Volume V - No. 2 - 2002

ARTICOLI

S.E. Card. Alfonso López Trujillo
Nuova visione della globalizzazione: questioni demografiche e famiglia
Summary: The Author, above all, emphasizes the myth of overpopulation, analysing its causes, underlining the responsability of the United Nations on it, and pointing out its consequences for the family life. In the second part of the article, Card. López Trujillo proposes, following the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, the globalization of solidarity with human life and real family.
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José Antonio Izquierdo Labeaga, L.C.
Alcune fonti dell’antropologia di San Tommaso (terza parte)
Summary: The article wants to track down the sources of S. Thomas Aquinas’ anthropology, pointing out the studies available on the subject. After an introduction on the open mentality and methodology of Thomas who tries to synthesize the truth listening to things and listening to men, the article distinguishes between “scientific” and “sapiential” sources. Among the scientific sources it notes the aristotelian (Aristotle, commentators, averroist discussion) and platonic elementes (Plato, Platonic, De Causis) and some smaller currents such as stoicism and epicureanism, inviting a more profund investigation of the medical elements (Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, Avicenna). Among the sapiential sources it studies the Christian-biblical elements, highlighting the anthropological treatises of Gregorius Nissenus, Nemesius Emesenus and Johannes Damascenus, then considering the influences of Augustin and the Magistri (Petrus Lombardus and Albertus Magnus). The appendix introduces a list with all the authors quoted by Thomas.
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Leopoldo Prieto, L.C.
Kant, el idealismo y el «escándalo de la filosofía»
Summary: Idealism, or at least a certain type of idealism, places in doubt or even denies the existence of exterior objects. Such a belief constitutes a scandal for “sound reason”. However, it is also scandalous for “sound reason” to affirm that philosophy begins with an act of faith. Upon affirming in the second edition of Critique of pure reason that “idealism... is a scandal for philosophy”, Kant manifests his intention of breaking away from both of the previous affirmations. Yet this position adopted by Kant in the second edition of this work, must be considered in the context of his entire work. And on considering this context one can see that Kant’s position is not unambiguous, but rather it has oscilated between by various forms of idealism, which are the true cause of the “philosophical scandal”, as is subjective idealism, transcendental idealism and absolute idealism toward which Kant focuses his attention in the later stages of his philosophy. There are essentially two motives which have contributed particularly to the idealism of Kant’s philosophy: a) the first one, which has a special relation with transcendental idealism, is the establishment of the ideality of space, which Kant transformed into a form of the phenomenon, which has contributed to reducing the world to the “I”; b) the second motive more closely related to absolute idealism, was the problematic aspect of the causal action of the thing in itself over sensitivity, which in consequence has orientated Kant towards self-affectation, and logically to the independence of sensitivity from the exterior world and toward a form of absolute idealism.
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Fernando Pascual, L.C.
Alcune riflessioni sulla «bioetica» di Potter
Summary: Van Rensselaer Potter is purportedly the inventor of the term “bioethics”, which is seen as the science that permits us to employ our knowledge in order to guarantee the survival of the human species on earth. Van Rensselaer Potter’s proposal presupposes a kind of mecchanistics and strong utilitarianism; elements, which render it problematic and incline it to admit without much ado abortion as a means of birth control.
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Tierney Bennet, L.C.
Fundamental Problems and Solutions Concerning Genetic Testing (first part)
Sommario: L’articolo si suddivide in due parti. Nella prima, viene affrontata la questione dell’embrione, della sua ricerca e legislazione: vengono affermati con forza la dignità personale dell’embione umano e, di conseguenza, i suoi diritti umani. Dopo avere affrontato il tema della dignità personale dell’embrione umano, nella seconda parte l’autore prende in considerazione la validità morale sia della diagnosi genetica prima dell’annidamento, sia della diagnosi genetica prenatale.
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NOTA
Paul Haffner
Discorso per la presentazione del libro The Mystery of Reason
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RECENSIONI
Alessandro Emiliani, Il mistero del male (N. Venturini)
Roberto Radice, «Oikeiosis». Ricerche sul fondamento del pensiero stoico e sulla sua genesi (F. Pascual, L.C.)
Walter Vogels, Giobbe. L’uomo che ha parlato bene di Dio (A. Izquierdo, L.C.)
Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, L’Interpretazione della Bibbia nella Chiesa (A. Izquierdo, L.C.)
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SEGNALAZIONI
Roxana B. Martínez Nieto, La aurora del pensamiento griego. Las cosmogonías prefilosóficas de Hesíodo (F. Pascual, L.C.)
José María Quintana Cabanas, Las creencias y la educación: pedagogía cosmovisional (F. Pascual, L.C.)
Luca Mazzinghi, “Ho cercato e ho esplorato” - Studi sul Qohelet (J. Furlong, L.C.)
Ferdinando Castelli, Nel grembo dell’Ignoto. La letteratura moderna come ricerca dell’Assoluto (R. Frías Urrea)
Terry Pinkard, Hegel. Una biografía (R. Frías Urrea)
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