Since antiquity, Epicurus' thought has been compared to a powerful drug able to cure the pains of the soul that have always tormented man preventing him from living a peaceful existence: but we know that the Greek term pharmakon can be interpreted in its two opposite meanings of medicine and poison; and indeed, the same duplicity animates Epicurus' philosophy which, by acting as a medicine for the human soul, also has the effect of a poison, destroying from within, philosophy traditionally (...) conceived as a disinterested contemplation of truth. The philosophical revolution undertaken by Epicurus as a fracture with respect to all the previous tradition, from Thales to Aristotle, coincides with an inversion of the traditional relation between man and cosmos, between theory and practice: the classic question "what is reality made of?" is replaced by the Epicurean question that is at the basis of his philosophical anthropocentrism: "how must reality be made and how should one understand it in order to be happy?." Each specific articulation of Epicurean philosophy is subordinate to the task of achieving a happy existence that is in no way inferior to any of the divine realities'. (shrink)

This article aims to underline the philosophical and methodological originality of Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe by Brunner, Conze and Koselleck. In it, history emerges only when temporalization becomes part of the experience of the world, thereby causing a shift in men’s horizon of expectation in relation to the space of experience such that they no longer coincide. Political concepts become historicized as indicators of change. The article reflects also on the concept of "new time" in this work and on its relationship to (...) the historical concept of "the modern age" or "modernity" . According to Koselleck, the late eighteenth century and the Enlightenment are the true "epochal threshold" , when the standard bearers of a genuinely "new time" used theory of history to co-ordinate the various elements which made up the concept of modernity. (shrink)

This paper sets out as its objective the exploration of some of the key passages and most relevant theoretical plexuses of the Grundzüge des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters by Johann Gottlieb Fichte devoted to the theme of historical narrative and, more generally, of historiography. In particular, we will first of all aim to show the specific status of Historie. Secondly, we will try to outline the differences that Grundzüge establishes between the functions of Wissenschaftslehrer and those of Historiker, in an attempt to (...) show, at the same time, the nexus linking the two and the activities they perform. (shrink)