Martino Rossi Monti

PREVIEW & ORDER HERE: https://www.ifzg.hr/proizvod/fanaticism/

Are there some “ultimate" biological and cognitive reasons behind the cultural expressions of fanaticism? What makes adolescence an "age of extremes"? What is the lifeworld of a paranoid person like? What are the potential fanatical outcomes of holistic theories in biology? What combination of fanaticism, violence, and conspiracist thinking led to the January 6 assault on Capitol Hill? What drives the wave of intolerance known as “cancel culture”? How does suicide terrorism differ between the Palestinian context and transnational jihadist groups? What’s behind the popularity of various notions of “enthusiasm” during the Age of Enlightenment? Why did the Nazis turn fanaticism into a virtue? How can ethnic and religious hatred be ‘defused’ and post-war reconciliation promoted in highly multiethnic regions like Bosnia and Herzegovina? These questions, among others, are addressed by the authors in this volume, which offers a broad perspective on fanaticism through diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

ToC

Introduction
Martino Rossi Monti

1. Evolutionary Explanations of Fanaticism
Darko Polšek

2. The Extremism of Adolescents
Alfio Maggiolini

3. The Paranoid Spectrum
Mario Rossi Monti

4. When Holism Rhymes with Fanaticism and Fascism
Roberto Bondí

5. From Suspicion to Extremism: Conspiracy Theories and Political Violence
Lorenzo Urbano

6. The New Maoists: Woke Activism, Cancel Culture, and the Decline of Humor
Guido Vitiello

7. The Fanaticism of Martyrdom: Suicide Terrorism in Jihadist Contexts
Fabio Dei

8. “The Dark Side of Reason”: Imagination and Enthusiasm in the Age of Enlightenment
Silvia Parigi

9. A Blind Faith in the Führer: Fanaticism Towards Hitler in the Third Reich
Paolo Lombardi

10. Why Is ‘‘Ethnic’’ So Divisive? The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tatjana Milovanović

Does art need to be beautiful? Can humour be beautiful? What is the relationship between beauty and mimetic behaviour? What does literature have to do with beauty? What are the limitations of neuroscientific approaches to beauty? Are the experience of beauty and the production of "art" confined to anatomically modern humans? Is the experience of beauty confined to humans at all? These are just some of the questions discussed in this volume. It gathers together authors from different areas of research, including philosophy, history of philosophy, history of ideas, cognitive biology, neuroscience, anthropology and paleoanthropology, in order to investigate some of the most debated aspects of the problem of beauty and aesthetic experience. The volume will appeal to both the general reader and the specialist in the humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences.

Sono qui raccolte le recensioni che lo storico delle idee Paolo Rossi, figura di prestigio internazionale e tra le più importanti della cultura italiana, pubblicò per molti anni sulle pagine culturali del «Sole 24 Ore». Nel breve spazio di una pagina, con la lucidità e la chiarezza che gli erano consuete, Rossi analizza criticamente libri importanti, pubblicati in Italia e all'estero, di filosofia, di scienza, di storia, di antropologia, di religione, di politica; discute le tesi centrali e i presupposti non sempre espliciti dai quali muovono; sottolinea i punti di forza, ma anche, con garbo e fermezza, i punti deboli. Il volume offre un quadro della cultura europea vista da uno studioso dagli interessi molteplici, dalla curiosità insaziabile e dalla scrittura sempre avvincente.

In his works, Aristotle speaks of the periodical disappearance and rebirth of civilizations and insists on the eternal recurrence of the same ideas, arts, and political institutions. In his Meteorologica, in the context of a cosmos conceived as eternal, a link is established between natural and cultural cycles. Touching on the reception of this text in the Arab world and the Christian Middle Ages, this essay will briefly review some of the discussions on the theme of eternal recurrence in sixteenth-century Italian meteorological literature and address their revival in the Discorsi sopra le Metheore d’Aristotele (1584) by Ragusan philosopher Nicolò Vito di Gozze.

PDF AVAILABLE HERE: https://lares.cfs.unipi.it/media/full-text/lares-2020-3-rossi-monti.pdf


The literature on the COVID-19 pandemic is expanding daily. This essay explores
a diverse range of texts written by Western intellectuals of different backgrounds
during the first phase of the pandemic and discusses some of the most
widespread ideas and emotions conveyed by these texts. Four major themes are
addressed: 1) political and ideological uses of the virus; 2) conceptualizations of
nature and of humanity’s relationship to it; 3) discussions surrounding the fear of
infection and death in secular and medicalized societies; 4) the sense of estrangement
expressed by many intellectuals during home confinement. In the conclusion,
these views are placed in the context of the increasing popularity, in our
societies, of various forms of cultural pessimism.

The essay explores the life, thought and fortune of the controversial philosopher and theologian Paulus Scalichius / Pavao Skalić (1534-1575). In the first part, a short biography is provided, followed by an overview of some of the most significant cultural trends characterizing Europe between the 15th and 16th centuries. Outside of such context, in fact, Scalichius' thought remains difficult to grasp. In the second part, a brief survey of his fortune between the 16th and 18th centuries shows that Scalichius did not play a marginal role in the history of encyclopedism, magic, Christian cabalism, and in the literature dedicated to emblems and symbols. Next, some of the most relevant aspects of his thought are addressed, focusing on some of the treatises collected in his Encyclopaediae … Epistemon (Basel, 1559), which was republished in Köln in 1571 with a number of significant variations. In the conclusion, it is stressed that it remains difficult to fully understand the evolution of Scalichius' thought, to assess his originality, and to identify his place in the cultural context of his time until a proper examination of his sources and his use of them is carried out. Much work is yet to be done in this direction.

"'They shall look on him whom they pierced'. On the reception of an eschatological tradition"
The essay explores the development of an ancient eschatological tradition according to which, on Judgment Day, Christ the judge will show his wounds to the terrified sinners as a sign of reproach and condemnation. After emphasizing the role of emotions in the context of preaching and Judgment narratives, some of the early-, late-medieval and modern versions of this theme will be explored. The second part will focus on aspects of its iconographic developments and will offer some tentative remarks on its overall meaning in the context of Christian eschatology.

This essay discusses the hostility toward the sensible world and the body displayed by the Platonic tradition and its many heirs. The first part focuses on some aspects of Plato's treatment of the soul and their reception in some philosophical and religious texts written between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD, with particular attention to Plotinus' Enneads. The second part attempts to show how, in the Platonic tradition and especially in Plotinus, such hostility coexisted – in a profoundly problematic way – with a positive attitude toward this world, thereby generating a number of unresolved tensions and difficulties.

This essay attempts, on the one side, to illustrate the relationship between Geoffrey of Auxerre’s physical description of St. Bernard of Clairvaux in the Vita Prima (XII cent.) and the ancient physiognomical tradition and, on the other, to discuss the re-emergence of such description and its meaning in the context of Della Porta’s De humana physiognomonia and Coelestis physiognomonia. A particular attention will be devoted to the Platonic-Christian theme of the ‘visibility’ of inner beauty through the grace of the body and its problematic relationship with the physiognomical tradition.

In the Republic of Plato, we find the story of a certain Leontius, son of Aglaion, who one day, while on his way up from the Piraeus, spotted the bodies of some freshly executed criminals: “He wanted to go and look at them, but at the same time he was disgusted and tried to turn away. He struggled for some time and covered his eyes, but at last the desire was too much for him. Opening his eyes wide, he ran up to the bodies and cried: ‘There you are, curse you, fill yourselves with this beautiful sight!’”. The essay takes the cue from this strange story in order to reflect and raise questions about the general attitude toward suffering and violence and their artistic portrayal in classical Athens.

Recalling some historical episodes and philosophical reflections, this essay attempts to show how and why ordinary human beings turn into murderers. As proved by several psychological experiments, almost everyone, if put in a certain situation, can be easily convinced to act cruelly toward other people. This happens because everyone is somehow subject to conformism and to the fascination of power and force.

The first part of the essay attempts to clarify the relationship between, on the one side, gesturing and the touch of hands, and, on the other side, the action of divine grace. This relationship is studied on the basis of Renaissance pictorial representations of the legend of Saint Luke painting the Virgin Mary. The second part examines a popular legend among German and Russian Romantics, according to which the Virgin appeared to Raphael in a dream. It was only after this miraculous vision that Raphael, like a second Luke, was able to paint his graceful Madonnas. Given the pro-found similarities of the two legends, the conclusion attempts a comparison between Luke and Raphael.

Lively and deeply productive discussions have focused on the topics of “magnificence” and “the sublime” in the art and literature of antiquity, the Renaissance, and the ages following. They have engaged major figures from Ernst Gombrich to Theodore Adorno to Jean-Francois Lyotard. Yet, these discussions have virtually bypassed the Middle Ages. The essays in Magnificence and the Sublime in Medieval Aesthetics reclaim a position for the medieval period in the theoretical discussion of art, architecture, music, and literature. These analyses of an aesthetic of grandeur show an artistic practice in the Middle Ages that strove for and celebrated grand effects.

Review of :

Alberto Bonchino, Materie als geronnener Geist. Studien zu Franz von Baader in den philosophischen Konstellationen seiner Zeit, Baaderiana, vol. I, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2014, pp. 169; Franz von Baader, Jugendtagebücher 1786-1793. Mit Vorwort und kritischem Kommentar, Baaderiana, vol. II, eds. A. Bonchino & A. Franz, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2017, pp. 224; Aufklärung und Romantik als Herausforderung für katholisches Denken, Baaderiana, vol. III, eds. A. Bonchino & A. Franz, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2015, pp. 254.

Interview (in Italian) to Faisal Al Mutar, founder of Ideas Beyond Borders, an organization whose goal is to "share, translate and promote ideas that foster critical thinking, civil rights, science, pluralism, and more to ultimately bring to life a modern, pluralistic Middle East, led by the people of the region" (https://www.ideasbeyondborders.org/about-us/).
TEXT HERE: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7388/102258

VISIT https://summerschool.ifzg.hr/


The question of authority in philosophy, that is, the question of which past philosophers are worth studying and being taught is as old as philosophy itself. However, from the late 1960s, in philosophy, like in art history and literary criticism, we can witness the emergence of ever-louder voices requiring a more systematic justification of the philosophical canon. Even the term itself is relatively rarely used before the 1980s. It started circulating as a reference to those philosophers and their works which are generally regarded as fundamental in the study of philosophy, roughly from Socrates to Wittgenstein, and has become useful as a common name for the object of controversy.

The philosophical canon has been challenged from various standpoints and with various scopes. “Analytic” philosophy would give prominence to some philosophers who would, in turn, be neglected by the philosophers in the so-called “continental” tradition (e. g. Hume and Frege). However, philosophers from both camps could agree on the fundamental importance of many others (e. g. Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, etc.). There are also partial attacks on the philosophical canon coming from Marxism. A different kind of attacks on the canon come from critical race theory and feminism: the canon is accused of being racist, narrow-minded, sexist, and xenophobic, consisting of exclusively “dead, white, European males”. Some proponents of these theories require at least an augmentation of the canon. On the other hand, some require a more radical revision, such as replacing the male-only canon with a women-only canon.

The aim of this year’s summer school is to cover multiple topics regarding the philosophical canon. On the one hand, we will explore the philosophical and historical processes that led to the development of the philosophical canon and investigate different aspects of theoretical attacks on and defenses of it. On the other hand, we will tackle some more particular questions. Is questioning the canon a sign of a crisis? Who and why should be included in or excluded from the canon? Is there a need for a canon? These topics will be addressed from both a historical and a philosophical perspective.

“The belief in the value of scientific truth – Max Weber once remarked – is not derived from nature, but is a product of definite cultures”. In 1938, Robert K. Merton, one of the founding fathers of the sociology of science, added that, under certain conditions, “this belief is readily transmuted into doubt or disbelief”. Skepticism, in turn, can develop into open hostility and rejection. In fact, since its emergence, modern science has been subject to a vast range of criticisms, which have further intensified with the explosive transformations that science and technology have brought about – for better and for worse – in the past three hundred years. Sometimes, these criticisms are motivated by ideological or emotional factors; other times, instead, they are related to the very structure of the scientific enterprise or to the ways in which scientific knowledge is achieved and communicated. But what is modern science, and what is it that distinguishes it from other – past and present – forms of knowledge? The aim of this course is, on the one hand, to explore the historical processes that led to the development of what today we call “science” and to the rejection or marginalization of what is no longer considered such; on the other hand, it is to discuss some of those skeptic or antiscientific attitudes as they emerge both within and without the domain of science proper. These topics will be addressed from historical, philosophical and sociological perspectives.

The Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia, organises the international conference "What is Beauty?". The conference will take place at the Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia, on December 14-15th 2017. We would like to explore as many aspects as possible of the concept of "beauty", both from a theoretical and a historical perspective.