Kant, Scaravelli, (Roma, IF Press, 2012); Dall’identità individuale all’identità della storia. L’antropologia teleologica in Kant, (Roma, IF Press, 2016).

Simplicitas as habitus

‘Simplicitas’ is the ability to match the internal dimension of man with the external one, fleeing duplicity and deception. It appears to be natural but implies the exercise of will and freedom as an answer that is non-indifferent to the need and desire for virtue. In particular, we try to demonstrate that ‘simplicitas’ is a habitus that can be acquired slowly, as a natural disposition that requires the desire to be simple and, consequently, a certain exercise of the will. The reflection is developed referring to the positions of some philosophers, very different and distant from each other, such as Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Scaravelli and Levinas.

Keywords: simplicity, will, freedom, interior, exterior

Capitalism is not only a problem of how its fruits are distributed. The past few decades have seen an increasing number of people refuse the capitalist concept of wealth altogether. In its place, they have adopted the notion of ‘simple living’ or ‘voluntary simplicity’. This perspective has a long history that begins with the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes. ‘Degrowth’ is one of its most recent expressions and it has exposed some of the weaknesses of the traditional Marxist approach to technological ‘progress’. Nevertheless, it falls short of understanding the real essence of capitalism as the production of value, based on the ‘twofold nature’ of labour: abstract and concrete.

Keywords: voluntary simplicity, degrowth, development of productive forces, abstract labour, marxism

Ricercatrice indipendente, Bruxelles

Ann Van Sevenant, professoressa di Filosofia alla University College of Antwerp (Belgium). Autrice di diciassette libri di filosofia, in olandese, francese, inglese, italiano. Attualmente è ricercatrice indipendente e relatore ospite internazionale. Dalla sua ultima pubblicazione sulla storia della filosofia emerge che quest’ultima non ha le proprie origini nella Grecia antica, ma nella Persia antica. Ainsi pensait Zarathoustra. Une philosophie avant la lettre, Paris, Non Lieu, 2017.

“Simple life” and the “primordial choice”

Moderation, simplification or the exclusion of wealth do not necessarily guarantee existential well-being. On the contrary, the quest for a peaceful, untroubled life can become a hidden source of unhappiness. This is why it is crucially important to examine why we choose to invent a simpler lifestyle, which brings us to take a closer look at the “primordial choice”.

Keywords: zoroastrianism, downshifting, philosophy, Gathas

In the tower. Montaigne, Rousseau and writing as self-care

The text aims at capturing, in the work of Montaigne and Rousseau, the use of writing to achieve greater self-knowledge and better control of one’s emotions and emotional life. The ethical sense of this operation will be characterized by the conquest of the simple inner core put in the shade by everyday life.

Keywords: subject, ethics, writing, death, solitude

Simplex sigillum veri. The Philosopher, the Architect, the Writer

The aim of this paper is to investigate the topic of simplicity in the architectural work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, from the planning and building of the famous cube shaped house of his sister Margarethe in Vienna (during the years 1926-28) up to the several references to architecture in his philosophical writings. It is no coincidence, if the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, in his novel Korrektur (1975), incorporates the silhouette of Wittgenstein (one of his favourite philosophers) for the characterization of the protagonist, Roithamer. In connection with Wittgenstein, also Bernhard’s character decides to build a – this time cone shaped – house for his sister. The paper outlines a series of affinities between Wittgenstein and Roithamer, but also stresses the importance of simplicity in the two forms of life.

Keywords: simplicity, aesthetics of architecture, Wittgenstein, Bernhard

Università degli studi Roma Tre

Lorenzo Dall’Olio è professore associato di Progettazione Architettonica presso il Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi Roma Tre. È autore di numerosi articoli su riviste italiane e internazionali e dei volumi Arte e architettura. Nuove corrispondenze (1998), L’architettura degli edifici per la sanità (2000), Tadao Ando. Antinomie senza contrasto (2002), La ricerca nella didattica (2011), Residenze universitarie (2012), Manuale di progettazione. Residenze collettive e speciali (2014). 

Simplicity in Contemporary Architecture

Since when Robert Venturi’s Complexity and contradiction in Architecture was published in 1966, “simplicity” in architecture has begun losing its appeal and, despite a certain inertia of its seductive power, has gradually slipped out of fashion. In the noisy and exhibitionist drift that seems to characterize much contemporary research in architecture, this text asks whether there is still room for simplicity; how many and what faces it has, how it can be defined and, finally, where it manifests itself. The discussion focuses on the three main moments in the making of architecture where simplicity can be revealed: the manifestation of the idea and the definition of the method, the choice of tools and “project materials”, and the aesthetic-formal result.

Keywords: simplicity, complexity, poor architecture, minimalism, elementary geometry

Università degli Studi di Milano

Andrea Zhok (Trieste, 1967) si è formato presso le università di Trieste, Milano, Vienna ed Essex. Attualmente insegna Antropologia Filosofica presso l’Università degli Studi di Milano. Tra le sue pubblicazioni monogra che ricordiamo Il concetto di valore: tra etica ed economia (Mimesis 2001); Lo spirito del denaro e la liquidazione del mondo (Jaca Book 2006); Emergentismo (Ets 2011); La realtà e i suoi sensi (Ets 2012). 

In Praise of Identity

In recent times, the issue of ‘collective identity’ has been among the most heated questions in political and moral discussion. The present contribution tries to argue for a viable model of collective identity, to be provided by contrast with Francesco Remotti’s well-known polemical stance against identity. In the wake of Hegel’s notion of historical ‘Aufhebung’, and MacIntyre’s notion of social practice, we are going to show, first, that collective identities are not conceivable according to the abstract model of logical identity and substantial permanence. Secondarily, we are going to show that a viable notion of identity must rely on the idea of historical path-dependence: such an identity must comprehend and cultivate its cultural and material heritage in order to intelligibly project future action. Problems of anomy and disorientation related to problems of collective identity are hard to deny in contemporary societies. Although the risks of political identitarianism are not to be denied, we conclude that, if we want to effectively avoid identitary degenerations, it is highly advisable not to take the shortcut of merely discrediting identity.

Keywords: identity, tradition, history, collective action, communitarianism

Carlo Michelstaedter and the desire “to make himself flame”

The purpose of the essay is to show the birth of the notion of “persuasion” in conjunction with the strong passions which are inhabited in Michelstaedter. Especially with the short erotic experience that he lives next to the one he had chosen as his muse, Nadia Baraden. The Russian woman is considered by a young philosopher “persuaded” ante litteram. With her, he thought to give rise to a singular “lovers community” to raise an alternative to the “communities of the wicked”. But Nadia’s suicide will bring him down all hopes. Michelstaedter will write his most important work, La persuasione e la rettorica, under her influence. As well as, having always in mind the image of Nadia, almost in a spirit of emulation, he will take his final and definitive decision.

Keywords: eroticism, “persuasion”, passion, desire, flame

Università di Verona

Andrea Nicolini insegna Filosofia morale presso l’Università di Verona dove è membro del Centro di ricerca “Tiresia” per la filosofia e la psicoanalisi. Partendo dal panorama filosofico e psicoanalitico del Novecento francese, le sue ricerche attualmente vertono sul rapporto tra soggettività, erotismo e amore, indagato attraverso una prospettiva interdisciplinare che muove dalla filosofia alla letteratura e al cinema. Tra le sue pubblicazioni la raccolta di saggi Lascia ch’io pianga. Il masochismo tra cinema, filosofia e psicoanalisi (Orthotes, 2017) e la monografia Riconoscimento di sé e genesi della coscienza (Insedicesimo, 2018).

A Thing that Feels. Love and Seduction in Mario Perniola’s Philosophy of Transit

From Transiti to Del sentire, from La società dei simulacri to Il sex-appeal dell’inorganico, the intention of the essay is to investigate Perniola’s notion of transit in order to theorize the monism that bears the radical difference between the self and the world. My argument is that even if it is true that there is an infinite distance that divides us from the world, it is also true that there exist moments of delicate and transient harmony in which we are somehow connected to the world to the point of feeling part of the same thing. In order to argue that, I focus on love and seduction through the notion of transit. The notion of transit is in fact able to show that love and seduction are nothing but folds of the same that keeps transit on itself creating those movements of opening and closing, run and escape, grasp and loss, that characterize the emotional, sexual, and loving experience of every human being.

Keywords: Perniola, love, seduction, transit, self/world

Università di Roma La Sapienza

Antonio Valentini è Ricercatore di Estetica (RTD) presso il Dipartimento di Filosofia della Sapienza Università di Roma. Nel 2013, ha conseguito l’Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale al ruolo di Professore di II fascia di Estetica (settore concorsuale: 11/C4). La sua attività di ricerca è incentrata soprattutto sul nodo teorico-problematico della “rappresentazione”, con particolare riferimento al nesso “mito-tragedia” e al rapporto tra estetica e letteratura nel confronto tra antico e moderno. Oltre a saggi su riviste scientifiche nazionali e internazionali, ha pubblicato le seguenti monografie: L’enigma della visione. Un saggio intorno alla figura tragica di Cassandra (Milano, Mimesis, 2015), La tragedia come forma del possibile. Riflessioni sulla poetica di Eschilo (Milano, Mimesis, 2013), Il silenzio delle Sirene. Mito e letteratura in Kafka (Milano, Mimesis, 2012), Alle origini della rappresentazione: la tragedia in Aristotele e Nietzsche (Milano, Albo Versorio, 2009).

Understanding of the expositive and curatorial logic in the contemporary Artworld. The position of “critical resistance” proposed by Tomaso Montanari and Vincenzo Trione

The paper aims at highlighting the theoretical productivity of the “critical-resistance position” promoted by Tomaso Montanari and Vincenzo Trione, in their recent pamphlet “Contro le mostre” (Torino, 2017), in the context of a new understanding of the curatorial and expositive logic in the contemporary Artworld. In this perspective, particular emphasis is devoted to the possible significant assonance between the need, claimed by the authors, of the expositive location rethinking it as an “elaborative space”, that constitutively is open to the “production of the possible”, and the aesthetical-philosophical paradigm elaborated by Th. W. Adorno, in particular with regard to the “auratic” dimension of art and to the nexus “art-thinking”.

Keywords: expositive and curatorial strategies, thinking, possibility of the possible, art, critical function

Sapienza University (Rome) 

Adjunct Professor of Aesthetics and Creative Design Thinking
Aesthetics of Technological Pictures, Aesthetics of Reception and Response (Iser, Jauss), Contemporary political interpretations of the Third Critique (Arendt, Lyotard), Pragmatism and American Aesthetics (Dewey, Langer)