Papers by Pier Giuseppe Puggioni
Ragion Pratica, 2023
This paper aims to analyse the debate between Nicola Matteucci and Norberto Bobbio concerning leg... more This paper aims to analyse the debate between Nicola Matteucci and Norberto Bobbio concerning legal positivism and constitutionalism. Moving from the recent republication of a well-known writing of the former together with Bobbio’s private response, I will discuss this confrontation, which can be partitioned within three levels. At the first level, it deals with the role and nature of legal science. With his argument, however, Matteucci shows that his theses – and Bobbio’s as well – implicate a specific conception of the law-power relationship (the second level) which, at the very bottom, is undergirded by peculiar assumptions in philosophy of history (the third level).
Endoxa. Prospettive sul presente, 8, 43, 2023
This short article delves into the relationship between democracy, care, and humanity moving from... more This short article delves into the relationship between democracy, care, and humanity moving from Italo Calvino's short novel "La giornata d'uno scrutatore" ("The Watcher", 1963). Calvino's interpretation of the impact of institution on the life and substance of the human being is here analysed with respect to his reading of Marxism and Communism.
Ratio Juris, vol. 45, n. 4, 2022
This paper analyses the intertwinement of legal philosophy and political theory in the British in... more This paper analyses the intertwinement of legal philosophy and political theory in the British intellectual framework between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with specific regard to Harold Laski’s works. I will try to illustrate the transition from 19th-century utilitarianism to H. L. A. Hart and Isaiah Berlin as evolving through important debates which include Laski’s contribution. I will argue that a discussion of “juridical” obligation, i.e., the conditions of legal validity, may lie implicitly in these concerns that Laski and other early 20th-century British authors had about “political” obligation—viz., about the nature of the state and its claim to obedience. By approaching Laski’s theories and their genealogy through a legal-philosophical perspective, I will contend that this debate about political obligation anticipates to a considerable extent some of the most renowned conceptions of obligation in 20th-century British legal theory.
Endoxa. Prospettive sul presente, 7, 39, 2022
This short paper draws attention to the tight connection between law and alienation by reference ... more This short paper draws attention to the tight connection between law and alienation by reference to the dynamics of "boundarification" ("confinazione"). I will argue that the law cannot operate but by drawing a line to exclude elements deemed "external" or "extravagant" and, in so doing, defining its "internal" objects. In the conclusion, I will show how some attempts to redefine the way in which the law works might ascribe (or, rather, recognise the pertinence of) the faculty of judgment to the individual as regards the "merits" of legal provisions.
Democrazia e Diritto, n. 1/22, 2022
This paper enquires into Antonio Pigliaru’s theories about regional autonomy within the Italian p... more This paper enquires into Antonio Pigliaru’s theories about regional autonomy within the Italian political context after the Second World War and the approval of the Republican Con-stitution. Drawing some concepts and intellectual stimuli from Marxist philosophy and Anto-nio Gramsci’s reflections, Pigliaru connects the problem of political and legislative autonomy to the idea of the ‘withering away of the State’. As I will argue, his theories about the plurality of legal orders are of crucial importance for understanding the interweavement of law and pol-itics in this matter, as the ‘reform of sovereignty’ and the transformation of the State may en-tail also a transformation of the concept of ‘law’. To conclude, I will observe that Pigliaru’s conceptualization can be useful in interpreting the attitude of constitutional legal studies to regional autonomy in the contemporary debate.
Endoxa. Prospettive sul presente, 7, 35, 2022
This short article aims to reflect on the problem of "distance" in conceiving moral and legal obl... more This short article aims to reflect on the problem of "distance" in conceiving moral and legal obligations. Moving from the debate between the Scottish moralists Hutcheson, Hume, and Smith, on the one side, and Immanuel Kant on the other, I will try to draw some implications from the interaction of sense/sentiment and the moral law. In the conclusion, I will contend that a universalistic approach to the theme of moral and legal obligation is not, to closer inspection, incompatibile with the variety of circumstances one might encounter, if we assume that its meaning lies in the commitment demanded by the categorical imperative.
Materiali di Estetica. Terza Serie, n. 8.2, 2021
This paper enquires into the political and juridical themes underlying Giacomo Puccini’s opera To... more This paper enquires into the political and juridical themes underlying Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca(1900). Through the comparison of Puccini’s score, the libretto by Giacosa and Illica, and the original play by Sardou, I will present a twofold reading of the intertwinement between politics, religion, and law in this musical work. On the one hand, I will show that the police powerrepresented by the character of Scarpia can be interpreted, from a Benjaminian standpoint, as a violent power that shapes the legal and religious order. On the other hand, I will argue that the artistic couple made by Cavaradossi and Tosca is politically significant in so far as their art represents an attempt to deactivate Scarpia’s pervading and oppressive force. The conclusion will contend that the aesthetics in this opera subtends the aspiration for an “inoperative”-wise revolution in religious institutions as well as in legal and political relations.
Materiali per una storia della cultura giuridica, vol. LI, n. 2, 2021
This paper enquires into the legal theses in the works of English political pluralists like F. W.... more This paper enquires into the legal theses in the works of English political pluralists like F. W. Maitland, J. N. Figgis, and H. J. Laski. After a brief outline of the epistemic "horizon" of legal pluralism, I will try to understand the tradition of British pluralism in the light of the doctrinal debate on law and society that took place in Europe in the early 20 th century. I will show, in particular, that these British political theorists promoted a pluralistic conception of the "juridical" drawing attention to the normative powers of social groups such as churches and trade unions, whose "rules" might conflict with-and prevail over-those issued by the state.
Rivista del Gruppo di Pisa, speciale 2021/2, 2021
This article aims to analyse some arguments frequently deployed by legal theorists to approach th... more This article aims to analyse some arguments frequently deployed by legal theorists to approach the problem of utilising AI technologies in judicial evaluation. I will show that such arguments tend to cling on an implicit (where not explicit) reference to the question of subjectivity: in other words, jurists often put forward the problem of distinguishing between human subjects and artificial entities, but seem unable to solve it in the last resort. To conclude, I will contend that the relationship between the human judge and AI might be profitably understood through reference to Waldenfels' phenomenology of the 'alien'.
Endoxa, 6, 32, 2021
This short article analyses the relationship between art and politics in Giacomo Puccini's operat... more This short article analyses the relationship between art and politics in Giacomo Puccini's operatic compositions. Through a politico-philosophical (and legal-philosophical) perspective, I will focus on the way in which Puccini's musical style, as well as his propensity for certain topics, depict and display certain conceptions of power, law, justice, poverty and social critique. In the conclusion, I will show that one of the main common threads in many Puccinian works might be found in the salvific and liberating function of art itself.
Endoxa. Prospettive sul presente, 2021
This short paper puts forward a sketch of what I call the 'normative' conception of banditry. Eve... more This short paper puts forward a sketch of what I call the 'normative' conception of banditry. Ever since ancient philosophy, many eminent authors have connected the category of 'bandit' to a specific political and normative context. Antonio Pigliaru provided an interesting interpretation of such phenomenon, observing banditry as the result of a clash of multiple legal orders. This view, which implies that the normative and political potential of bandits lies in their belonging to a community whose values are shared, seems in later days to be challenged by a new 'undetermined' deviant type.
P. A. Persona e Amministrazione, n. 2/2020, 2020
This paper aims first to stress that some modern legal categories, such as 'power', 'liberty' and... more This paper aims first to stress that some modern legal categories, such as 'power', 'liberty' and 'autonomy', are heuristically inadequate. Moving from the current doctrinal debate on the ‘covid-19’ pandemics, I will argue that this emergency is likely to exacerbate the ongoing crisis of the liberal conception of law. This theoretical framework, which is grounded on the legality of political action and validity of norms in relation to a hierarchy of normative sources, is no longer able to work without considering the ‘governmental’ devices employed by the State. On a similar ground, I will maintain that conceiving liberty as a kind of subjective right cannot succeed in emancipating the individual from the ‘paternalistic’ power of the State: the idea of liberty needs a concept of autonomy connected to the free recognition of our duties towards the ‘other ones’. To conclude, I will state that all these theoretical hypotheses can help to reform, if not to transform, the conceptual framework of contemporary jurisprudence.
Endoxa. Prospettive sul presente, 5, 29, gennaio 2021, 2021
This short paper delves into some questions generated by international migration in legal thinkin... more This short paper delves into some questions generated by international migration in legal thinking, as migrants seem to exceed the usual pattern through which the law interprets and classifies concrete phenomena. I will focus on the interaction of this peculiar subjectivity interacts with the dichotomy 'internal'/'external', which is a fundamental part of our legal framework based on territorial partition and nationality. In conclusion, I will show how this problems may be tackled by recovering and interpreting the Idealist conception of 'us' in a relational and pluralistic sense.
DPCE online, 2020/3, 2020
This short paper aims to analyse the theoretical meaning of 'artificial life' in regard to the pr... more This short paper aims to analyse the theoretical meaning of 'artificial life' in regard to the practical issue of implementing artificial general intelligence in the field of legislative decision-making and disputes' resolution. In order to delve into this problem, I will recall the most relevant statements set forth by the post-human studies, with some references to important political and legal theorists. To conclude, I will question whether the cognitive processes characterising AIs (especially artificial neural networks), from a scientific point of view, are to be included, or excluded, from the semantic realm of 'life' and 'learning'.
Diacronìa, 1/2020, 2020
This paper aims to present the philosophical thought of Italian scholar Antonio Pigliaru through ... more This paper aims to present the philosophical thought of Italian scholar Antonio Pigliaru through a critical approach to his works. By delving into the complex relationship between this author and some of the main intellectual movements of the 20th century, I will show that Pigliaru’s concern with the problems of law and the state is to be viewed in the light of his humanistic and relational theory.
Endoxa, 5, 25, 2020
This paper delves into the quite known opera "Le Devin du Village" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, thro... more This paper delves into the quite known opera "Le Devin du Village" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, through an overview of the main political issues emerging from the autograph libretto and underlined by the author's musical arrangement. In conclusion, I will seek to discuss a certain way of conceiving and describing Rousseau's theory of the 'state of nature' and 'natural law' as a pure concern of the individual. On the contrary, he probably thought of some positive and spontaneous human relationship, the 'naturality' of which cannot be underestimated.
Materiales de Filosofia del Derecho. n. 2019/03, 2019
This paper aims to analyse the epistemological definition of the legal subject in Hart’s philosop... more This paper aims to analyse the epistemological definition of the legal subject in Hart’s philosophical and theoretical thought. In order to achieve this, it delves into Hart’s well-known doctrine of the minimum content of natural law, through proper references to its philosophical and methodical basis, which is reminiscent of the Oxfordian criticism of Kant’s theoretical statements. In fact, the core of the Hartian foundation of subjectivity is directly connected to the analysis of some truisms about the human nature, whose contingency is particularly emphasised by the author himself. In conclusion, this study shows how this famous and controversial doctrine can be read from a post-humanistic point of view, so that Hart’s notion of «human» is conceived as dependent on the ability to enhance our bodies through technology.
Essays by Pier Giuseppe Puggioni
R. Tarchi, A. Gatti (a cura di), "Il Rule of Law in Europa", Editore Consulta Online, Genova, pp. 355-366., 2023
This paper enquires into the concept of “Rule of Law” utilised by the European Commission in its ... more This paper enquires into the concept of “Rule of Law” utilised by the European Commission in its Report of 2020 and 2021 on Hungary, showing its relationship with some doctrines that famously devised such category. In order to achieve this, I will analyse specific aspects of the Report through Harold Laski’s political and legal theories. His works, in fact, can provide us with a useful conceptual framework for understanding the intertwinement between democratic instances in the European Union and its economic and capitalistic soul.
Itinerari del sapere. Teorie e pratiche della conoscenza in età contemporanea, a cura di A. Dividus, C. Malvestio, P.G. Puggioni, A. Raciti, Carocci editore, 2022
This short essay delves into the relationship beween historical materialism and legal philosophy.... more This short essay delves into the relationship beween historical materialism and legal philosophy. It presents the attempt to sketch the hypothesis that the Italian Marxist tradition (mostly Labriola, Mondolfo, and Gramsci) influenced the development of two of the most prominent conception of law in the Italian scenario ove the 20th century: on the one side, Capograssi's theory of legal experience; on the other, Bobbio's positivist conception of the legal science. As I argue in the conclusion, recongnising such relationship may uphold the thesis that, according to the Italian conception of legal science, positive lawyers are supposed to focus not only on the literal or formal meaning of legal prescriptions, but also on the underlying power-relations and their material basis.
"Cultura e società nel pensiero di Antonio Pigliaru. ", a cura di A. Delogu e A. M. Morace, Isre edizioni-Aipsa, Nùoro-Cagliari, 2021
This paper, which I presented during a conference on May 2019, delves into the legal thought of I... more This paper, which I presented during a conference on May 2019, delves into the legal thought of Italian philosopher Antonio Pigliaru (1922-1969). Through a general overview of his main works, I will try to pull the threads of his concept of "us" ("noi"), showing how it pervades the entire philosophical thought of this author, and how this category might be conceived as a relational core of law and politics.
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Papers by Pier Giuseppe Puggioni
Essays by Pier Giuseppe Puggioni
The core object of this research relates especially to the transformations that knowledge experiences in its velocity, forms and models. All these essays are, therefore, represent different attempts to pinpoint the nexus between those transformations and some of the most prominent historico-political changes in our epoch.