Abstract
These lectures will try to check some key texts in the tradition of Italian political philosophy focusing on the twin notions of equality and vulnerability—the idea here being to see if this problem could be tackled without invoking any specific notion of, for example, natural law or anthropology. To this end it may be enough to rely on a bare notion of efficacy, and one that does not even need to be deliberately articulated with any special theoretical awareness. From these assumptions, equality arguments turn into both an answer to and a symptom of a perceived situated vulnerability. Normative worlds, on the other hand, are conceived as mere efficacy phenomena understood through the narrative they radiate.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Doreen (2020–21).
- 3.
The Austrian legal philosopher and jurist, incidentally, taught at UC Berkeley. See Losano (2008).
- 4.
Cardano (1630), Caput LVIII. See footnote 82.
- 5.
With the exceptions of New Science by Vico and Proxeneta by Cardano, we mainly focussed on relatively short texts. It was, however, unfortunate that I had to neglect Paruta, Lottini, Campanella, and many others. Skipping Gianfrancesco Lottini was particularly painful.
- 6.
Zanetti (2011), pp. 461–470.
- 7.
Waldron (2002), pp. 2–7.
- 8.
- 9.
Gen 3:5. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
- 10.
Wofgang Goethe, Faust, Act I, Scene IV. “This Serpent’s adage round your memory twine,/You’ll one day fear your human face divine”: Goethe’s Faust [1808] (1843) translated by George Lefevre, M.D. (Charles Jugel) p. 78. The wise words that advise not to get involved in an equality practice are those addressed by Abdiel to Satan in Milton (Paradise Lost VI, 174–181):
.
- 11.
Poe (1844), ed. Van Doren Stern (1945), pp. 439–462.
- 12.
Publius Terentius Afer, Andria, 250, quoted by Vico (1990); cp. pp. 688, 740. 743.
- 13.
Foscolo [1807] (2015), pp. 156–158.; “Of the Graves” in “Rediscovering Foscolo: a Translation of the ‘Sepolcri’ and of three sonnets”, translated by Valentina Bianchi.
References
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Doreen B (2020–21) Townsend Center for the Humanities, Berkeley
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Zanetti, G. (2023). Introduction: Teaching Under Unusal Circumstances. In: Equality and Vulnerability in the Context of Italian Political Philosophy. Studies in the History of Law and Justice, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35553-0_1
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