Antimo Lucarelli

In his commentary on Hegel, Subject-Object: Erläuterungen zu Hegel (1951), Ernst Bloch – who certainly is the most prominent philosopher of Utopia in 20th century – criticizes the closed structure of Hegel’s system as the ‘spell of anamnesis’ that makes it impossible to think something really new. At the same time, he describes the structure of Hegel’s system as the simultaneity of the presence and the absence of the whole, the totum: a structure he calls a ‘utopian presence’. Whilst Hegel - as well as Bloch criticize any abstract understanding of Utopia that opposes it to the present world in an external way, according to this interpretation, a utopian structure can be found at the very heart of Hegel’s system. Together with Bloch’s reference to Schelling’s late positive philosophy – as focusing on a drive striving beyond any abstract-identical, un-historical understanding of presence – and together with references to obvious utopian aspects in Kant’s and Fichte’s practical-moral philosophy, German Idealism plays a central systematic role in Bloch’s concept of (concrete) Utopia. Similarly, this constellation allows one to discern Utopia as a systematic – both theoretical and practical – structure present already in German Idealism itself. Although Bloch explicitly refers to these connections, the role of German Idealism as a central historical and systematic source for his concept of Utopia is still widely neglected in research on Bloch – as well as Utopia and its methodologically and systematically constitutive role are still a marginalised topic in research on German Idealism. At a time of crisis such as our present – characterised by its ongoing contradictions, uncertainty, and openness – addressing this question is particularly relevant not only theoretically but also practically. The present volume aims to respond to this desideratum by dwelling on this constellation and discussing its systematic and critical relevance from different perspectives – be it with regard to the epoch of German Idealism itself (particularly in the work of Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling, but also in that of other figures belonging to this tradition such as Hölderlin) or to the dialogue of post-idealist philosophy with German Idealism (such as – apart from Bloch – in Marxism and Critical Theory). Keywords: Utopia/Concept of Utopia/Utopian Thinking, Classical German Philosophy/German Idealism, Post-Idealist Philosophy, Critical Theory, Philosophical Systems.

In questo contributo, mi propongo di saggiare la validità argomentativa delle proposte filosofiche del Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus di Ludwig Wittgenstein e della Parmenidean Ascent di Michael Della Rocca. Secondo una peculiare analogia tra queste due proposte, la contraddizione è l’essenza stessa della filosofia. Nel senso che lo strutturarsi della filosofia è (consapevolmente) un essere in contraddizione con sé stessi. In questo contesto, la critica mossa da Emanuele Severino contro il Tractatus wittgensteiniano ne La struttura originaria mi offrirà l’opportunità di considerare entro che misura, invece, l’essenza della filosofia sia rappresentata dalla non-contraddizione. Questa infatti è la posizione, antitetica, di Severino.

The Fundamental Tendency of Our Time is the Italian philosopher Emanuele Severino's crucial reflection on modern technology and science, in which he articulates his major contribution to the analysis of Western modernity: the claim that, beginning with Greek civilization, a nihilistic spirit of domination informs our conceptual and social systems. In this book Severino applies his framework to the geopolitical situation before the fall of the Berlin Wall; yet his insights have continuing relevance in light of the current threat of ecological collapse accelerated by an orientation to the world as an object of exploitation. Significant for its parallels with, and differences from, Heidegger's discussion of technology, this book's explicit discussion of politics gives essential clarification to Severino's notoriously complex philosophical discourse. With a foreword contextualizing the historical moment of its publication, this first English translation will be invaluable for those interested in understanding the thought of one of the most remarkable Italian theorists of the 20th century.

The first English translation of Emanuele Severino's radical critique of the notion of identity, this is a major work from one of the foremost Italian philosophers in the 20th century. Starting from his central intuition that Western culture is essentially nihilism, Emanuele Severino reflects anew on the problem of identity, abandoning the ambiguous (and ultimately contradictory) fashion in which being and becoming are grasped in the Western tradition. In this fundamental work in Severino's philosophy, the philosopher questions the dominant understanding of identity in Western culture, tracing it back to Aristotle's definition of identity as “tautótes”. In his endeavour, Severino discusses – with his peculiar depth – the most renowned philosophical passages from Hegel, Aristotle, Plato and Kant, giving a radical critique of the notion of identity. This book constitutes part of Severino's monumental theoretical apparatus, comprising a foundational critique of Western metaphysics which sets him alongside Heidegger at the foundation of contemporary theory. This translation of Tautótes will appeal to those interested in the central problems of Ancient and contemporary philosophy, ontology and metaphysics.

One could argue that the aim of this article is an existential ontologization of metaphysics, if «metaphysical» is what exists beyond the boundaries of possible experience. This is pursued through a reflection on the reasons which may have led Aristotle to claim, in Metaphysics Lambda, that the πρῶτον κινοῦν ἀκίνητον («unmoved mover») is marked by some specific traits, the crucial of which consists in its being an eternal «νόησις» («thinking»). In the article, also Aristotle’s «χωριστὸς» («separate») gains a possible meaning, which reveals itself in its difference from metaphysical being.