Ernesto Balducci
Encyclopedia
Ernesto Balducci was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and peace activist
.
, Tuscany
, Italy
.
When he was twelve, his father was laid off and the Scolopi, a religious foundation dedicated to the education of the poor, offered him a free place in seminary
. He studied theology
at Rome
, then Letters and Philosophy at Florence
.
The foundation of the Centro d'Impegno Cristiano "Cenacolo" (Centre for Christian Commitment) in 1952 gave him the chance to intensify both his friendship with the charismatic mayor of Florence
Giorgio La Pira
, and his relationship with the author-priest Lorenzo Milani
and the disciples of Jacques Maritain
, known as the 'Little Brothers'. In 1958 Balducci founded the monthly review Testimonianze ("Testimonies"), which he directed for 34 years. In 1963 he openly defended the first Italian conscientious objector
, Giuseppe Gozzini. His articles, and the subsequent trial, gave the bishop
of Florence, monsignor Florit, the opportunity to "exile" Balducci. He stayed in Rome
, very near the Second Vatican Council
, until 1965 when, thanks to the direct intervention of Pope Paul VI
, he went back to Tuscany
. Not in Florence, however, where bishop
Florit was still involved in his confrontation against La Pira, but at the abbey named Badia Fiesolana, two hundred yards from the border of the diocese
of Florence
.
Despite the isolation of the abbey, he had less and less time for his studies, as most of his days were taken up by the magazine Testimonianze, by the publishing house "Cultura della pace", ("Peace
culture"), by his cooperation with daily papers and other periodical and by his direct and unflagging attendance at dozens of demonstrations and debates all over Italy.
He campaigned against the grounds of war, both before and after the Gulf war
, and used the five hundredth anniversary in 1992 of the Christopher Columbus
' discovery of America, as the occasion to put the very foundations of modernity
in question, and these campaigns became a point of reference for the large Italian peace movement
.
It was while returning from one of these debates that Ernesto Balducci was involved in a car accident. He was admitted to hospital in coma
, and died on 25 April 1992.
The most modern themes of the Protestant theology
come together in this reflection, from Karl Barth
to Dietrich Bonhoeffer
, with their intention of dividing religion
and faith
and overturning the point of view focused on God
for showing up the Human
, instead. The post-religious human.
In Balducci's view, the religions are the millenary legacy of cultural particularisms, as ideological, political, cultural and spiritual cohesion tools for cultural monads that, however, have lost their individuality.
By facing up to the apocalyptic threats of modern war
, now religions have two possible functions. Either a regressive function of protective recall to particular identities, or a prophetic ferment function for the transiction to the "planetary era". A ferment in deeper affinity with their very founding intuitions.
According to Balducci, the reclamation of religious identities has to be based on a lay
approach to the peace question in order to bring into play each of the various memories of mankind. All this without abandoning certain universal achievements of the Western culture, like the principle of the preeminence of conscience
with respect to any law, the correlative principle of the State of Right
and the Scientific Method
.
The synthesis of the "Planetary Human" aims to involve disparate subjects in the name of a fundamental subjectivity
that identifies itself with the species
.
The crisis of modernity
drives Balducci to define the terms of a newly-grounded Social contract
of the World community
. The Reason
, stripped of the Western people's «hyperbolic subjectivity», plays a fundamental role, so far.
By taking the suggestions of Ernesto de Martino
, Balducci believes that the long "prehistory" of narrow communication among cultural "islands", in which the fear of the different has been a reflex that has cemented the tribe
, is over. Even the aggressiveness against the other groups made sense as long as there were not the unifying frameworks of the planet. But the menaces to the survival of the human
species unify the destiny of everyone. The mankind, from the "homination phase", goes on to the planetarization (globalization
) phase.
Balducci observes that Anthropology
– originally based on the ontology
of the "difference" (the others and us, peoples of culture
and peoples of nature
, civilized and primitives
) – then discovered the possibility of different ways to be humans in the time and the space. By repudiating its own earlier assumptions, Anthropology
recognizes the longing of each peculiar human expression towards a universal rule that joins humans, and them with nature. This is the sense that Balducci catches in various cultural itineraries: the structuralism
of Claude Lévi-Strauss
, the "ecology of mind" of Gregory Bateson
, the generative grammar
of Noam Chomsky
.
Balducci bases his thought on such yearning towards the universal
. Many of its symbolizations are about the dialectic
between particular and universal dimensions of the human.
He borrows from Ernst Bloch
the dialectic
between the "cultured human" (homo editus) and the "hidden human" (homo absconditus), a dialectic between the being and the being able to of the human, an aspiration that is a transcendence
without transcending, a «transcendence
in the immanence
»
The Balducci crossing appears to be a sort of anthropologic teleology
witch represents an evolutionary trend that the human being can support or disclaim in its path. The reason
, as said by Balducci, finds a brand-new categorical imperative
:
Balducci recognizes in the declining freedom of action of states and in the growth of the cosmopolitan right
an element deeply rooted in the evolutionary laws of human species. The faith in Man (a Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
concept), the consideration that our species has always creatively got over many severe and extreme challenges, the chance of the "planetary human": all this things make sense to Balducci if the sense of belonging with a supranational community will generate a planetary political project. A project that matches the world community
, an entity arising «on the strength of the evolutionary laws of the species
, the same laws that lead from the tribe
to the city
, from the city to the nation-state
.»
In order to decipher the momentum towards the establishment of a world community
, Balducci recalls two categories of the natural law
: the pactum unionis and the pactum subjectionis.
The former momentum is identified in view of the anthropologic pacifism
, which horizon is a society
that is made compact by relationships of spontaneous reciprocity and by the preferential option for non-violence.
The second momentum relies on the perspective of the political realism
, oriented to extend to the entire planet the process of unification relying upon the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. The dialectic
between these two momentums has to give birth to the «new child» of the new era, the world community
.
Peace activist
This list of peace activists includes people who proactively advocate diplomatic, non-military resolution of political disputes, usually through nonviolent means.A peace activist is an activist of the peace movement.*Jane Addams*Martti Ahtisaari...
.
Biographical notes
Balducci was born in Santa FioraSanta Fiora
Santa Fiora is a comune in the Province of Grosseto, in the Italian region of Tuscany, located about 110 km southeast of Florence and about 40 km east of Grosseto...
, Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
When he was twelve, his father was laid off and the Scolopi, a religious foundation dedicated to the education of the poor, offered him a free place in seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
. He studied theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
at Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, then Letters and Philosophy at Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
The foundation of the Centro d'Impegno Cristiano "Cenacolo" (Centre for Christian Commitment) in 1952 gave him the chance to intensify both his friendship with the charismatic mayor of Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
Giorgio La Pira
Giorgio La Pira
Giorgio La Pira was an Italian politician who served as mayor of Florence twice . He also served as deputy of the Christian Democratic Party and participated in the assembly that wrote the Constitution of Italy after World War II...
, and his relationship with the author-priest Lorenzo Milani
Lorenzo Milani
Lorenzo Milani Comparetti was an Italian Roman Catholic priest. He is best known as an educator of poor children and an advocate of conscientious objection.-Biography:...
and the disciples of Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
, known as the 'Little Brothers'. In 1958 Balducci founded the monthly review Testimonianze ("Testimonies"), which he directed for 34 years. In 1963 he openly defended the first Italian conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
, Giuseppe Gozzini. His articles, and the subsequent trial, gave the bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Florence, monsignor Florit, the opportunity to "exile" Balducci. He stayed in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, very near the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, until 1965 when, thanks to the direct intervention of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
, he went back to Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. Not in Florence, however, where bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
Florit was still involved in his confrontation against La Pira, but at the abbey named Badia Fiesolana, two hundred yards from the border of the diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
of Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
.
Despite the isolation of the abbey, he had less and less time for his studies, as most of his days were taken up by the magazine Testimonianze, by the publishing house "Cultura della pace", ("Peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
culture"), by his cooperation with daily papers and other periodical and by his direct and unflagging attendance at dozens of demonstrations and debates all over Italy.
He campaigned against the grounds of war, both before and after the Gulf war
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, and used the five hundredth anniversary in 1992 of the Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
' discovery of America, as the occasion to put the very foundations of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
in question, and these campaigns became a point of reference for the large Italian peace movement
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
.
It was while returning from one of these debates that Ernesto Balducci was involved in a car accident. He was admitted to hospital in coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
, and died on 25 April 1992.
The Planetary Human
Ernesto Balducci analyses religions in relation to their capacity to be or not to be sources of a historic salvation. A salvation that does not remain in the alienating extra-historic and existential level.The most modern themes of the Protestant theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
come together in this reflection, from Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
to Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
, with their intention of dividing religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
and overturning the point of view focused on God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
for showing up the Human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
, instead. The post-religious human.
In Balducci's view, the religions are the millenary legacy of cultural particularisms, as ideological, political, cultural and spiritual cohesion tools for cultural monads that, however, have lost their individuality.
By facing up to the apocalyptic threats of modern war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, now religions have two possible functions. Either a regressive function of protective recall to particular identities, or a prophetic ferment function for the transiction to the "planetary era". A ferment in deeper affinity with their very founding intuitions.
According to Balducci, the reclamation of religious identities has to be based on a lay
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
approach to the peace question in order to bring into play each of the various memories of mankind. All this without abandoning certain universal achievements of the Western culture, like the principle of the preeminence of conscience
Conscience
Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgement may derive from values or norms...
with respect to any law, the correlative principle of the State of Right
Right
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
and the Scientific Method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
.
The synthesis of the "Planetary Human" aims to involve disparate subjects in the name of a fundamental subjectivity
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
that identifies itself with the species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
.
The crisis of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
drives Balducci to define the terms of a newly-grounded Social contract
Social contract
The social contract is an intellectual device intended to explain the appropriate relationship between individuals and their governments. Social contract arguments assert that individuals unite into political societies by a process of mutual consent, agreeing to abide by common rules and accept...
of the World community
World community
The term is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or inclusion of all people in all lands and their...
. The Reason
Reason
Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...
, stripped of the Western people's «hyperbolic subjectivity», plays a fundamental role, so far.
By taking the suggestions of Ernesto de Martino
Ernesto de Martino
Ernesto de Martino was an Italian philosopher and anthropologist and historian of religions. He studied with Benedetto Croce and Adolfo Omodeo, and did field research with Diego Carpitella into the funeral rituals of Lucania and the tarantella.Ernesto de Martino was born in Naples, Italy, where...
, Balducci believes that the long "prehistory" of narrow communication among cultural "islands", in which the fear of the different has been a reflex that has cemented the tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
, is over. Even the aggressiveness against the other groups made sense as long as there were not the unifying frameworks of the planet. But the menaces to the survival of the human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
species unify the destiny of everyone. The mankind, from the "homination phase", goes on to the planetarization (globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
) phase.
Balducci observes that Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
– originally based on the ontology
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
of the "difference" (the others and us, peoples of culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and peoples of nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
, civilized and primitives
Primitive culture
In older anthropology texts and discussions, the term "primitive culture" is used to refer to a society that is believed to lack cultural, technological, or economic sophistication/development...
) – then discovered the possibility of different ways to be humans in the time and the space. By repudiating its own earlier assumptions, Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
recognizes the longing of each peculiar human expression towards a universal rule that joins humans, and them with nature. This is the sense that Balducci catches in various cultural itineraries: the structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
of Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
, the "ecology of mind" of Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
, the generative grammar
Generative grammar
In theoretical linguistics, generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study of syntax. A generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences...
of Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
.
Balducci bases his thought on such yearning towards the universal
Universality (philosophy)
In philosophy, universalism is a doctrine or school claiming universal facts can be discovered and is therefore understood as being in opposition to relativism. In certain religions, universality is the quality ascribed to an entity whose existence is consistent throughout the universe...
. Many of its symbolizations are about the dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
between particular and universal dimensions of the human.
He borrows from Ernst Bloch
Ernst Bloch
Ernst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher.Bloch was influenced by both Hegel and Marx and, as he always confessed, by novelist Karl May. He was also interested in music and art . He established friendships with Georg Lukács, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Theodor W. Adorno...
the dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
between the "cultured human" (homo editus) and the "hidden human" (homo absconditus), a dialectic between the being and the being able to of the human, an aspiration that is a transcendence
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
without transcending, a «transcendence
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
in the immanence
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...
»
The Balducci crossing appears to be a sort of anthropologic teleology
Teleology
A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The word comes from the Greek τέλος, telos; root: τελε-, "end, purpose...
witch represents an evolutionary trend that the human being can support or disclaim in its path. The reason
Reason
Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...
, as said by Balducci, finds a brand-new categorical imperative
Categorical imperative
The Categorical Imperative is the central philosophical concept in the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, as well as modern deontological ethics...
:
«Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that the human species would find the reasons and the guarantees of its survival» (in La terra del tramonto).
Balducci recognizes in the declining freedom of action of states and in the growth of the cosmopolitan right
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
an element deeply rooted in the evolutionary laws of human species. The faith in Man (a Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
concept), the consideration that our species has always creatively got over many severe and extreme challenges, the chance of the "planetary human": all this things make sense to Balducci if the sense of belonging with a supranational community will generate a planetary political project. A project that matches the world community
World community
The term is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or inclusion of all people in all lands and their...
, an entity arising «on the strength of the evolutionary laws of the species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, the same laws that lead from the tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
to the city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
, from the city to the nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
.»
In order to decipher the momentum towards the establishment of a world community
World community
The term is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or inclusion of all people in all lands and their...
, Balducci recalls two categories of the natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
: the pactum unionis and the pactum subjectionis.
The former momentum is identified in view of the anthropologic pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, which horizon is a society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
that is made compact by relationships of spontaneous reciprocity and by the preferential option for non-violence.
The second momentum relies on the perspective of the political realism
Realism (international relations)
In the study of international relations, Realism or political realism prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns and social reconstructions...
, oriented to extend to the entire planet the process of unification relying upon the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. The dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
between these two momentums has to give birth to the «new child» of the new era, the world community
World community
The term is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or inclusion of all people in all lands and their...
.
Novelty depends upon the womb of necessity. No wonder if there is the darkness on the intermediate stages of its birth. As Ernst BlochErnst BlochErnst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher.Bloch was influenced by both Hegel and Marx and, as he always confessed, by novelist Karl May. He was also interested in music and art . He established friendships with Georg Lukács, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Theodor W. Adorno...
wrote, "at the foot of the lighthouse, there is not light".(in La terra del tramonto)
External links
- The Words of Balducci, an English translation of eight short texts: a short biography and seven excerpts from interviews, articles and sermons.