Emanuele
Severino

In this event, two of Italy’s most renowned contemporary philosophers, Ugo Perone and Luca Illetterati, will discuss the irreducible novelty and untimeliness of Emanuele Severino’s philosophical contribution. They will address both the way in which philosophy always constitutes a confrontation with untimeliness within contemporary discourse and the way in which Italian philosophy in general, and Severino’s work in particular, have through the years staged this confrontation. Perone and Illetterati will each give a lecture and then discuss the specificity of Italian philosophy, the timeliness and untimeliness of philosophical reflection, and Emanuele Severino’s singular contribution to these questions.

Emanuele Severino (1929-2020) was professor of theoretical philosophy at the Catholic University of Milan from 1954 to 1969. In the late 1960s, the Holy Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (the body that in 1908 took over from the Office of the Inquisition the task of defending and promulgating Catholic doctrine) carried out an investigation into his work reminiscent of some most eminent precedents, as a result of which Severino left his professorship. (The report of the investigation reads: “Severino has criticised the very ground of the conception of God’s transcendence and the tenets of Christianity in a way that arguably no atheism or heresy has ever done before”). From 1970 to 2005, Severino was professor of theoretical philosophy at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Ugo Perone holds the Romano Guardini Chair for the Philosophy of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. His work focusses on the question of the finite and the infinite. His best-known books are In lotta con l’angelo (1989), Il presente possibile (2005), and Ripensare il sentimento (2014). He has served as director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Berlino and as founder and director of the Scuola di Alta Formazione Filosofica.

Luca Illetterati is professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Padua. His research focusses on German classical philosophy and in particular on Hegel. Among his monographs: Natura e Ragione. Sullo sviluppo dell’idea di natura in Hegel (1995), Fra tecnica e natura. Problemi di ontologia del vivente in Heidegger (2002), La filosofia come esperienza del pensiero e scienza della libertà. Un approccio a Hegel (2002). He is currently president of the Italian Society of Theoretical Philosophy and member of the Board of Directors of the International Hegel Society.

Luca Illetterati
Ugo Perone

Moderated by Damiano Sacco

Giulio Goggi, Federico Perelda, Damiano Sacco, and Ines Testoni

In cooperation with FISSPA University of Padua, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Berlino and the Italienzentrum of the Freie Universität Berlin

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