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This article aims to dialectically synthesize the main theses of Livio Rossetti concerning the origins of philosophy. It considers Rossetti’s central thesis, which has been prominent in recent years, that philosophy does not begin with Thales but rather with Plato, given that in the works of the Athenian philosopher, the semanteme philosoph* appears with a frequency previously unseen. The article also poses a critical inquiry to Rossetti regarding the definition of philosophia that he, at least implicitly, employs to support his theses.

The text aims to discuss Gaston Fessard's historical and dialectical model in The Mystery of Society. It begins with a comparison with Hegel's Master and Servant dialectic and goes on to show how Fessard, influenced by Paul, elaborates on two other dialectics: man-woman and pagan-jew. The article demonstrates that Fessard succeeds in offering a more effective interpretive key than Hegel's for understanding history and its conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social care is affected by multidisciplinary work which by its nature fragments the fragility of subjects into segments dictated by the reference disciplines, vulnerability is experienced as a sort of common exploration of border regions. Working with the person, the protagonist of their life project, means observing them in their uniqueness and accompanying them by their subjectivity. Interdisciplinarity focuses on a dialectic between knowledge that starts from a shared vision of the subject. By the proactive experience of working in a team in a Day Center for people with disabilities, we intend to broaden our gaze to enhance the interdisciplinary dialogue between different services and professionals, starting from a humanistic vision of care as a point of ontological convergence of knowledge and skills of pedagogical, social, legal and medical area about a culture of social work transversal to the plurality of knowledge in a trans-disciplinary perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first half of the twelfth century, masters in sacra pagina (a discipline encompassing commentary on the Holy Scriptures and discussions of dogmatic-doctrinal issues inherent in the Bible) frequently employed the arts of the trivium (dialectics, rhetoric, and grammar) in their teaching. Their primary aim was to comprehend divine mysteries through human reason. However, in some collections of sentences attributed by scholars to the so-called “School of Laon”, grammar and dialectics rather emphasize the limits of human language when applied to God and Trinity. This paper examines passages from Sententiae divinae paginae, Sententiae Atrebatenses and Deus principium et finis totius creaturae intending to demonstrate how, in these collections, grammar attests to divine ineffability rather than its knowability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to dialectically synthesize the main theses of Livio Rossetti concerning the origins of philosophy. It considers Rossetti's central thesis, which has been prominent in recent years, that philosophy does not begin with Thales but rather with Plato, given that in the works of the Athenian philosopher, the semanteme philosoph* appears with a frequency previously unseen. The article also poses a critical inquiry to Rossetti regarding the definition of philosophia that he, at least implicitly, employs to support his theses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Lipovetsky and Serroy, beauty has risen to a new ontological requirement: the aesthetic phenomenon has expanded beyond its traditional boundaries, influencing reality and above all the economic dimension. The result has been an art market in which the aesthetic work responds to unprecedented hierarchies of value and the author finds himself assuming professional postures fueled by innovative deontologies. This contribution intends to investigate the transformations that the aesthetic job undergoes within the late capitalist and post-Fordist logic through a close reading of Michel Houellebecq's La carte et le territoire. In the novel it is possible to observe the professional attitudes of three different artists: the photographer and painter Jed Martin, the fictional writer Michel Houellebecq and - through a metanarrative refraction - the narrator Michel Houellebecq. All three face the professionalization of the artistic activity oscillating between the poles of a dialectic that is difficult to resolve between artisanal and industrial work, creativity and methodicalness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to grasp the specificity of the Critical Theory developed by the Frankfurt School within the horizon of European Neo-Marxism. And this according to the main hypothesis that the former operates, as a paradigm, from a double perspective: on the one hand, as a critique of political economy; on the other, as a critique of modernity as such. Thus, three moments shall structure our proposal: 1) The discussion of the hypotheses elaborated by Friedrich Pollock; 2) The interpretation of The Dialectic of Reason as a text operating a crucial synthesis between the two perspectives (i.e. critique of political economy and critique of modernity); 3) The way in which the paradigm of Critical Theory is indeed actualised through a theory of social domination. These three axes shall allow us to outline a conceptual paradigm elaorated since the middle of the 1930s by Max Horkheimer in his seminal essay Traditional Theory and Critical Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at exploring the possibility of a scientific, critical and non-confessional use of the notion of 'apocrypha'. In dialogue with the most up-to-date bibliography on the topic, the dialectic between 'canonical' and 'apocryphal' becomes an opportunity to rethink the origins of proto-Christian scriptural production. Specifically, we recognize a principle of literary dependence of the apocryphal tradition(s) on a horizon of texts identified as authoritative and normative, even before the firm definition of a New Testament canon. At the same time, the apocryphal, as a logic of alteration of the origin, therefore as an incessant and unstable relaunch of Jesus' revelation, is highlighted as a genetic and original element of the entire Christian phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Dominus Vobiscum (letter 28) is undoubtedly one of Peter Damian’s most original works, and has experienced a renewed interest thanks to the re-emergence of the ecclesiology of communion around Vatican II, but in-depth studies of the work as a whole are missing and its sources seem quite limited. In this analysis of the text and its argumentative structure, the conceptual development is built on the dialectic of contrasts, starting from the binomial of “solitudo pluralis” and “multitudo singularis”, typical of the hermit. The theme is unfolded in its pneumatological, Christological and ecclesiological aspects. A formal analysis seems to demonstrate that the theses presented by Peter Damian are mainly the result of the power of rhetoric, which he undoubtedly mastered.

In the second half of the eleventh century, monastic culture found the theoretical support for the project of ecclesiastical reform in which it participates in the ratio fidei, in the enhancement of the sciences and in the refinement of argumentative techniques, with which to adapt the behaviour of Christians to the Truth of the Mysteries and to the reality of the sacraments. The reform project that supports the need of the institutional Church to restore the powers and moral credit lost in the last two centuries conflicts in several places with a more radical and universalistic conception of the Church as the people of God. And the stakes of this conflict must be sought not in a theoretical aspect but in the defence or downsizing of the Church’s magisterial function. In this context, Pier Damiani’s participation in the debate on Judaism manifests at least three general aspects, in addition to a constructive attitude on the relationship with cultural otherness. In the first place he confirms the attitude of monastic culture to the theological use of the arts; secondly, he explicitly identifies an ancillary role for reason with respect to faith; finally, he implicitly clarifies the ideological nature of the internal oppositions of the reformer movement.

In literature Peter Damian has been often presented as an anti-dialectic thinker. Over time this statement has been subjected to careful historiographical revision. Today it is commonly accepted that the distinction between dialectic and anti-dialectic thinkers only partially describes the state of philosophy in the eleventh century. In fact, the relation between faith and reason is complex in Damian. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider this relation in the light of the significance Damian attributes to the notion of contradiction. Reason must respect the principle of non-contradiction not only when it describes the natural world, but also when it explores the dimension of the mysteries of faith.

A priori, there is a “tension” between the principles of Stoic philosophy, which include a rejection of anything in rhetoric that deviates from a pure and hard dialectic, and the cultural environment where Arrien and Epictetus evolved, where rhetoric was omnipresent, and this from the initial training. The purpose of this article is to analyze the manifestations of this presence of rhetoric in Book 3 of the Discourses, both as a traditional target of criticism and as an instrument of an extremely sophisticated pedagogy.

Epictetus’ Discourse 3.12, entitled “On Asceticism”, is part of a tradition of Stoic treatises of the same title, including Lesson 6 by his master, Musonius Rufus. This tradition identifies philosophy with a training or exercise, distinct from the wisdom that these exercises strive to attain through putting dogmas into practice and the exercise of virtue. Epictetus introduces in this context his famous three topoi (desire, impulse, assent) seeking to limit the role of the exercise of assent reduced by contemporary philosophers to technical training in logic. He also seeks to limit the role of the ostentatious asceticism of the body, against certain tendencies of cynical asceticism, which was integrated by Musonius with his own imprint but without criticism. Even if the three topoi are proper to Epictetus, it is possible to find partial anticipations of them in the Latin Stoic tradition, reported by Cicero or endorsed by Seneca. Epictetus has an original conception of asceticism but he follows the path of this tradition and of the teaching of Musonius.

Copyright of MATRIZes is the property of Universidade de Sao Paulo, Programa de Pos Graduacao em Ciencias da Comunicacao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

By framing Aristotle’s dialectic in the broader context of scientific inquiry and demonstration, this paper is aimed at showing of what use the “reputable opinions” can be for grasping the principles of sciences, as declared in Topics I.2. It argues that such a use cannot imply ‒ at any stage of inquiry ‒ a replacement of the logic and intrinsic goals of demonstration by those proper to dialectic. However, it also defends a substantive (but still modest) contribution of dialectic ‒ beyond its well-attested methodological role in discarding contradictory opinions and its (possible though not germane to the context of Topics I.2) application to proving the principle of non-contradiction by means of refutation. This contribution consists in providing the preliminary accounts of facts in order to have scientific inquiry started, as required in Posterior Analytics II.8. To better appreciate how the proposed location of dialectic in a pre-demonstrative stage of inquiry is operational, the paper finally examines Physics IV.1-5.

While refutation is usually related to Plato's early, Socratic, dialogues, this paper is aimed at exploring the link between refutation and dialectic in some of his middle and late dialogues. First, it argues that refutation assumes a constructive role in the Phaedo, where the best logos is the least refutable, and also in the Republic, where the philosopher is invited to fight his way through all elenchoi. Then, it tries to show that the gymnasia of Prm. 130a ff. is aimed at training young Socrates to come to the aid of the theory he embraces preventing it from being refuted. He should travel and explore all the paths, by assuming a hypothesis as well as the opposite one. This methodology paves the way on which Plato advances in the Sophist, where the antinomic structure of the gymnasia gives way to a “constructive” dialectic in which the aporia is solved and a thesis is established by refutation. The last section of this paper is devoted to analysing Sph. 251c-252e, where the positive and constructive function of the elenchus is especially clear. Plato argues for the symploke eidon by exploring all the hypotheses that are open to the search and refuting those that ultimately represent obstacles to his position. The symploke is the truth which remains when all the hypotheses that contradict it have been refuted. The conclusion is that the elenchus does not disappear but is put at the service of the truth, as an essential part of the method for attaining a positive doctrine.

The papers in this dossier were written within the framework of two research projects on the refutation strategies of radical adversaries in Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings. Both projects, directed by Graciela Marcos and based in the Institute of Philosophy “Dr. Alejandro Korn” (Instituto de Filosofía “Dr. Alejandro Korn”) of the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, were subsidised by the Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica of this university and by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnológica (ANCyPT), to whom we would like to express our gratitude. Special thanks also to Fabián G. Mié, who, for several years, has been working on the question of dialectic in Plato and Aristotle and with whom, even if he has not formally joined our team, we have had the good fortune to exchange ideas and discuss many of the issues related to both projects. Fabián Mié’s work is therefore added to the works presented by Lucas M. Álvarez, María E. Díaz, Martín S. Forciniti, Julián Macías and Graciela E. Marcos in this dossier.

This essay aims to outline the ontological basis that determines the moral action of the virtuous man in Christian Wolff's practical philosophy. Therefore, the dialectic between the conceptual pair obligatio-officium and the idea of lex was adopted as interpretative key, in order to bring out the notion of consensus, which characterises the moral action of the virtuous man. The latter, having fully developed his faculties (the cognitive and the appetitive one), reflects divine perfection and becomes artifex of his own happiness, actualising what is morally necessary in all his free actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the thesis on progress presented by Raffaello Franchini in the two editions of his book L'idea di progresso (The Idea of Progress, 1960, 1979). The work comes in a historical and geo-political context where progress is a "myth" or an "ideology" in decline. Franchini wants to understand and discuss the philosophical reasons for this decline: thus, he links the reflection on progress to the coeval reflection on dialectics and perspective judgment, the logical core of his theory of philosophical prevision. The article ends by underlining the urgency of a philosophical rethinking of the idea of progress, in particular for the present world, marked by catastrophes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work I deal with the theophanic side of the Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels by Walter Benjamin. It means that the essence of being reveals itself in the allegorical figure of Saturn and in its rule: the methaphysics of exception. In this context, it becomes perspicuous the nature of the Darstellung der Ideen as the representation of the absolute conjunction between Destiny - the eternal constellation of truth in which the "platonic salvation of phenomena", and the historical reality dominated by the juridical dialectics of violence happens. This conjunction expresses a mutual implication between the two dimensions and it could be written in this form: representation of [(De^de)]stiny. This ontological perspective is intelligible in the light of the theory of Baroque allegory linked with the doctrine of state of exception as "nearly impossible to decide". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an interpretation of Books V and VI of Aristotle’s Physics as being (at least partly) a reaction to Zeno’s four “arguments against motion” that Aristotle expounds and discusses in Phys. VI 9. On the basis of a detailed textual analysis of that chapter, I show that Zeno’s arguments rest on a frame of a priori notions such as part and whole, in contact, between, limit, etc., which Aristotle takes over in order to account for the inner structure (here called “the In-Between”) common to all facts of motion and change. That frame allows him to develop a specific ontology for that inner structure – although it exists only potentially according to the Aristotelian orthodoxy – because he needs such an ontology in order to vindicate the reality of motion and change.

The purpose of this study is to focus on the coexistence, during the transmission of the doctrine on the Topics in the early Middle Ages, of two different interpretations: although both emerge from two commentaries on Cicero’s Topics, however, they gave rise to two different readings: the one transmitted by Marius Victorinus (ca. 280-365 AC) who thought the topics almost exclusively in the service of Rhetoric, the other conceived by Boethius (ca. 480-524 AC) who intended to restore the centrality that the Topics had in the Aristotelian Logic, by subordinating the rethorical Topics to dialectical Topics. My conclusion is that the Early Middle Ages can be considered, from an epistemological point of view, as a long boetiana aetas. Although the corpus of Boethius’s logical writings was not yet available until the second half of the 11th century, Boethius’s methodological approach on the Topics somehow continued to support the slow but constant absorption of the topical doctrine into the new Christian sensibility.

Giolitti was a reformist. With some interruption, he led the government from 1903 to 1921. To the political and social crises of this government, the principal replays in the language of constitutional law and of philosophy were those of Santi Romano, Croce, Gentile, Salandra e Gramsci. But the belle époque was finished, or was finishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In my discussion of Adriano Fabris' Etica e ambiguità [ Ethics and Ambiguity], I will consider three main objections. 1) Firstly, I will discuss Fabris' attempt to criticize and reshape the Aristotelian ἒλεγΧος, as it appears in the fourth book of Metaphysics, from a performative perspective, showing that it already falls within, and is substantially invalidated by, the semantic domain of Aristotle's distinction between "contradiction" and "self-contradicting". 2) Secondly, since Fabris invokes a reform of Western philosophy's general attitude towards action and relation, I will show how classic ontology (notably Plato's notions of being, as opposed to Parmenides', and dialectics) already provides a robust example of a deeply relational (though admittedly not performative in the sense highlighted by Fabris) notion of being. 3) Thirdly, I criticize Fabris' notion of relation, because it indifferently refers both to ontology and ethics, whereas a proper ethical consideration of it, while necessarily involving ontology, should be treated as distinct from the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Focusing on the different ways in which Pavese and Calvino addressed themes that interested them both - the motif of the primitive, narrations of origins, the ways in which the merger/distance dialectics can be handled affectively in human relations - this article shows how both writers intuitively engaged with issues concerning mental functioning and development: issues that, in the context of psychoanalysis, were to be conceptualised only long after Freud, and by analysts neither Pavese nor Calvino could be familiar with (e.g. Racamier, Bion, and Klein). Through a series of textual comparisons, I will also show how Calvino kept reflecting about Pavese's suicide long after the event took place. In this respect, I will also argue that Calvino implicitly associated Pavese's suicide with problems revolving around a key mental function: the dispositif subsequently named «primal mourning» (Racamier). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pasolini, after his encounter with Contini, moves from his Friulian poetry, which did not engage particularly with Dante’s poetics, to acknowledging in Dante’s plurilingualism and in the literary uses of dialects an element of realism which he will later use remarkably in his novels and films. Pasolini, following the ‘crisis’ expressed in the Ceneri di Gramsci poems, and further to his reading of Auerbach, concentrated on the dialectics of humble and sublime in his interest for the Commedia, as it also features in his films, for which it became a style signature. The rewriting of the Comedy under such a perspective and his progressive self-identification with Dante’s life and poetics will characterize the final stage of his activity, from La Divina mimesis to Salò, le 120 giornate di Sodoma and finally Petrolio, for their representation of the crisis through similar narrative devices (the author as a poet-prophet, the split self, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luigi De Luca composes Dante's Padre nostro according to that “concertante polychorality” which is the constant of his highest production: the dialectic between an ideal sound architecture and the search for an effective expression finds essentiality and fullness here. It is an element that recalls the existing themes, both on a speculative and concrete level, in the music of Dante's time and of which the Poet was fully aware: the music he admires is the polyphonic "mundana harmony” that resounds in Paradise, as well as, in Purgatory, the sweetness of Casella's monodic chant. In this way, De Luca not only returns to the linguistic sources of Italian music, but reaffirms the need to overcome the dogmatic separation of the sound universes: the aspiration to a higher harmony is none other than the desire for metaphysics that runs through all of his production and which makes the same creative condition possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay compares the interpretations given of Moses by Girolamo Savonarola and Martin Luther. Despite some similarities in their biographies, their readings of the lawgiver of the Old Covenant diverge profoundly and are therefore indicators of different ideas of the relationship between church and society. Savonarola discovers in Moses the model of his own role as liberator of the people from a slavery which is spiritual and political at the same time. Luther, on the other hand, makes a clear distinction between these two spheres and inscribes the relevance of Moses in the dialectic of "law" and "gospel", which is fundamental for his pastoral approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny is the property of Polish Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this article is to examine the works of W.G. Sebald, following the thread of the dialectic homeland-exile. German history and geography seen through the lives of dystopian wanderers are the main focus of Sebald's work, which also tries to establish a connection with his personal experience. Both for the author and for his characters any sense of cultural belonging is declared to be either unsustainable or denied. For this reason, together with Die Ausgewanderten, Die Ringe des Saturn and Sebald's interviews, particular attention is devoted to Schwindel. Gefühle (1995) and its main character: Kafka's Hunter Gracchus, a symbol of concrete and emotional exile in limbo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of InTRAlinea: Online Translation Journal is the property of Department Interpreting & Translation (DIT) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essay presents a large variety of meanings attributed to the vision by some thinkers of the circle of Lorenzo de' Medici. In particular, the analysis of the works of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino allows to study the dichotomy between sensitive knowledge and intelligible knowledge starting from the dialectic between vision and blindness of the "mind's eye". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to underline the rule of imaginary in the contemporary fables, analyzing the 'dialectic of imagination' which moves from 'symbolic' to 'Real' and viceversa. Firstly, this work will focus on evolution of Disney's cinematic universe whose narrations became more 'real' in the last movies through the psychoanalytic introspection of each character - expecially the evil-ones. Secondly, the difference between hero's role in mythology and in classical fables will be compared, pointing out the psychoanalytic rapresentation, which is function and fondation of the freudian Super-Ego in fairytales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the political space from the perspective of contemporary cities and political subjectification within them. Today the Right to the City is mainly configured as a right to transform urban spaces, adapting them to plural and different life forms. A plurality of conscious and responsible political subjects occupies and crosses the urban space, often changing sign and direction of sedimented normative representations. We can say that these forms of political subjectification exceed the inclusion/exclusion dialectics, establishing themselves into a selective and differential logic of inclusion. A logic that works both through strategies of adaptation and resistance, of mediation and counter-conduct. containing elements of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyses the dynamics of deliberative process in Christian Wolff's psychology, in order to rebuild the origins of evil and the nature of freedom, which characterizes the moral action in the Silesian philosopher's practical system. The heuristic parabola starts from the exam of the concept of percepturitio, then it studies the dialectic between voluptas, perfectio, good and evil. Finally, after having analysed the sensitive appetite and the affections, it comes to outline the nature of will and its freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay presented here deals with the complex relationship between the sound body and its other, with a critical look that is both a historical retrospective and a projection towards unexplored horizons. Along this line, the meaning of every experience will also emerge as subtended to silence, in its relationship with sound and, more generally, life itself becomes evident, within the dialectic between what appears and what remains invisible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libraries, through services, activities, professionals and citizens, can be made active places of the dialectic between politics and history, memory and history, local reality and global reality, institutional and personal experience, and past and present, thus educating the society to history and citizenship. A fruitful way is to study and enhance the cultural heritage that the libraries own and the one they have access to, deconstructing it, redefining it and redistributing it in new forms; in this regard, it may be useful to rely on practices and opportunities concerning a public engagement and derived from the disciplinary and civil context of public history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the comedies of Aristophanes, mythological paradigms undergo the usual mechanisms of comic distortion, based on polysemy and linguistic conventions. This paper analyzes the exempla that articulate the two agones of the Clouds, focusing also on the strategy that underlies the choice of relevant events and characters. The comparison with similar exempla in tragedy aims to show that Euripides has already exposed the multiple ironies inherent in the paradeigma as a rhetorical tool. Aristophanes, on the other hand, exploits the paradoxes of dialectics to show that, even if paradigms are the most effective weapon to win the contest, in the economy of the play the epideixeis of both the hetton logos and Pheidippides turn out to be a failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution is concerned with the theme of the imagination of God, in the persons of the trinity, in the Christian people of the 4th-5th century and with the dialectic with their bishops on this topic, especially in the Western context. It will therefore deal mainly with homiletic and epistolary literature. An anthropomorphic imagery of God of the greatest imaginable size is widespread, as well as an extremely dilated luminous imagery. The Fathers, especially Augustine, contrast these tendencies, continually reaffirming that God is not thinkable in any form. However, a vision of God will be possible after the resurrection to the righteous, as Jesus himself promised to the pure in heart. An even more lively imagery concerns the figure of the incarnate god, of Christ, who oscillates between the poles of a person without beauty on the basis of Is. 53 and, especially in the period considered, of a person of extraordinary beauty on the basis of Psalm 45. Also in this case the Fathers contrast the tendency to attribute anthropomorphic traits to this beauty but in some cases accept the intensity of this imaginary evoking an a fortiori comparison with the image that will be seen after the resurrection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the Italian linguistic thought of the XXth Century, this paper aims to examine the juridical notion of institution as applied to the functioning of language. The «institutional paradigm» will be examined in the original formulation given by Giovanni Nencioni (1911-2008), who drew on the parallel between language and juridical norms in order to justify his peculiar theoretical position mediating between Benedetto Croce and Ferdinand de Saussure. Particular attention will be paid to the declination of the paradigm suggested by Pietro Piovani (1922-1980); this will help us illuminate strengths and limitations of the institutional approach in language and law analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines Antonio Labriola's interpretation of historical materialism in the Saggi intorno alla concezione materialistica della storia (Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History). The author identifies the key element to grasp the relevance of Labriola's reading of the Marxism in the concept of theory developed in the Saggi. After reviewing the main interpretations of the Saggi, the author focuses on the relationship between history and theory showing up in Labriola's reading. Firstly, the sense of the theory as expression of the self-consciousness of a real process is examined by the author in connection with the meaning of dialectics as self-criticism of the historical development. Secondly, the author deals with the method of historical materialism and its impact on the historiographical research. Finally, the author discusses the link between the genesis of historical materialism and its scientific validity, focusing on the problems of class consciousness and ideology for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]