Metabasis N. 36
digital edition
peer review
Each essay of this journal is reviewed by two anonymous referees and their comments are sent to the authors .
Fragments 4
November 2023 - Year XVIII - Number 36
Political reflections
The impact of Artificial Intelligence and Data on political power and geopolitical equilibria
Paolo Bellini, Edoardo Campanella, Alessandro Piccioni
DOI: 10.7413/18281567256
Navigating the governance of macroscopic changes presents an inherently multifaceted challenge. Analogous to the resistance encountered during organizational transformations by employees, every societal shift – be it a technological revolution or alterations in technical and cultural landscapes – elicits significant skepticism and distrust among the populace. Recent global upheavals, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, have polarized societies, particularly affecting nations with a lesser degree of cultural preparedness and minimal levels of mutual trust. The advent of the digital revolution, transforming modes of work and consumption, alongside historically significant events like wars and pandemics, invariably triggers a resurgence of nostalgic nationalism.
Body and political action. A philosophical-political reflection between urban and digital spaces.
Alessandra Micol Caprioli
DOI: 10.7413/18281567254
This contribution aims to reflect on the concept of political action, which seems to be altered as it is applied not only to urban spaces, but also to digital ones. In particular, this speculative path is developed by paying particular attention to the role occupied by a specific element, sometimes neglected and sometimes highlighted, within theories of political action: the body. In fact, starting from the observations offered by Hannah Arendt on political action and the philosophical-political debates that have emerged around her considerations, the category of plurality is compared to the possibility of including a corporeal dimension into the action, to be subsequently employed as a peculiar key to try to understand whether or not the digital world can establish a new space of politics.
From the Idea to Totalitarism. Contribution to the Interpretation of Marx and His Legacy.
Salvatore Muscolino
DOI: 10.7413/18281567255
The purpose of this article is to show the weakness of the ideological position according to which “one can define oneself as communist today, despite the historic crimes of communist regimes”. In my opinion, the legitimacy of this position would depend upon being able to demonstrate that there could be an “authentic Marxism” that would have nothing to do with its erroneous historical manifestations. And it is precisely this topic on which I will focus my critical analysis.
Philosophical Horizons
New metamorphoses of labour. Modern perspectives on the philosophy of labour and organisations.
Nicolò Maria Ingarra
DOI: 10.7413/18281567251
If by the metamorphosis of labour, we literally mean the forms that labour has taken with changing times and contexts, we realise the difficulty of addressing it by definitions and the usefulness instead of a problematising approach, capable of identifying and discussing the problems it poses. It is here that the role of the philosophy of labour becomes central in order to make a conceptual excavation and also to overcome the disciplinary fragmentation with which it has traditionally been investigated. Following this line of enquiry, it is then possible to think about the current metamorphoses considering the new questions raised by capitalist development and the microphysics that creeps in (starting with the consequences of flexibilisation and precariousness). What then are the modern prospects for a philosophy of labour that is aware of the renewed organisational contexts?
Brief platonic notes for a working hypothesis on Thomas’ De regimine principium. Tracks and themes for comparison.
Leonardo Masone
DOI: 10.7413/18281567250
Thomas Aquinas is rightly considered a thinker influenced by the Aristotelian philosophical approach widespread in the Middle Ages. However, at least as regards the political profile, it is possible to hypothesize that the reflections of the theologian's last phase were fascinated by elements oriented towards a certain mature Platonism. In particular, it is possible to find traces of Plato’s Laws on De Regimine Principium, an unfinished pamphlet. A fascinating thematic hypothesis that deserves further investigation.
Youth gangs, their survival over time, and a problem concerning their definition.
Margherita Pelissero
DOI: 10.7413/18281567253
The phenomenon of youth gangs – which manifested itself significantly in America after the crisis of the 1930s – has also spread to Europe and Italy in the following decades, arousing considerable attention among sociologists. The aim of this article is to briefly outline the social causes at the origin of this phenomenon and to investigate the account itself of youth gang, identifying the necessary and sufficient characteristics that the activities put in place by a group of boys must have in order to qualify as a gang. To this end, I analyse and compare the studies and positions of various sociologists – not coeval – such as Frederic M. Trasher, Albert K. Cohen and Franco Prina. The analysis induces to hypothesize for this complex phenomenon a multifactorial genesis that require a punctual case-by-case study.
Communicative hypertrophies and hypotrophy of the logos. The word in the net between nothingness and silence.
Fiammetta Ricci
DOI: 10.7413/18281567252
The global digital communication system, which is constantly expanding and enhancing, shapes a new order of logical procedures, ethical frameworks and cognitive modalities. We are in a hypertrophic acceleration of the relational fabric, of interconnectivity networks, of the “social” dimension of human life. I believe that analyzing the forms, tools and processes of today's social communication, increasingly characterized by the algorithmic hegemony of the digital world, is fundamental to understanding how the relationship between subject, word-action and communicative relationship is changing. We need to go back to asking questions about what freedom and autonomy we have today in the difficult balance between self-affirmation and respect for the other, between forms of subjugation and the need for recognition, between truth and post-truth, and, in the last instance, between democracies, post-democracies and infocracies.
On the genesis of dike. Philosophy of justice in Plato’s Republic.
Erasmo Silvio Storace
DOI: 10.7413/18281567257
The objective of this article is to attempt to reconstruct the philosophical and political genesis of the notion of “dike” within Plato’s thought, with particular reference to the thought of the pre-Socratic philosophers. Through recalling the etymological roots of the terms “themis”, “dike” and “ius”, the different faces of “justice” will be shown, culminating in Platonic thought, developed in the Republic, in which justice becomes an idea, that is, a meta-virtue on which the political balance of the polis must be based.
Metabasis N. 36
digital edition
peer review
Each essay of this journal is reviewed by two anonymous referees and their comments are sent to the authors .
