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donate Summary for Reset 105 (2008)
ATHEISM
What place is there for atheism in the public sphere? Should it be either excluded and confined to the private – as atheism itself exacts from religion – or included, and therefore willing to accept the comparison/confrontation with the various beliefs? Reset proposes those questions to philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum, Gianni Vattimo, Telmo Pievani, and Paolo Costa, to the theologian Bruno Forte, to the jurist Francesco Margiotta Broglio, and to scientists like Niles Eldredge and Edoardo Boncinelli.
WHAT IS SECULARISM
A notion that appeared clear and distinctive; in the new millennium it is seemingly coming back under the loupe in the West. But not only there. What has happened, and what is left, of secularism in an age that a prominent philosopher like Jürgen Habermas defined as postsecular? Where is laicity ending up? Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo, Italian philosopher Alessandro Ferrara, historian Agostino Giovagnoli, and Reset editor-in-chief Giancarlo Bosetti respond to those questions.
ITALY AND WRITERS
In 2008 Italy, where politics is facing a crisis and society is turned into mince-meat – it is what CENSIS says; can writers save us? Can literature help us in describing and interpreting that chaos? Reset discusses the issue with three literary critics – Alfonso Berardinelli, Andrea Cortellessa, and Giulio Ferroni – who agree that we should ask more of our writers. Some look back with regret on the sixties and young Arbasino, others accuse Umberto Eco and postmodernism, yet another invites to making a distinction between narrative and journalism.
FROM JAMES TO RORTY: PRAGMATISM TODAY
What about pragmatism today – now that Richard Rorty has left the stage and it is 100 years since the publishing of a great classic such as Pragmatism by William James? In our opinion, the journey of pragmatism in the world is not yet over. Reset asks some of the main experts of the American pragmatist tradition what the viability of this thinking is today, and why we should continue to be interested in it. Articles by Carlo Sini, Aldo Gargani, Mario De Caro, Susanna Marietti, and Giancarlo Bosetti.
LUIGI FERRAJOLI
Philosophy, logic and law. Principia Iuris, Luigi Ferrajoli's monumental work, has just come out. An essay by Tecla Mazzarese about the complex significance of one of Italy's most prominent jurists' work. An interview with Luigi Ferrajoli by Susanna Marietti explains when and where the encounter between formal logic and law took place, and the sense of that union.
INTEGRATION IN THE USA
In 1965, US democratic president Lyndon Johnson initiated affirmative action, which is the attempt to accelerate the integration of Afro-Americans into American society, beginning with schools and universities. More than forty years later, the results are not those the US Left was dreaming of. The first part of an essay by Joanne Barkan.
GOOD BYE NEWS, THE FOX-CNN DUEL
The great confrontation between CNN and Fox has created a victim: journalism. After 9/11, the war between the two American giants of TV news is spiralling downward. It is a fight made of scandals, scoops and overpaid stars. The political barycentre is moving to the right, at the cost of quality and accuracy in news broadcasts. While trying to chase Murdoch, Atlanta's giant removed itself far from its founder Ted Turner's mantra "The news is the star". Chris Lehmann narrates the story of the big news match in recent years.
THE CLASH ARCHEOLOGY
How did the "Fallaci's phenomenon" begin in our newspapers? Bruno Cousin and Tommaso Vitale reconstruct the genealogy of one of Italy's biggest editorial successes: Oriana's trilogy. Mohammed Nafissi makes a distinction between the views of Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis concerning "the clash of civilizations".
PD AND THE LEFT
Social politics or politics of rights? The Left – on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean – is taken in between the alternative and cannot make its choice. Without a utopia and a concrete reformist drive, progressives cannot help but ask themselves about their identity and significance. In Western multicultural societies, what is left of equality? In Italy the Democratic Party (PD) must be able to overcome the socialist and postmodern models of justice and keep the normative ideal of equality of participation as their compass. The proposal is put forward by the young philosopher Italo Testa.
Published 2008-02-14
Original in English
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© Eurozine
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