Nicola Abbagnano (; 15 July 1901 – 9 September 1990) was an Italian existential philosopher.

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 practicing lawyer in the area. He studied in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, and in November 1922 obtained a degree in philosophy, his thesis that became the subject of his first book ''Le sorgenti irrazionali del pensiero'' (1923). His mentor was Antonio 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 and

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

in the Istituto di Magistero Suor Orsola Benincasa. At the same time, he actively contributed as secretary of editorial staff to the review of ''

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Ari ...

,'' 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 the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

. Immediately after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he helped found the Centro di studi metodologici in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. With his student, Franco Ferrarotti, Abbagnano founded in 1950 the ''Quaderni di sociologia,'' and in 1952 he was joint editor with Norberto Bobbio of the ''Rivista 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 newspaper '' La Stampa''. In 1972, he moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and discontinued his contributions to ''La Stampa'', but began writing for

Indro Montanelli Indro Alessandro Raffaello Schizogene Montanelli (; 22 April 1909 – 22 July 2001) was an Italian journalist, historian and writer. He was one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes according to the International Press Institute. A volunte ...

's ''Giornale''. In Milan, he held the office of Town Councillo, elected from the lists of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, and was also the Councillor of Culture. He died on 9 September 1990, and was buried in the cemetery of

Santa Margherita Ligure Santa Margherita Ligure ( lij, Santa Margaita) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about southeast of Genoa, in the area traditionally known as Tigullio. It has a port, used for b ...

, the

Riviera ''Riviera'' () is an Italian word which means "coastline", ultimately derived from Latin , through Ligurian . It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria, in the form ''Riviera ligure'', then shortened in English. The two areas ...

town where he had spent his vacations for many years.

Works

During the Neapolitan period, Abbagnano's theoretical work is represented by ''Le sorgenti irrazionali del pensiero'' (1923), as well as ''Il problema dell'arte'' (1925), ''La fisica nuova'' (1934) e ''Il 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 of

existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

, 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 his ''Introduzione all'esistenzialismo'' (1942) and a set of essays collected in ''Filosofia religione scienza'' (1947) and by ''Esistenzialismo positivo'' (1948). In 1943, he played a very important part in the debate on existentialism that appeared in ''Primato'', the review of the fascist opposition led by Giuseppe Bottai. In the first years after the war, Abbagnano's interest turned to American

pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...

. Above all is the version offered by John Dewey to the philosophy of science and to neopositivism. In existentialism, having freed himself from the negative implications he found in

Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

, in Jaspers, in

Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lite ...

, in Dewey's

and 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 in ''Possibilità e libertà'' (1956) and in ''Problemi di sociologia'' (1959) but, one of his most important works is the ''Dizionario 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, including ''Il 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 the ''Storia della filosofia'' published by UTET (1946–1950), which was preceded by the ''Compendio di storia della filosofia'' (1945–1947), which was closer to a textbook. A few years later, the latter was followed by a collection entitled ''Storia 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 in ''Critical Existentialism'' (ed. by Nino Langiulli, 1969). His work in the last decades, starting from 1965 on, mainly consists of articles appearing in ''La Stampa'' and in ''Giornale'' that 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 text ''Ricordi 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

References

External links

Article on Nicola Abbagnano in the International Dictionary of Intellectual HistoriansNicola Abbagnano's webpage www.abbagnanofilosofo.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbagnano, Nicola 1901 births 1990 deaths People from Salerno Existentialists 20th-century Italian philosophers University of Naples Federico II alumni Academic staff of the University of Turin