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Equality and Vulnerability in the Context of Italian Political Philosophy

Italian Efficacy

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Gianfrancesco Zanetti

    1. Department of Law, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

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  • Sheds new light on critical aspects of Italian political philosophy
  • Highlights certain “themes” that emerge in the texts examined
  • Explores e.g. Dante and Machiavelli through the lens of current hot topics like vulnerability and equality

Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Law and Justice (SHLJ, volume 26)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Teaching Under Unusal Circumstances

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 1-11

  3. Dante Alighieri, Hans Kelsen, and the Principium Unitatis

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 13-21

  4. Niccolò Machiavelli and Efficacy

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 23-33

  5. Gerolamo Cardano and Italian “Realism”

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 35-45

  6. Efficacy in the Italian Tradition: From Giovanni Della Casa to Giovanni Nevizzano

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 47-58

  7. Paradoxes of Equality: Giambattista Vico

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 59-67

  8. Cesare Beccaria and the Narrative of Neutral Equality

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 69-77

  9. Equality and Vulnerability in The Duties of Man: Giuseppe Mazzini

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 79-88

  10. Social Pluralism, Efficacy and Equality: Rethinking The Legal Order by Santi Romano

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 89-96

  11. From Emilio Salgari to Cesare Lombroso – Racism and Law in Italy: Situated Vulnerability

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 97-105

  12. The Limits of Law and Arturo Carlo Jemolo’s Islands

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 107-116

  13. The Italian “Braibanti Affaire”: A Tale of Two Vulnerabilities

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 117-126

  14. We, the People: Of Poets and Priests. Pasolini’s Very Hard Poem

    • Gianfrancesco Zanetti
    Pages 127-135
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Keywords

About this book

One of the main goals of this book is to determine if, in the works of some of the key authors in the history of Italian political philosophy, a notion of “efficacy” can be found. In legal philosophy, “efficacy” is the capacity a norm has to effectively influence citizens’ behavior. The “principle of efficacy” is that according to which an order or rule exists as such when it is followed effectively in practice. Here by “efficacy” I mean the idea that normative phenomena are self-justifying, without reference to extrinsic systems of value (such as “natural law”). The examinations of several texts undertaken here constitute reflections on this theme, without any claim to systematicity. They have been grouped together, roughly in historical order, by their common respect for the contexts within which they reason and reach decisions, which lends them a characteristic flavor of harsh realism that at times relies on a minimalist use of traditional normative categories.


The second theme that emerges through the respective chapters (each of which constitutes the text for a lesson in a course for Ph.D. students) is that of the relationship between “equality” and “vulnerability.” Here the idea is to elaborate a concept of “vulnerability” that is not underpinned by what we in Italy call an “anthropology,” that is, a fixed notion of human nature. Instead this concept should be comprehensible and graspable solely on the basis of the recognition of decisions and actions that are merely “efficacious,” that function “for what they are, and what they do.” This recognition doesn’t even need to be explicitly articulated by these authors with any specific, deliberately conscious awareness.


The goal is not to identify a precise tradition of thought, one which elaborates a given line of reflection, but rather to highlight certain “themes” that emerge in the texts examined, even as the authors write with and for their own specific,contingent set of motives, which differ from time to time and place to place. These authors include some who are widely known, such as Dante, Machiavelli, and Beccaria. At times they are figures who typify certain key historical episodes, such as the Risorgimento (Giuseppe Mazzini) or Fascism (Cesare Lombroso and Santi Romano), while others reflect certain aspects of a contemporary debate (Pasolini and the “Braibanti affair”).


The book is based on lectures given for a 2021 Ph.D. Course at the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Italian Studies.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Law, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Gianfrancesco Zanetti

About the author

Prof. Gianfrancesco Zanetti Full Professor of the Philosophy of Law, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, School of Jurisprudence, Modena, Italy.

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