RIVISTA DI FILOSOFIA NEO-SCOLASTICA - 2013 - 2

In this paper we address Fine’s well known objection to the modal approach to essence. We argue that it is possible to maintain the modal approach in spite of Fine’s counterexamples by developing a theory of qua-objects. In this theory the predicative nexus is explained in a more perspicuous way. The rebuttal of Fine’s counterexamples is achieved by building up a stratified view of essence.

This paper aims at analyzing from a philosophical point of view the concept of logical consequence, in order to highlight the connection between different kinds of consequence relations and between such relations and the intuitions in virtue of which they are introduced. The topics and theorems that are discussed are well-known. Still, their philosophical significance for the epistemological debate is not fully acknowledged. In what follows, the basic idea is developed according to which the kind of intuition that allow us to justify the introduction of the second order consequence relation is essentially different from, and emergent with respect to, the kind of intuition that allow us to justify the introduction of the first order consequence relation. In particular, this difference is based on the evidence of the existence of sets that are not definable by presenting a property shared by all their elements.

The question about myth is a topic that in the last years has become more and more important, and it has been developed in various – and often very different – ways; it is the case of the bultmannian demythologization, the structuralisme of Lévi- Strauss, and furthermore of the psychoanalytic approach of C. G. Jung; in the end, we must consider the renewed determination of philosophers and anthropologists who focused their attention and efforts in order to clarify the connection between mythical production and contemporary civilization, characterized by consumerism. The theme will be discussed from an anthropological point of view. The aim of the present paper, with the support of Eliade, Durand and Petrosino, is to investigate the relation between myth in contemporary civilization and Greek mythography: reflecting about the theme of idolatry, I will try to discover the connection between the desiring structure of human being and the imaginal production that he always shapes. As a result of this study, it is clarified the issue about cultural production and anthropologic fulfillment.

The religious and spiritual dimension has an undeniable importance in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, but his relationship with this dimension is more complex than it may seem. Of course, this relationship is not reducible to a mere defence of the natural religion in opposition to historic Christianity: Rousseau maintains in fact a very special relationship with the Christian religion, but he leaves out a substantial part of its theological and dogmatic heritage, merely stating the existence of a just and good God, creator of the world, and of Jesus, who was the one who has really done the will of God on earth. In this sense, Rousseau’s christianity is identical to the Christianity which is shared – explicitly or implicitly – by a large number of our contemporaries.

In this paper, I will discuss Iamblichus’ interpretation of the solar analogy in Book VI of Plato’s Republic (508a-509d) through a reexamination of the julianic Hymn to King Helios (132b-c). There is, in my opinion, the possibility that in Iamblichus’metaphysical system the image of the Good/Sun was related not to the First Principle, the Ineffable, but to a Second Principle, the One-Existent, presented as a necessary link between the realm of the One and the realm of the Nous. So interpreted, the exegesis of Resp. VI 508a ss. given by Iamblichus/Julian differs from those proposed by Plotinus and Proclus in providing a less radical vision of the transcendence of the Good/Sun; but, on the other hand, it is quite close to Damascius’ interpretation exposed in his work De principiis.

In recent years, the Salamanca School has appeared as one of the main objects of study among scholars of hispanic philosophy. This work is framed in precisely this tendency to return to the philosophy of the authors of the «Neo-Thomist School» or «Thomistic school in the sixteenth century», according to the name of Ulrich Horst. In this regard, the author pretends to develop the concept of «School of Salamanca ». For this, are presented some new criteria for the qualification of its members. So far, there have been very limited readings on the integration of the Scholastics of Salamanca, being reduced, almost entirely, to the Dominican theologians of Salamanca University XVI century. This is the central issue of article that present below.

Taking Edith Stein’s Zum Problem der Einfühlung as a textual reference, this paper analyses the concept of the singularity of human beings, taking into account the development of this theme in other writings by the author. After clarifying the intangible value of singularity and delineating the path to be followed in order to achieve consciousness of human uniqueness and unrepeatability, we shall seek to analyse entropathetic experience. In this way we shall lay the groundwork for the construction of a quality of relationship that harmoniously characterises all dimensions of the human being: body, psyche and spirit. The aim of this approach is to re-found anthropology, starting precisely from the singularity of the human being, which, to the extent that it achieves consciousness of itself, feels the need to direct its attention towards other singularities in order to broaden its Gemeinschaft. The entropathetic relationship will be analysed in all its spheres, and it will be argued that a bad relationship – or rather, a relationship experienced without any achievement of consciousness – can lead an individual to manipulate himself/herself and others. Indeed, we shall analyse the potential repercussions of such a non-relationship on the physical level (manipulations), psychic level (domination/submission), affective level (begging for affection), and spiritual level (inability to reach the We dimension).