Arrigo Pacchi
Italian historian of philosophy (1933–1989)
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Arrigo Pacchi (4 May 1933 – 18 January 1989) was an Italian historian of philosophy. He graduated in philosophy at the University of Milan with an academic thesis in Medieval Philosophy. He dedicated his studies in particular to the natural philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and to the influence of Cartesianism in England.
Arrigo Pacchi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 May 1933 |
| Died | 18 January 1989 (aged 55) Milan |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University of Milan |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| Main interests | Modern philosophy |
Life
Arrigo Pacchi was born in Milan in 1933. He graduated in philosophy in 1957, at the University of Milan, with a study in Medieval Philosophy under the mentorship of Mario Dal Pra. He studied under Dal Pra with Francesco Corvino and Mariateresa Fumagalli.[1] In 1969 he was called to the academic chair of History of Philosophy as Associate Professor to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Milan. Four years later, he was named full professor, heading the Second Chair of History of Philosophy. In 1984 he was called to the First Chair of the same discipline after the retirement of Dal Pra. Starting in 1986, he led the Department of Philosophy in his University. In 1987, he was appointed as Director of the centre for the studies of the philosophical thought in 16th and 17th centuries connected to scientific questions, a branch of the Italian National Council for Research (CNR). Pacchi was editor of the journal Il Movimento di Liberazione in Italia from 1957 to 1962, where he published many reviews, some of whom appeared in other languages.[2] He became in 1982 co-director of the Rivista di Storia della Filosofia, the journal for the history of philosophy founded by Mario Dal Pra in 1947. Pacchi died in January 1989 in Milan.[3] He was 55 years of age.
Work
Pacchi's first work of research was his academic thesis devoted to the study of John of Jandun.[4] Between 1958 and 1960, Pacchi wrote a number of articles on the French philosopher that appeared on the Rivista Critica di Storia della Filosofia, an Italian philosophical journal founded and directed by Mario Dal Pra. Pacchi then directed his intellectual efforts to the study of the history of Modern philosophy, giving special attention to the philosophical personality of Thomas Hobbes. One of the outcomes of his labour in this direction was Convenzione e ipotesi nella formazione della filosofia naturale di Thomas Hobbes. The book appeared in 1965, published by La Nuova Italia. The book gave wide evidence of the philosophical relevance of Hobbes not just in the history of political thought but, moreover, as a keen student of the most relevant tenets of science in his time.
Pacchi in 1971 published a short monograph titled Introduzione a Hobbes.[5] The book gave an account of the intellectual development of Hobbes, from his translation of the Peloponnesian War, to the debates of the last years and the devising of Behemoth.[6] Pacchi subsequently researched the cultural debate in England in the 17th century, with special reference to the influence of René Descartes.[7] At the conclusion of his research into the subject, Pacchi published Cartesio in Inghilterra in 1973.[8] In 1976, he contributed to the collective volume, La Filosofia Moderna, Dal Quattrocento al Seicento, edited by Mario Dal Pra, with four essays. They were dedicated, respectively, to the philosophy of nature in England from Fludd to Harvey, to Hobbes and the political treatises in the 17th century, to the Cambridge Platonic School and the Latitudinarians, and eventually to Locke and the Experimental Philosophy [9] Concurrently, Pacchi devoted his attention to new problems and new authors in the history of philosophy, later publishing the book La Materia, a concise history of the concept of matter, from the beginnings of the notion in Ancient Greece to the redefinition of the meanings of the term in the 19th and 20th centuries.[10]
In 1978, Pacchi edited a collection of excerpts taken from the works of a group of 19th century materialist philosophers. He introduced the texts explaining the choice he made, putting the authors in their historical and cultural context. There, Pacchi stated how, “notwithstanding their general diffidence to philosophy, the German materialists had two “protective deities”, Schopenhauer and Feuerbach, whom they often refer to, although they quite never understood them completely. You can wonder of the connection, but your surprise will be short lived, if you ponder the fact that these two thinkers voiced, from different perspectives, the quickest and the most intransigent anti-idealist reaction in Germany in the second quarter of XIX century”.[11]
In 1979, Pacchi wrote an essay on Schopenhauer's materialism, as part of a work by various authors on the Legacy of Enlightenment.[12]
In 1983, he published an Introduction to the reading of the Essay on Human Understanding.[13] The book, printed as a didactic tool, was the second work on Locke by the Italian scholar.[14]
From 1981 to 1988, Pacchi returned to the study of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. The first evidence of his renewed interest in this subject is a contribution he gave to the International Congress on “Coscienza civile ed esperienza religiosa nell’Europa Moderna”.[15] We can perceive here a shift in the interests of the Italian scholar toward the role of religion on the mature political philosophy of the author of Leviathan. In fact, Pacchi published shortly afterward, a contribution in homage to Mario Dal Pra titled Hobbes e il Dio delle cause.[16] During this time, Pacchi authored several works about Hobbes, including Filosofia e Teologia in Hobbes, [17] Hobbes e la Potenza di Dio, [18] Hobbes e la Teologia, [19] Some Guidelines in Hobbes’ Theology,[20] Hobbes and Biblical Philology in the Service of the State.[21] His work on the philosophy of Hobbes constitute one of the three approaches to the interpretation of the latter's thoughts on religion.[22] Pacchi focused on reconstructing the coherence of a way of thinking based on a genealogy of Hobbes' views, tracing them back to the ancient times and medieval times.[22] In Una Biblioteca Ideale, di Thomas Hobbes: Il MS E2 Dell'archivo di Chatsworth, Pacchi explored Hobbes' perspectives on witchcraft, the immortality of the soul, as well as his treatises on state and religion.[23] Pacchi is also considered the only modern writer who focused on the Epicurean nature of the Short Tract's theory.[24]
His last work, a set of introductory notes to each chapter of a new Italian translation of Leviathan,[25] was brought abruptly to an end by his premature death.
Methodology
The method of research followed by Pacchi in his studies is described by Mario Dal Pra: "His research, from its beginnings, stands out for the attention to the great philosophical doctrines, resorting at the same time to philological methodology. [Pacchi] examined inedited sources and manuscripts, deriving from them new perspectives and new historical connections never considered before".[26] Pacchi applied such a methodological approach to the history of philosophy in his review of Raymond Polin's book that criticized the value of religious faith on Hobbes’ conceptions.[27] In the first place he praises how the French author connects Hobbes’ mechanical conception of nature to his political philosophy. In the same review, Pacchi showed some perplexity as to the “liberal” interpretation of that same philosophy. What Pacchi also insisted upon the need for the historian of philosophy to be “fair” to his sources. Pacchi emphasized the "fair" approach, when describing a logical fault in Polin's conclusions: the French author cites the same sources and the same arguments, but reaches different conclusions.[28]