Editorial

In introducing the inspiration behind and aims of the new Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica (Italian Journal of Political Philosophy), launched by the Italian Society for Political Philosophy, this editorial explores the relationship between politics and philosophy. As does all philosophy, political philosophy arises from the desire to understand what is new and to question existing reality. Political philosophy is thus political in a twofold sense: on the one hand, it is an act of freedom vis-à-vis existing power or knowledge, and, on the other, it is an attempt to establish social relations based on discursive reasoning, and on open participatory mechanisms for decision-making. This dual political attitude is ever more vital in the face of challenges to contemporary societies, such as climate change, migratory movements, dramatic inequalities, and the apparatus of surveillance. Eschewing a philosophy of distraction and non-engagement, political philosophy (and this Journal) endorses the idea of another, “more civic”, philosophy, one which is committed to the opening of new spaces of personal and collective freedom. This Journal intends to nurture the dialogue between Italian and international philosophical-political communities, showing the richness of Italian discussion, and highlighting some of the most authoritative international scholars.

The Citizen sive the Subaltern

The subaltern has frequently been understood as a figure of exclusion, and as the specular opposite of the figure of the citizen. This understanding derives from the Subaltern Studies collective’s creative reading of partial English translations of Antonio Gramsci’s carceral writings. In this article, I argue that a contextualist and diachronic study of the development of the notion of subaltern classes in Gramsci’s full Prison Notebooks reveals a very different understanding of the constitution of subalternity. In particular, the notion of “subaltern capacity”, the dialectical nexus of hegemony and subalternity, and the figure of the “citizen sive subaltern” are proposed as ways of comprehending the contradictions that define the modern citizenship itself as a process of “subalternization”.

Political Philosophy in the Pandemic. The Italian Panorama

From the outset, the emergency generated by the Covid-19 pandemic has had political and philosophical implications, as well as medical, social and economic ones. It has raised issues such as the relationship between security and freedom, between citizens and the state, between rights and obligations, and among democratic powers, as well as discussions about the current economic and environmental model of development. This article presents a review of the main interpretations and reflections on the pandemic proposed by political philosophers in Italy during more than a year of crisis.

Religion, Religions and J.Rawls’ Political Project

The essay explores the relationship between religion and Rawls from the perspective of some issues that are central to his political project: political autonomy, public reason and the implications of the fact of pluralism for the development of the idea of decent peoples. Religion has a dual dimension in political liberalism, plural and singular. The problem of the liberal political transition is to allow these two dimensions to coexist harmoniously within the liberal political project.

Elena Pulcini. The Time to Think of the Good

The essay explores the work of Elena Pulcini, who was snatched away by the pandemic when her ideas and her work were becoming more and more visible in the public sphere. Books like Care of the World, or her last work Tra cura e giustizia, were read and discussed beyond the usual academic circles. Although she was profoundly alien from spectacularisation of any kind, in the last years her profile had become that of a public intellectual whose philosophical work was a point of reference for a wide variety of groups and networks, from feminists to environmentalists.

Editorial

In introducing the project of the Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica (Italian Journal of Political Philosophy), launched by the Italian Society for Political Philosophy, this editorial explores the relationship between politics and philosophy. As with philosophy itself, political philosophy arises from the desire to understand what is new and to question existing reality. Political philosophy is thus political in a twofold sense: on the one hand, it is an act of freedom vis-à-vis existing power or knowledge, and, on the other, it is an attempt to establish social relations based on discursive rationality, and on open participatory mechanisms for decision-making. This dual political attitude is even more essential in the face of challenges to contemporary societies, such as climate change, migratory movements, dramatic inequalities, and the apparatus of surveillance. Avoiding the risk of a “philosophy of distraction or non-engagement”, political philosophy (and this Journal) endorses the idea of another, “more civic”, philosophy, one which is committed to the opening of new spaces of personal and collective freedom. This Journal intends to nurture the dialogue between Italian and international philosophical-political communities, showing the richness of Italian discussion, and highlighting some of the most authoritative international scholars.

Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica. A Space for Discussion

Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica is the official academic journal of the Italian Society of Political Philosophy (SIFP) and aims to offer a space for critical discussion for the different paths of enquiry within the national and international panorama of political philosophy.

Ambivalences. Foucault with Freud

For Foucault, Freud – as Nietzsche and Marx – is not an author to put under exegesis, but a generator of discursivity that opened new possibilities for thinking. This article attributes the same role to Foucault. By reconstructing Foucault’s understanding of the father of psychoanalysis, it contributes to the history of political philosophy and at the same time to the political philosophy of the present.

The Decay of the Heroic State. The Conflict in Giambattista Vico’s New Science

The aim of this essay is to analyze the figure of conflict in Giambattista Vico’s Scienza Nuova, highlighting its epistemological function and its historical-political cogency. This conflict presents itself both as an epistemological means through which reason understands the process of community establishment, and as the effective force for the development of nations. In fact, the changing of times outlined by Vico takes the form of an asymmetrical conflict which proves to be socially significant to the extent that it allows the recomposition of the social body within an order marked by the recognition, albeit precarious, of equality.

Sergio Caruso. Curiositas as a Passion

The essay explores the work of Sergio Caruso, whose work moved from theories of justice to citizenship, from the notion of ideology to the role of intellectuals. I will retrace some of the fils rouges of Caruso’s production and adopt two main lenses of observation. First, his work will be presented as an example of immanent critique, and secondly, it will be analysed in the light of its more or less explicit normative outcomes.