Enrico Berti (3 November 1935 – 5 January 2022) was an Italian philosopher. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

Biography

Born in

Valeggio sul Mincio Valeggio sul Mincio () is a commune in the Province of Verona, region of Veneto, Italy, located about west of Venice and about southwest of Verona. It is crossed by the Mincio river. Its ''frazione'' of Borghetto is one of I Borghi più belli d' ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, Berti graduated in philosophy in 1957 at the

, and after a few years teaching at the

University of Perugia The University of Perugia ( Italian ''Università degli Studi di Perugia'') is a public university in Perugia, Italy. It was founded in 1308, as attested by the Bull issued by Pope Clement V certifying the birth of the Studium Generale. The offi ...

he was professor in his alma mater for almost forty years. His major interest was

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, to whom he dedicated many works, and of whom he made his own translation of the ''

Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

'', published in 2017. During his life Berti has received numerous honors, including the title of Academician of Lincei and the appointment of Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic. His ''Storia della filosofia. Dall’antichità a oggi'' ("History of Philosophy. From antiquity to today") is used as the manual of philosophy in many Italian schools and universities. Berti died on 5 January 2022, at the age of 86.

Thought

Berti proposed a systematic classification of the

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

that appeared in the history of philosophy. He proposed a differentiation between immanentistic metaphysics and transcendentistic metaphysics. The immanentist metaphysics find the ultimate cause of the world of experience within the latter. They are divided in turn into naturalistic, materialistic and

idealistic Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, spirit, or consciousness; that reality is entir ...

metaphysics. The naturalistic metaphysics are those of the

Presocratics Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...

Heraclitus Heraclitus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on Western philosophy, ...

and the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

metaphysics of Telesio and

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno ( , ; ; born Filippo Bruno; January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which concep ...

. Materialistic metaphysics are those of

Leucippus Leucippus (; , ''Leúkippos''; ) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He is traditionally credited as the founder of atomism, which he developed with his student Democritus. Leucippus divided the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible ...

and

Democritus Democritus (, ; , ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, Thrace, Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an ...

and, in

Modern philosophy Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated with modernity. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with ''Modernism''), although there are certain assumptions common to much of i ...

La Mettrie Julien Offray de La Mettrie (; November 23, 1709 – November 11, 1751) was a French physician and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the French materialists of the Enlightenment. He is best known for his 1747 work '' L'homme machine'' ('' ...

, Helvetius,

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

and

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''

Consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

Thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, and de ...

, pure Ego,

Absolute Spirit Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

" and are those of

Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...

, Schelling,

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

and

Giovanni Gentile Giovanni Gentile ( , ; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian pedagogue, philosopher, and politician. He, alongside Benedetto Croce, was one of the major exponents of Italian idealism in Italian philosophy, and also devised his own sys ...

. Transcendentist metaphysics postulate that the ultimate cause of the world of experience is outside it: it may be found in

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

or in the ''

eidos Eidos may refer to: * Eidos (philosophy), a Greek term meaning "form" "essence", "type" or "species" * Eidos Interactive, a British video game publisher ** SCi Entertainment Group, its parent, which was briefly renamed Eidos Ltd. ** Eidos Hungary ...

''. Transcendentist metaphysics are in turn divided into metaphysics of participation and metaphysics of experience. According to the metaphysics of participation, entities possess a character or perfection of the first principle in an imperfect and partial form, because they are derived from it. Examples of those metaphysics are the philosophies of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, the

Neoplatonists Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common i ...

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

, Saint

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

for some aspects (the basic distinction between ''ens per essentiam'' of God the Creator and ''ens per partecipationem'' of creatures), the later

and the later Schelling,

Antonio Rosmini Antonio Francesco Davide Ambrogio Rosmini-Serbati, IC (; 25 March 17971 July 1855) was an Italian Catholic priest and philosopher. He founded the Rosminians, officially the Institute of Charity, and pioneered the concept of social justice an ...

and

Vincenzo Gioberti Vincenzo Gioberti (; 5 April 180126 October 1852) was an Italian Catholic priest, philosopher, publicist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Sardinia from 1848 to 1849. He was a prominent spokesman for liberal Catholicism. Biogr ...

. In the metaphysics of experience, philosophy takes on the task of demonstrating with as much rigor as possible the

necessity Necessary or necessity may refer to: Concept of necessity * Need ** An action somebody may feel they must do ** An important task or essential thing to do at a particular time or by a particular moment * Necessary and sufficient condition, in l ...

of a transcendent principle, considering it in itself not

self-evident In epistemology (theory of knowledge), a self-evident proposition is a proposition that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof, and/or by ordinary human reason. Some epistemologists deny that any proposition can be self-e ...

. Belonging to this paradigm are the philosophy of

, St.

(in the Five Ways) and Gustavo Bontadini, author of the volume ''Saggio di una metafisica dell'esperienza'' (Essay on a Metaphysics of Experience).Enrico Berti, ''Intriduzione alla metafisica'' (Introduction to Metaphysics), p. 27. As quoted in

Publications

* ''L'interpretazione neoumanistica della filosofia presocratica'', Padova, 1959. * ''La filosofia del primo Aristotele'', Padova, Cedam, 1962; 2ª ed., Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 1997. * ''Il "De republica" di Cicerone e il pensiero politico classico'', Padova, Cedam, 1963. * ''L'unità del sapere in Aristotele'', Padova, Cedam, 1965. * ''La contraddizione'', 1967. * ''Studi sulla struttura logica del discorso scientifico'', 1968. * ''Studi aristotelici'', L'Aquila, Japadre, 1975 (nuova edizione, 2012). * ''Aristotele. Dalla dialettica alla filosofia prima'', Padova, Cedam, 1977. * ''Ragione scientifica e ragione filosofica nel pensiero moderno'', Roma, La Goliardica, 1977. * ''Profilo di Aristotele'', Roma, Studium, 1979. * ''Il bene'', Brescia, La Scuola, 1983. * ''Le vie della ragione'', Bologna, Il Mulino, 1987. * ''Contraddizione e dialettica negli antichi e nei moderni'', Palermo, L'Epos, 1987 (nuova edizione, 2015). * ''Le ragioni di Aristotele'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1989. * ''Storia della filosofia. Dall'antichità a oggi'' (with Franco Volpi), Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1991. * ''Aristotele nel Novecento'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1992. * ''Introduzione alla metafisica'', Torino, UTET, 1993. * ''Il pensiero politico di Aristotele'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1997. * (curatore, con Cristina Rossitto)

Aristotele Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

e altri autori, ''Divisioni'', con testo greco a fronte, coll. Il pensiero occidentale, 2005. * ''Struttura e significato della metafisica di Aristotele'', Roma, Edusc, 2006. * ''In principio era la meraviglia. Le grandi questioni della filosofia antica'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007. * ''Dialectique, physique et métaphysique. Études sur Aristote'', Peeters, 2008. * ''Il libro primo della «Metafisica»'' (con Cristina Rossitto), traduzione di Antonio Russo, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008. * ''Sumphilosophein. La vita nell'Accademia di Platone'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010. * ''Nuovi studi aristotelici'', 4 voll., Brescia, Morcelliana, 2004-2010. * ''Invito alla filosofia'', Brescia, La Scuola, 2011. * ''La ricerca della verità in filosofia'', Roma, Studium, 2014. * ''Aristotelismo'', Bologna, il Mulino, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berti, Enrico 1935 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Italian philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers University of Padua alumni Academic staff of the University of Padua Academic staff of the University of Perugia People from the Province of Verona Italian historians of philosophy Commentators on Aristotle