THE LONELINESS OF THE PARRHESIASTES ROUSSEAU, FOUCAULT, AND ARENDT ON THE RIDDLE OF THINKING FOR ONESELF
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
In Western culture, the idea of inwardness — that is, the belief that there exists a mental space and an inner life that are separate from and shielded against “external” physical phenomena — enjoys a status of almost indisputable self-evidence. Despite this, it is difficult to deny that thoughts, concepts, and arguments defy any claim to exclusive ownership. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s argument against the possibility of a private language is just one of many ways in which the tools of modern philosophy can be marshalled to show that the experience of thought is never an experience of extreme and irreducible solitude. And yet, the intuition is warranted. In this seminar, the reflections of Rousseau, Arendt, and Foucault will serve as signposts to gesture toward a vision of thinking for oneself in which solitude and communion can coexist in a state of fruitful tension.
PAOLO COSTA | Fondazione Bruno Kessler – ISR
Cycle of Seminars: “Solitude and Communion in Religion and Ethics“
Scientific coordination: Massimo Leone, FBK-ISR
The event will be in-person in the FBK Aula Piccola, while seats last, and online, and it will be held in Italian.
Registration by September 11, 2026 at 12:00 a.m. is required to arrange the connection.
Speakers
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Paolo Costa, philosopher, is a Tenured Researcher at the Center for Religious Studies of the Bruno Kessler Foundation (Trento, Italy). His main fields of research are philosophical anthropology, moral and political philosophy, theory of secularization, and modern spirituality. He is the author of several books (last but not least: Dalla parte di Heidi: pensare la montagna attraverso l’amore, BEE 2026) and the Italian translator of works by H. Arendt, C. Taylor, C. Darwin, H. Joas, H. Cox, H. Rosa, and others. Among his writings in English: The Post-Secular City: The New Secularization Debate, Brill-Schöning, 2022; Reenchantment as Resonance, in H. DE VRIESE - M. MEIJER (eds.), The Philosophy of Reenchantment, Routledge, 2021, pp. 132-158; A Secular Wonder, in G. LEVINE (ed.), The Joy of Secularism, Princeton University Press, 2011, pp. 134-154; Unsovereign Democracy: Why Imagination Matters in Modern Politics (and Makes Religion Still Relevant), “Cauriensia”, XIX, 2024, pp. 969-994.
Registration
Registration to this event is mandatory.
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Organizers
The initiative was also realized thanks to the contribution of "Direzione generale Educazione, ricerca e istituti culturali" of the Ministry of Culture.