Nicola Abbagnano

Nicola Abbagnano
Born	15 July 1901 Salerno,Kingdom of Italy
Died	9 September 1990(1990-09-09)(aged 89) Milan,Italy
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Existentialism

Nicola Abbagnano(Italian:[niˈkɔːlaabbaɲˈɲaːno];15 July 1901 – 9 September 1990) was an Italian existentialphilosopher.

Life

Nicola Abbagnano was born in Salerno on 15 July 1901.He was the first-born son of a middle-class professional family. His father was a practicinglawyerin the area. He studied inNaples,and in November 1922 obtained a degree inphilosophy,his thesis that became the subject of his first bookLe sorgenti irrazionali del pensiero(1923). His mentor wasAntonio Aliotta.In the following years, he taught philosophy and history at the Liceo Umberto I°, in Naples, and from 1917 to 1936 he was the professor of philosophy andpedagogyin the Istituto di Magistero Suor Orsola Benincasa. At the same time, he actively contributed as secretary of editorial staff to the review ofLogos,edited by his mentor Aliotta. From 1936 to 1976 he was a full professor of History of Philosophy, and then in 1939 he was appointed to a full-time professorship at the Faculty of Letters and philosophy at theUniversity of Turin.

Immediately afterWorld War II,he helped found the Centro di studi metodologici inTurin.With his student,Franco Ferrarotti,Abbagnano founded in 1950 theQuaderni di sociologia,and in 1952 he was joint editor with Norberto Bobbio of theRivista di filosofia.Then from 1952 to 1960 he inspired a group of scholars for a "New Enlightenment," and organized a series of conventions attended by the philosophers who were engaged in the construction of a "lay" philosophy and who were interested in the main trends of the foreign philosophical thought. In 1964, he began his contributions to the Turin newspaperLa Stampa.In 1972, he moved toMilanand discontinued his contributions toLa Stampa,but began writing forIndro Montanelli'sGiornale.In Milan, he held the office of Town Councillor, elected from the lists of theLiberal Party,and was also the Councillor of Culture. He died on 9 September 1990, and was buried in the cemetery ofSanta Margherita Ligure,theRivieratown where he had spent his vacations for many years.

Works

During the Neapolitan period, Abbagnano's theoretical work is represented byLe sorgenti irrazionali del pensiero(1923), as well asIl problema dell'arte(1925),La fisica nuova(1934) eIl principio della metafisica(1936). These works are all influenced by the teaching of Aliotta, who encouraged Abbagnano's interest in the methodological problems of science. Equally influential was the anti-idealist controversy that is particularly evident in his volume on art. After moving to Turin, Abbagnano turned to the study ofexistentialism,which by this time was also the interest of the general Italian philosophical culture. He formulated an original version of existentialism in his widely recognized book,La struttura dell'esistenza(1939), which was followed by hisIntroduzione all'esistenzialismo(1942) and a set of essays collected inFilosofia religione scienza(1947) and byEsistenzialismo positivo(1948). In 1943, he played a very important part in the debate on existentialism that appeared inPrimato,the review of the fascist opposition led by Giuseppe Bottai.

In the first years after the war, Abbagnano's interest turned to Americanpragmatism.Above all is the version offered byJohn Deweyto the philosophy of science and toneopositivism.In existentialism, having freed himself from the negative implications he found inHeidegger,inJaspers,inSartre,in Dewey'spragmatismand in neopositivism, Abagnano saw the signs of a new philosophical trend, that he called a "New Enlightenment" in an article written in 1948. The development of this idea in the fifties was precisely characterized both by his interest in science, in particular, sociology, and by an attempt to define the program of a philosophy, that he first called a "New Enlightenment" and later a "methodological empirism". During this period essays were collected inPossibilità e libertà(1956) and inProblemi di sociologia(1959) but, one of his most important works is theDizionario di filosofia(1961), a true "summa" meant to clarify the principal concepts of philosophy.

Besides the volumes and the essays on theoretical character Nicola Abbagnano, since his youth he has published many historical monographs, includingIl nuovo idealismo inglese e americano(1927),La filosofia di E. Meyerson e la logica dell'identità(1929),Guglielmo d'Ockham(1933),La nozione del tempo secondo Aristotele(1933),Bernardino Telesio(1941). His major historiographic work is found in theStoria della filosofiapublished byUTET(1946–1950), which was preceded by theCompendio di storia della filosofia(1945–1947), which was closer to a textbook. A few years later, the latter was followed by a collection entitledStoria delle scienze,which he coordinated for UTET (1962). Abbagnano defined his philosophy as "positive existentialism". His "philosophy of possible" condemned other existentialists for either denying human possibility or exaggerating it. In his later work, he tended to adopt a more naturalistic and scientific approach to philosophy. Some of his writings were translated into English inCritical Existentialism(ed. by Nino Langiulli, 1969).

His work in the last decades, starting from 1965 on, mainly consists of articles appearing inLa Stampaand inGiornalethat were later assembled in different collections,Per o contro l'uomo(1968),Fra il tutto e il nulla(1973),Questa pazza filosofia(1979),L'uomo progetto Duemila(1980),La saggezza della vita(1985),La saggezza della filosofia(1987). His last book, written a few months before his death, is the autobiographical textRicordi di un filosofo(1990).

Selected bibliography

• Le sorgenti irrazionali del pensiero,Napoli, 1923
• Il problema dell'arte,Napoli, 1925
• Il nuovo idealismo inglese e americano,Napoli, 1927
• La filosofia di E. Meyerson e la logica dell'identità,Napoli-Città di Castello, 1929
• Guglielmo di Ockham,Lanciano, 1931
• La nozione del tempo secondo Aristotele,Lanciano, 1933
• La fisica nuova. Fondamenti di una nuova teoria della scienza,Napoli, 1934
• Il principio della metafisica,Napoli, 1936
• La struttura dell'esistenza,Torino, 1939
• Bernardino Telesio e la filosofia del Rinascimento,Milano, 1941
• Introduzione all'esistenzialismo,Milano, 1942
• Filosofia religione scienza,Torino, 1947
• L'esistenzialismo positivo,Torino, 1948
• Possibilità e libertà,Torino, 1956
• Storia della filosofia,Torino, 1966
• Per o contro l'uomo,Milano, 1968
• Fra il tutto e il nulla,Milano, 1973
• Questa pazza filosofia ovvero l'Io prigioniero,Milano, 1979
• La saggezza della filosofia. I problemi della nostra vita,Milano, 1987
• Dizionario di filosofia,Torino, 1987
• Ricordi di un filosofo,Milano, 1990
• Scritti neoilluministici,Torino, 2001

External links

• Article on Nicola Abbagnano in the International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians
• Nicola Abbagnano's webpage abbagnanofilosofo.it