Philosophical Readings - Online Journal of Philosophy – ISSN 2036-4989

Heiner Mühlmann, La natura delle culture: bozza di una teoria genetica della cultura, a cura di Gianluca Bonaiuti; con una postfazione di Gianluca Bonaiuti e Antonio Lucci (Milano-Udine: Mimesis, 2023).

Veronica Cesco — 2024-07-29

This is a review of the book written by Heiner Muhlmann: The Nature of Cultures: A Blueprint for a Theory of Culture Genetics, published for the first time in 1996. My analysis refers to the second edition of the text, which was made public in 2023.
The written outlines a genetic theory of culture which examines the dynamics of its genesis under various perspectives that covers areas of biological and scientific relevance, according to an historical-sociological framework.
The outcome is a cyclical and iterative model structured in 5 phases that first analyze the local rules that set up the cultures and their inheritance; then, the physiologically-determined dynamics that trigger their development and lead to the emergence of a new cultural constitution. This is a cyclical pattern.
Muhlmann’s study shows how Cultures is an active and warlike system that "generates war and which is generated through war"(pg. 7), the evolution of which is associated with the genetic transmission of traits between generations.
It is a current reading that reflects the drama of contemporary reality, where the cruelty of cultures seems to leave no room for any form of humanity.
In all of this, do human beings hold the key to all of this atrocity?

Pietro Del Soldà, Sulle ali degli amici. Una filosofia dell’incontro (Venezia: Marsilio editori, 2020).

Alice Romano — 2024-07-29

Sulle ali degli amici. Una filosofia dell'incontro - Pietro del Soldà

Jeanette Winterson, 12 bytes. Come siamo arrivati in qui, dove potremmo finire in futuro, (Milano: Mondadori, 2023).

Pietro Bonelli — 2024-07-29

"12 bytes. How we got here, where we might go next" is a publication by the english author Jeanette Winterson. The book is a series of thirteen essays divided in four chapters where Winterson analyzes the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its possible future development. Starting from the past, precisely from the First Industrial Revolution, the author intend to illustrate the problem that this particular period introduced and how they could have been avoided. In particular she focus on the unease of workers and women life in the UK questioning the readers to learn from history and asking to dedicate ourself to erase old problems in the future application of technology. She also analyzes the similarities between AI and religion, arguing (and hoping for) the possibilities that AI will follow the buddhist teachings of compassion, material detachment and cooperation. The third chapter talks about the relation that humans have and will have in the future with forms of life based on AI, and how this will affect the preexisting relation between woman and man. 12 bytes is a book full of hope, but not indifferent to the "dystopian" aftermath of technology and Winterson insists on the necessity of a radical cultural change of mentality in order to prevent this application from happening.

Rossella Fabbrichesi, Il primo libro di filosofia teoretica (Torino: Einaudi, 2023).

Marco Ferretti — 2024-07-29

Metaphysics, ontology, phenomenology, epistemology, hermeneutics and genealogy: these areas, despite their diversity, revolve around the same themes and communicate with each other. The latter take on a different character depending on the way in which they are approached: for example the notions of essence and "thing in itself" will indicate something very different if considered first in the ontological context, then in the genealogical one. The very conception of truth seems to differ depending on the context. If in antiquity the being of things was considered indubitable, in modernity only the subject could be said to be such, or at least the constitutive and original relationship that existed between the subjective and objective polarity. Then, especially with analytical thinking, it was clarified that ontological questions cannot be asked without preliminary consideration of the language being used (Quine). This and much more is explained in this volume, in light of different perspectives. A general look at every notion, which, intertwining with the others, weaves the theoria on which everything should be based and in which everything should find its foundation.

Maurizio Bettini, Chi ha paura dei Greci e dei Romani? Dialogo e cancel culture (Torino: Einaudi, 2023).

Martina Fortunati — 2024-07-29

Il testo allegato è la recensione del testo di Maurizio Bettini Chi ha paura dei Greci e dei Romani? Dialogo e cancel culture. In questo testo l'autore, intavolando un dialogo con i lettori, cerca di definire il valore della cultura classica imponendosi in quel dibattito tanto acceso alzato dai movimenti di decolonizing classics e cancel culture.

The file uploaded is the review of a Maurizio Bettini's text: Chi ha paura dei Greci e dei Romani? Dialogo e cancel culture. In this short book the author tries to define the value of classical culture moving through a dialogue with the movement known as "decolonizing classics" and "cancel culture".

Lucio Cortella, L'ethos del riconoscimento (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2023).

Swamy Donè — 2024-07-29

Questo testo è una recensione del testo L'Ethos del riconoscimento di Lucio Cortella, edito Editori Laterza 2023.

Christian Onof, The Problem of Free Will and Naturalism (London: Bloomsbury, 2024).

Fabiana Grazioli — 2024-07-29

Christian Onof, The Problem of Free Will and Naturalism (London: Bloomsbury, 2024).

Juan Luis Vives on Study Notebooks: Education, Language and Epistemic Value

Valentina Lepri — 2024-07-29

This paper outlines Juan Luis Vives’ (1493-1540) instructions for the creation and management of a study notebook, contained in his De ratione studii puerilis Epistolae duae (1524) and De disciplinis (1531). It aims to show that this set of rules went beyond educational purposes, as it was consistent with Vives' conception of knowledge, and in particular with the characteristics that he attributed to language. Recent studies have rightly pointed out that his ideas about knowledge and language were in line with the anti-scholastic trend of the time, which sought to move philosophical reflection from the abstract and metaphysical to the concrete and empirical. The paper argues that Vives' reflections on notebooks and note-taking were part of the same project, since his notebook was the main ground for organizing the empirical level of knowledge.

The Secret Letters of Gasparo Contarini to Trifon Gabriele

Marco Sgarbi — 2024-07-29

Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542) was born into one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Venetian Republic, and rose to become one of the most prominent intellectuals of the first half of the Cinquecento. His philosophical work is mainly known for the dispute with his teacher Pietro Pomponazzi on the immortality of the soul. His vast philosophical oeuvre has gone practically unnoticed. It is my intention here to examine certain features of Contarini’s thought that might serve to illustrate his intellectual sophistication as well as his views on the immortality of the soul. My focus will be on three letters that Contarini sent to Trifon Gabriele (1470-1549), who was known as the “new Socrates” because he left no written documents. The correspondence between these two “titans” of Venetian culture in the Cinquecento is of the utmost interest not only because of the calibre of the writers themselves, but also because Contarini urges Gabriele not to divulge their letters. The fact that Contarini calls for secrecy for these letters, however, is a matter of interest: what do they contain? Was there anything that might compromise Contarini in a context of extreme Counter-Reformation tension?