- European University Institute, History and Civilization, Graduate StudentGonzaga University, Gonzaga in Florence, Adjunctadd
- Intellectual historian, interested in Sorel, the welfare state, and the history of political ideas in the 20th century.edit
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Bilingual (English and French) call for papers for a conference on the centenary of the death of Georges Sorel. Abstracts due 1 September 2021.
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The first English translation of Georges Sorel's 1896 "Étude Sur Vico", originally published in the Devenir Social. Translation, introduction, and annotation by Eric Brandom and Tommaso Giordani
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The article offers an overview and a critical assessment of the work of ZeevSternhell, focussing on the questions of fascism and of the anti-Enlightenment tradition. It claims that the career of the Israeli historianrevolves around the... more
The article offers an overview and a critical assessment of the work of ZeevSternhell, focussing on the questions of fascism and of the anti-Enlightenment tradition. It claims that the career of the Israeli historianrevolves around the intuition of a history of European modernitymarked by a central opposition: that between the Enlightenment andthe anti-Enlightenment. I show how the idea is already present in hisinitial works, and argue that it produces a specific kind of intellectualhistory, concerned with the unity of traditions over large temporalhorizons. I claim that it has the advantage of offering an historicallygrounded reading of fascism which nonetheless is capable to accountfor its emergence in apparently very dissimilar contexts. After havingexamined some of the shortcomings of this approach, I offer anhistorical explanation for the type of intellectual history practiced bySternhell, arguing that it must be tied to his political activism in Israel.
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The article examines T. E. Hulme's reading of Georges Sorel as a politically transversal thinker of moral renewal. It argues that, by distancing Sorel from syndicalism and by reading him as a thinker of moral absolutes, this... more
The article examines T. E. Hulme's reading of Georges Sorel as a politically transversal thinker of moral renewal. It argues that, by distancing Sorel from syndicalism and by reading him as a thinker of moral absolutes, this interpretation constituted an act of resignification. This is shown by contrasting Hulme's reading with the dominant patterns of the British reception of Sorel. What emerges is the striking, and self-aware, originality of Hulme's positions. This originality, we argue, was made possible by the European scope of Hulme's intellectual horizon, which gave him the resources to read Sorel differently. Finally, we ask why Hulme read Sorel in this way. We suggest that Hulme was working through a contradiction between his relativistic philosophical education and an increasing need for political commitment. Sorel's ethics of commitment grounded in myth were a way to move from Bergsonian openness to a metaphysics capable of conceptualizing moral and political absolutes.
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L’article souligne la profonde affinite conceptuelle entre la premiere epistemologie sorelienne des annees 1888-1894 et la conception pragmatiste de la connaissance. Il examine ensuite l’evolution de l’opinion de Sorel sur le pragmatisme... more
L’article souligne la profonde affinite conceptuelle entre la premiere epistemologie sorelienne des annees 1888-1894 et la conception pragmatiste de la connaissance. Il examine ensuite l’evolution de l’opinion de Sorel sur le pragmatisme dans les annees 1906-1914, alors que l’interet en France pour la philosophie americaine, non circonscrit au milieu universitaire, est a son comble. Les sources italiennes qui font connaitre le pragmatisme a Sorel sont importantes pour expliquer sa mefiance initiale pour la nouvelle philosophie. La fertilite philosophique de l’engagement pragmatiste de Sorel apparait a travers un bref examen du developpement, dans un sens historiciste, de l’epistemologie presente dans son ouvrage de 1921, De l’utilite du pragmatisme.
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ly put, the problem is that of reconciling a thorough historicism with substantial standards of truth and rationality. Though he rejec ts Vico’s providential solution as being too transcendental, 54 and in too stark a contrast with the... more
ly put, the problem is that of reconciling a thorough historicism with substantial standards of truth and rationality. Though he rejec ts Vico’s providential solution as being too transcendental, 54 and in too stark a contrast with the historicist p rinciple concerning the social genesis of human ideas, he is acutely aware of the problem, particularly when it comes to two aspects of human activity: ethics and science. The following passage is rather clear: ‘Thus, ideal history has perished, buried by the de velopment of historical research; it remains only a memory of the past; but the ethical problem to which it gave so simple and satisfying a solution remains , and cannot be abandoned like a thing of the past. In the science of nature th re is a similar issue which contemporary philosophy has proven powerless to res lv . Criticism of the idea of God has shaken the foundations of various types of knowledge, whose 52 Ibid., p. 804. ‘Il faut que les bases expérimenta les de la scienc...
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Taking issue against an established view, which reduces the interactions between Bergson and Sorel to a shared 'irrationalism', the article reconstructs successive phases of engagement between the two, focussing on the question of... more
Taking issue against an established view, which reduces the interactions between Bergson and Sorel to a shared 'irrationalism', the article reconstructs successive phases of engagement between the two, focussing on the question of the effective impact of Bergsonian ideas on Sorel's <em>Reflections on violence</em>. It identifies two complementary dynamics of engagement: a first one dictated by a philosophical affinity on the conceptualization of human agency and a second, more instrumental one, determined by Sorel's need to find an established and popular philosophical support to his syndicalism. This latter issue was particularly urgent for Sorel, since his previous attempt to implant in France Labriola's and Croce's non-deterministic <em>materialismo storico </em>– the original theoretical foundation of Sorelian revisionism – had ended up in failure.
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The article consists in a critical overview of the work of Zeev Sternhell, complemented by an attempt to historicize his contributions. It argues that, more than his well-known theses on fascist ideology, it is the long investigation of... more
The article consists in a critical overview of the work of Zeev Sternhell, complemented by an attempt to historicize his contributions. It argues that, more than his well-known theses on fascist ideology, it is the long investigation of the Anti-Enlightenment tradition which constitutes the core of the Israeli historian’s oeuvre. Embedding the rise of fascist political movements in a larger, diachronic narrative concerning the dominant axes of European intellectual life in the last two centuries allows Sternhell to develop an understanding of fascism which, though still historical, is able to accommodate numerous instantiations of the fascist phenomenon in different contexts. By way of historical contextualisation, we suggest that Sternhell’s political involvement in Israel goes to some length in explaining not only the tone of urgency characterizing his writings, but also his understanding of fascism as a recurring possibility of European modernity.
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Taking issue against an established view which reduces the interactions between Bergson and Sorel to a shared ‘irrationalism’, the article reconstructs successive phases of engagement between the two, focussing on the question of the... more
Taking issue against an established view which reduces the interactions between Bergson and Sorel to a shared ‘irrationalism’, the article reconstructs successive phases of engagement between the two, focussing on the question of the effective impact of Bergsonian ideas on
Sorel’s Reflections on Violence. It identifies two complementary dynamics of engagement: a first one dictated by a philosophical affinity on the conceptualization of human agency and a second, more instrumental one, determined by Sorel’s need to find an established and popular philosophical support to his syndicalism. This latter issue was particularly urgent for Sorel, since his previous attempt to implant in France Labriola’s and Croce’s non-deterministic "materialismo storico" – the original theoretical foundation of Sorelian revisionism – had ended in failure.
Sorel’s Reflections on Violence. It identifies two complementary dynamics of engagement: a first one dictated by a philosophical affinity on the conceptualization of human agency and a second, more instrumental one, determined by Sorel’s need to find an established and popular philosophical support to his syndicalism. This latter issue was particularly urgent for Sorel, since his previous attempt to implant in France Labriola’s and Croce’s non-deterministic "materialismo storico" – the original theoretical foundation of Sorelian revisionism – had ended in failure.
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Draft version of my chapter in M.Jalava, J.Strang, S.Nygard (eds), Decentering European intellectual space (Brill: 2018), pp. 88-113.
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Largely forgotten nowadays, Antonio Labriola (1843-1904) is the initiator of an original line of Marxist reflection, whose most celebrated figure remains Antonio Gramsci. In the closing years of the nineteenth century, Labriola... more
Largely forgotten nowadays, Antonio Labriola (1843-1904) is the initiator of an original line of Marxist reflection, whose most celebrated figure remains Antonio Gramsci. In the closing years of the nineteenth century, Labriola elaborated, in his three Essays on historical materialism, a heterodox understanding of Marxism, whose essential philosophical structures were to influence not only Gramsci, but also Croce, Gentile, and Georges Sorel.
The lecture examines the genesis of Labriola’s Marxism through the unorthodox lens of intellectual space. In other words, it addresses the question of the extent to which the production and circulation of Labriola’s ideas was shaped by the cultural, linguistic, and political hierarchies which carved up the intellectual field of Western Europe at the time. The picture that emerges is that the originality of Labriola’s work was largely made possible by the peripherality – both real and perceived – of Italy in these spaces. By examining how interactions with France and Germany shaped Labriola’s readings, publication and teaching strategies, an attempt is made to de-provincialize this important thinker and to show that the history of his thought is not just an Italian one, but one that involves a much wider space.
https://pasts.ceu.edu/node/321#sthash.kYcpGol0.dpuf
The lecture examines the genesis of Labriola’s Marxism through the unorthodox lens of intellectual space. In other words, it addresses the question of the extent to which the production and circulation of Labriola’s ideas was shaped by the cultural, linguistic, and political hierarchies which carved up the intellectual field of Western Europe at the time. The picture that emerges is that the originality of Labriola’s work was largely made possible by the peripherality – both real and perceived – of Italy in these spaces. By examining how interactions with France and Germany shaped Labriola’s readings, publication and teaching strategies, an attempt is made to de-provincialize this important thinker and to show that the history of his thought is not just an Italian one, but one that involves a much wider space.
https://pasts.ceu.edu/node/321#sthash.kYcpGol0.dpuf
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The history of Henri Bergson’s (1859-1941) philosophy is one of the most complex and problematic of the 20th century. Bergson gained increasing popularity over the course of his life and career, to the point of becoming the French... more
The history of Henri Bergson’s (1859-1941) philosophy is one of the most complex and problematic of the 20th century. Bergson gained increasing popularity over the course of his life and career, to the point of becoming the French philosopher par excellence. His works – from the 1889 Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness to his last works from the 1930s – exercised a crucial influence on a wide range of fields in 20th-century French and European culture. Significant traces of his thought are to be found not just in subsequent philosophy, but also in the spheres of literature, psychology, science, epistemology, art, and theology. While the popularity of this French philosopher gradually declined after the 1930s, recent decades have witnessed a renewed interest – if not a genuine resurgence – in Bergsonian studies.
The recent revival in Bergsonian studies has been fuelled by an important critical edition project, led by Frédéric Worms. The most important stage was completed in 2011 with the republication of Bergson’s eight major works and the Écrits philosophiques. To these, two previously unpublished landmark texts have recently been added: the two courses Histoire de l’idée de temps and L’évolution du problème de la liberté, which were held at the Collège de France in 1902/1903 and 1904/1905 respectively. Péguy entrusted two stenographers with transcribing the lectures when he could not attend the courses himself. The transcriptions from the two courses were then donated to the Fonds Doucet in 1997, and finally edited respectively by Camille Riquier and Arnaud François for “Presses Universitaires de France”, which in coming years will carry on the publication of other previously unpublished texts from the same collection.
These publications lend a new voice to the philosopher through the famous lectures that so greatly contributed to his ‘glory’. Their content was hitherto completely unknown to 21st-century readers, with the exception of the brief summaries provided in the Mélanges and the few, partial transcriptions published in “Annales bergsoniennes” – some of which have already been translated into Italian (Storia della memoria e storia della metafisica, ETS 2007; Sul segno. Lezioni del 1902-1903 sulla storia dell’idea di tempo, Textus 2011).
The recent revival in Bergsonian studies has been fuelled by an important critical edition project, led by Frédéric Worms. The most important stage was completed in 2011 with the republication of Bergson’s eight major works and the Écrits philosophiques. To these, two previously unpublished landmark texts have recently been added: the two courses Histoire de l’idée de temps and L’évolution du problème de la liberté, which were held at the Collège de France in 1902/1903 and 1904/1905 respectively. Péguy entrusted two stenographers with transcribing the lectures when he could not attend the courses himself. The transcriptions from the two courses were then donated to the Fonds Doucet in 1997, and finally edited respectively by Camille Riquier and Arnaud François for “Presses Universitaires de France”, which in coming years will carry on the publication of other previously unpublished texts from the same collection.
These publications lend a new voice to the philosopher through the famous lectures that so greatly contributed to his ‘glory’. Their content was hitherto completely unknown to 21st-century readers, with the exception of the brief summaries provided in the Mélanges and the few, partial transcriptions published in “Annales bergsoniennes” – some of which have already been translated into Italian (Storia della memoria e storia della metafisica, ETS 2007; Sul segno. Lezioni del 1902-1903 sulla storia dell’idea di tempo, Textus 2011).