Antonio Rosmini & Vincenzo Gioberti

Introduction

In Italy, Pasquale Galluppi (1770-1846) was the first to bring Italian philosophy into contact with German thought through his translations of the principal works of the German thinkers. Italian philosophers were opposed not only to Kantian Criticism and Idealism, but also to Empiricism and Sensism. They endeavored to develop their thought in accordance with Italian Catholic tradition and to over Idealism through the affirmation of the transcendence of God. The most representative thinkers of this movement are Antonio Rosmini and Vicenzo Gioberti.

Antonio Rosmini-Serbati

Life and Works

Antonio Rosmini-Serbati was born at Rovereto in 1797 of noble parentage. He studied theology at Padua and was ordained a priest in 1821. In 1828 he founded the Institute of Charity, a religious congregation whose members devoted themselves to education and works of charity. In Milan he made the acquaintance of the most cultured men of Lombardy, among them Alessandro Manzoni. In 1848 he went to Rome as the special envoy of King Charles Albert of Piedmont to Pope Pius IX.

Although his mission was unsuccessful he did become secretary of the Department of Education in the cabinet of the papal states, and held this post for a brief time. His literary output was prodigious. Two of his works, however, were condemned by the Church. He submitted to this condemnation of his writings with humility. The last years of his life were spent at Stresa, but because of the bitterness of his conflict with Gioberti, these years were tinged with sadness. In 1855, death put an end to Rosmini's studious and exemplary personal life.

The most representative philosophical works from the pen of Rosmini are: New Essay on the Origin of Ideas; Philosophical Essays; Treatise on the Moral Conscience; Psychology; Introduction to Philosophy; and Theosophy, which was published posthumously.

Doctrine: Theory of Ideal Being

Rosmini was deeply intent upon finding a starting point for philosophical inquiry, one which would be adequate, on the one hand, for refuting Kantian Criticism, Idealism, and sensism, the materialistic enemies of morality and religion; and, on the other hand, capable of restoring the objectivity of knowledge and the notion of the transcendence of God. Rosmini believes that this starting point can be found in knowledge, whose process he classifies as having four degrees:

• Fundamental Sentiment

• Sensation

• Sensorial Perception

• Judgment

Fundamental sentiment is the immediate knowledge which everyone has of self as a corporeal organism capable of receiving sense impressions. Any modification of this fundamental sentiment in sensation, by which we become aware of the changes made in our fundamental sentiment, but not of the subject and object of that impression. In the sensation of the prick of a pin, for example, I am aware of a modification of my fundamental sentiment only, for in the state of simple sensation there is no knowledge of object (the pin) and subject (painful pricking). A superior form of sensation is sensorial perception, which is had when the agent of sensation is distinct from the subject of sensation. In our example, the pin is perceived as being capable of producing the painful impression which has been experienced in a simple sensation.

Sensation and sensorial perception (common to animals) do not constitute knowledge, properly speaking. This found only in judgment, which is the act whereby the intellect affirms the existence of the object, independently of any modification, as self-existing. Judgment is had when I affirm: "There is a pin," which is to say: "Pin is being." In the latter affirmation, "being" is a universal and necessary idea. By judgment, therefore, I attribute entity, necessity and universality to an empirical element (the pin).

This universal and necessary idea, through which I acquire true and perfect knowledge, cannot, according to Rosmini, be derived from experience, since the idea of universal and necessary being cannot be derived from sensible, mutable and contingent knowledge. This "idea of being" must not be considered as an a priori of Kant, for these forms are subjective functions, and whatever is founded in the subject is, like the subject, mutable and contingent.

The "idea of being" is necessary and universal. Therefore, since that idea cannot come from experience or from the subject, it must be derived from the Absolute and Necessary Being, God. The human spirit, according to Rosmini, receives an initial intuition of God through the idea of being, wherein it sees and understands particular realities in their universal and necessary connections.

To avoid ontologism (and consequently, pantheism), Rosmini affirms that the idea of being is divine; but it is not God, because God cannot perceived in His reality by the human mind in the present life. The idea of being would be an "ideal being," that is, an abstraction of Divine Being. Inasmuch as it is abstracted being, it is possible and indetermined, whereas God is a being both real and determined.

Rosmini's ideal being has been attacked in various manners. It has been said that Rosmini merely reduces the twelve a priori forms of Kant to one, that is, to ideal being, which is endowed with the same prerogatives as the Kantian forms. It has also been charged that Rosmini's ideal being leads to pantheism, because it does not differ from the Divine Being Himself. Finally, it has been pointed out that such an idea of being leads to Skepticism, because the object of our knowledge (ideal being) does not coincide with real beings.

It must be admitted, however, that Rosmini stands as one of the first to undertake the restoration of Scholastic philosophy. True, his thought is influenced by Augustinianism rather than Thomism, but his entire philosophy is a constant affirmation of the transcendence of God.

Vincenzo Gioberti

Life and Works

Vincenzo Gioberti was born in Turin in 1801. Though lacking a true vocation, he prepared for an ecclesiastical career and was ordained a priest in 1825. Shortly afterward he was appointed chaplain to the Court, but fell under suspicion of spreading subversive propaganda and was forced into exile. He went to Paris, and then to Brussels, where he spent ten years in study and published his works. Elected deputy in 1848, he returned to Turin and there was appointed Prime Minister. The loss of the war of the Italian "Risorgimento" (1848-49) caused his retirement. He went into voluntary exile in Paris and died there in 1852.

Gioberti's principal works of philosophical interest are: Introduction to the Study of Philosophy; Concerning the Beautiful and Concerning the Good; Concerning the Errors of Antonio Rosmini; and the Protologia.

Doctrine: Ontologism

Gioberti, criticizing the doctrine of Rosmini, holds that the "ideal being" of Rosmini fails in achieving the purpose for which it had been advanced, that of serving as an intelligible principle of reality and an objective foundation of our knowledge. The idea of being is subjective. Likewise, all the connections which the intellect establishes between sense perception and the idea of being are subjective. Reality remains beyond these subjective operations; it escapes us. According to Gioberti, the "ideal being" of Rosmini is the first psychological fact (i.e., subjective), and not the first philosophical fact (i.e., linking knowledge to reality).

Gioberti maintains that subjectivism can be overcome only if we admit the "Absolutely Real Being" -- God -- as the principle of knowledge and spiritual life. Thus he formulates his principle as follows: "Being creates existing being." According to this principle, the human spirit has a direct and immediate intuition of Gold in His act of creating. This intuition makes us rational beings capable of knowing realities in their principle and origin, God. (Ontologism.)

Gioberti, seeking to escape from pantheism, makes a clear affirmation of the transcendence of God over the world. The concept of creation expresses the relationship existing between God and the world. Notwithstanding this declaration, Gioberti's system, resting on the formula" "Being creates existing being," is only in external conformity with the theistic and Catholic concept of creation. Logically it concludes in immanentism and pantheism. Indeed, if the human spirit has an intuition of God in His action of creation, the same human spirit is not distinct from God. Moreover, the intuition of God which makes the human spirit an intelligent spirit, is itself created by God, and thus it follows that God sees Himself in the human spirit.

According to Gioberti, the formula "Being creates existing being" summarizes the first cycle of real life; but there is a second formula" "Existing beings return to Being," which expresses the reverse cycle of life. According to this formula, every reality in the course of human history has religious value. All created reality tends to be reunited with its divine principle.