Viva Voce by Benso Silvia;

Author:Benso, Silvia;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2017-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

FOUR

RATIONALITY, SCIENCES, EXPERIENCE

Mathematics, Sciences, Objectivity, and System Theory

A Conversation with Evandro Agazzi (Bergamo, 1934)

Silvia Benso: Please provide us with a brief self-presentation. How would you describe yourself in terms of your philosophical interests and the disciplinary areas in which you work?

From a strictly professional point of view, I am considered a philosopher of science. I have indeed spent most of my academic career in this domain, first with work on the foundations of logic and mathematics, then on the philosophy of physics and the empirical sciences, and finally developing my own original position in general philosophy of science. This specialized work, however, has always been inspired by and embedded in much broader philosophical interests that I would qualify as “theoretical philosophy.” Moreover, having always recognized the deep social and historical contextualization of science (and technology), I have devoted much attention to the ethics of techno-science and the issue of harmonizing freedom and responsibility. Due to the careful attention I pay to rigor and arguments in my writings, I have often been characterized as an analytic philosopher (and I am ready to accept this characterization), but the hermeneutic and historicist approaches are equally important aspects of my way of philosophizing.

SB: Let us start with the beginning of your thinking by asking a general question. Please describe for us the Italian philosophical landscape at the start of your philosophical path. What were the predominant themes, problems, and trends? And which figures were most present on the Italian philosophical scene?

I started my philosophical education at the Catholic University in Milan in 1952, that is, shortly after the end of the World War II and in a cultural climate inspired by a reaction to Fascism but at the same time affected by the first manifestations of the Cold War. In Italy, the political force that supported the politics of the Soviet Union was the Communist Party. The Communist Party was unable to win power, however, thanks to the victory, in the 1948 elections, of the Christian Democracy party (strongly supported by the Catholic Church), which remained the major party of the country for forty-five years, leading several government coalitions. These political circumstances had notable consequences for Italian philosophy. The shared rejection of Fascism entailed the rejection of neoidealism. Neoidealism was the philosophical trend that had prevailed in Italy during the first half of the twentieth century thanks to the outstanding stature of Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile. Neoidealism was blamed for having been organically associated with Fascism in the last period of Gentile’s life. Hence, no declared idealist philosopher was to be found in the postwar Italian academic scene, and those who had received their education and made their first steps in that tradition converted to other schools (especially Marxism).

The other political circumstance that was mentioned, that is, the rivalry between the Communist Party and Christian Democracy, entailed the struggle between the two respective ideologies, Marxism and Catholicism, in an effort to influence the cultural climate of the country. In this fight, the Communists

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