Norberto Bobbio is Dead

Norberto Bobbio, the most important political philosopher of Italy, and one of the most influential ones, world wide, died last friday. He was 94.

"The philosopher of Freedom" was so popular in his country, even taxi drivers asked him for autographs. A Liberal, he kept a "continuing" dialogue with Marxists and Catholics alike. He was a Senator for life, and is best know for his Dizionario di Politiica a two volume "brick" with detailled definitions and discussions about every political concept.


His personal motto was: "Culture and intellectual equilibrium, critical reflexion, sense of discernment, abhorring any simplification, any manicheism, any parciality".

(Cultura è equilibrio intellettuale, riflessione critica, senso di discernimento, aborrimento di ogni semplificazione, di ogni manicheismo, di ogni parzialità)

He wrote:
The task of men of culture is today, more than ever, to seminate doubts, not to harvest certainties.

Il compito degli uomini di cultura è più che mai oggi quello di seminare dei dubbi, non già di raccogliere certezze.

Distrust a philosopher who knows he knows.

Diffidate di un filosofo che sa di sapere.

Democracy has won the challenge put forth by historical Communism, let's admit that. But with what means and what ideals does it confront the same problems from which the Communist challenge was born?

La democrazia ha vinto la sfida del comunismo storico, ammettiamolo. Ma con quali mezzi e con quali ideali si dispone ad affrontare gli stessi problemi da cui era nata la sfida comunista?

In a democracy everyone is equally free. Equally: the adverb is of the upmost importance. This equality requires, in my opinion, also the acknowledgement of social rights, starting from the essencial ones (schooling, work, health), who make possible, among other thing, a better exercize of the freedom rights

In democrazia tutti sono ugualmente liberi. Ugualmente: l'avverbio è fondamentale. Questa uguaglianza richiede, a mio parere, il riconoscimento anche dei diritti sociali, a partire da quelli essenziali (istruzione, lavoro, salute), che rendono fra l'altro possibile un migliore esercizio dei diritti di libertà.

Has anyone in A2K read Bobbio? If not, may his death be an invitation to do it.