2014/2 – Diritto, forza, comunità. Leggere e interpretare Michael Walzer

In tema di: Il seminario internazionale e interdisciplinare del 28 novembre 2013 presso il Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione dell’Università degli Studi di Bologna: un contributo alla discussione teorica su diritto e comunità suggerita dall’opera di Michael Walzer. Walzer come filosofo politico di matrice comunitarista. Il quadro articolato, approfondito e critico di Walzer fornito dagli interventi al seminario. I temi fondamentali per la ricostruzione del pensiero di Walzer: l’universalismo e la guerra.

Sommario: 1. Introduzione. – 2. La pace come “sudditanza”. – 3. La pace come “il tempo che intercorre tra periodi di guerra e oppressione”. – 4. La pace come “deterrenza”. – 5. La pace fondata sul “mutuo beneficio”. – 6. La pace come “messianismo”. – 7. La pace come “pluralismo”.

English Abstract: In this article, Michael Walzer compares six different ideas of peace found in different books of the Hebrew Bible. The six ideas of peace show important moral as well as political differences. Peace is interpreted respectively: as subjection to an overwhelming force; as a period of “rest” between wars; as made possible by deterrence; or, more positively, as founded on mutual benefit; or as a messianic future. Beautiful as it may be, this last idea of peace has the defect of not being practically possible, though it may move people to do practical things that they did not imagine they could do. The last idea considered here is that of “many peoples”, with their disagreements and conflicts, “going up” to the mountain of the Lord for enlightenment and judgment. This vision is defended here because of its realism. It suggests the idea of pluralism (“many peoples”) as a permanent feature of human life and international society.

In tema di: Le radici ebraiche. In particolare, il libro dell’Esodo come sfondo necessario per la comprensione del pensiero di Michael Walzer. Il vitello d’oro come episodio di importanza cruciale anche nella esperienza religiosa del giovane Walzer. La pluralità delle fonti bibliche, la pluralità dei nomi di Dio e la ripetibilità del modello dell’Esodo come paradigma politico fondato sul pluralismo. Il passaggio decisivo (e violento) del patto come origine della società ed il rischio del ritorno al culto del vitello d’oro.

English Abstract: The A. takes Judaism, and in it the book of Exodus, as a necessary background to understand the thought of Michael Walzer. The passage on the Golden Calf was of crucial importance also in the religious experience of the New York philosopher as a young man. Zamagni quotes Sigmund Freud to ask: is it a true story? Walzer writes several times he is not interested in this particular aspect. But the plurality of the (also legal) sources of the Bible, the constitutive plurality of God’s names, does not jeopardize the repeatability of the model of the Exodus as plural political paradigm, on the contrary. The society is originated in that decisive (and violent) passage by the covenant, and going back would mean to go back to the Egyptians’ pots or even worse, to the worship of the Golden Calf.

Sommario: 1. L’approccio concreto e la questione dell’obbligazione. – 2. La matrice ebraica: “pluralismo normativo”, “interpretazione”, “critica”. – 3. Un obbligo a disobbedire?

English Abstract: The paper addresses Walzer’s thought with regard to the notions of obligation and dissent, and the conflict between values that draws from Jewish culture. The analysis reveals some risks and some inherent difficulties with Walzer’s approach in giving a due account of the distinction between politics and morality and of the role to be ascribed to the legal sphere. Even when Walzer tries to fill in this lack of attention, he adheres to a peculiar perspective that is based, finally, on a sort of “Jewish exceptionalism”, which, while it works to support an authentic pluralism, seems to be troubling.

Sommario: 1. Una lezione di metodo. – 2. “The need for interpretation”. – 3. I modi del pluralismo e l'”arte del tracciare confini”.

English Abstract: In his presentation of Michael Walzer’s method Gianfrancesco Zanetti begins from the personal memory of reading Exodus and Revolution to describe this method not only as destructive but also as a positive effort. The “rootedness” of the philosopher’s interpretative approach takes him neither to relativistic or conservative solutions nor to a universalism of a “covering law”. His moral realism describes a concrete approach to the problems to elaborate workable solutions. Walzer’s attention to pluralism and to the connections between religion and politics allows him to discuss every form of one-sidedness, dogmatism and mainstream thinking. Drawing the line, the boundaries become therefore of crucial importance to realize a more just society, even at the cost of having dirty hands.

Sommario: 1. Teoria, politica e mistificazione. – 2. Diritti umani e “interventi umanitari”. – 3. Terrorismo ed “emergenza suprema”. – 4. L’universalismo apparente. – 5. Conseguenze inaspettate (l’applicazione della teoria). – 6. Resoconti “ad hoc”. – 7. Il fine (politico) giustifica i mezzi (omissioni e mistificazioni).

English Abstract: This essay analyzes Walzer’s argumentations on “just war” showing the relationship between theoretical and moral arguments, on the one hand, and political judgments, on the other. On the ground of “Arguing about War”, the A. focuses in particular on the concepts of “terrorism”, “humanitarian intervention” and “extreme emergency” and points out how they are defined by formal universalistic criteria but applied in a particularistic way in the reconstructions of facts intended to justify recent Usa and Nato war interventions in Iraq (1991, 2003), Kosovo (1999), and Afghanistan (2001).

Sommario: 1. Un uomo in guerra. – 2. Dall’interno: la critica e l’interpretazione. – 3. Dall’interno: la guerra. – 4. Questione di confini: diritto e diritti.

English Abstract: By a comparative analysis of Walzer’ scientific works in the field “social criticism” and “just/unjust war”, the essay shows that the tension between the categories internal/external is working in the complex of author arguments. Such a contraposition, examined from the strict perspective of the disciplinary languages, which articulate the “modern” moral-historical world, has to be considered constitutive of the separation between juridical and moral paradigm, social acting and communitarian belonging, reasons and meaning, critics and interpretation. Walzer’ attitude to contaminate disciplinary languages, on the contrary, make it impossible for him to investigate the aporetic overcoming from the juridical “boundaries” to political and cultural “frontier”.

Non è semplice avvicinarsi a un pensiero tanto ricco e con una molteplicità interna di interessi e dimensioni qual è quello di Michael Walzer, un autore che rappresenta un punto di riferimento nella filosofia pratica contemporanea per quanto concerne la ricerca di vie intermedie, luoghi di incontro tra opposti, e la dimostrazione del carattere imprescindibile della critica e del dissenso, inteso come motore del cambiamento sociale. Per questo, il libro di Thomas Casadei ha un merito speciale. Non credo di esagerare se dico che ci troviamo di fronte a una summa walzeriana, ricca di prospettive, che attesta la capacità di collegare il pensiero di Walzer a questioni che vanno ben al di là della sua proposta. Inoltre, quello di Casadei è un testo che segue il “metodo walzeriano”: contestualizza il pensiero dell’autore nordamericano senza rinunciare alla critica. Siamo al cospetto di un autentico invito alla riflessione che si caratterizza per l’ esaustiva conoscenza dell’ opera di Walzer e per lo sforzo importante di sottolineare costantemente le connessioni del pensiero walzeriano nel dibattito contemporaneo.