Adriano Tilgher (philosopher)
Adriano Tilgher (8 January 1887 – 3 November 1941) was an Italian philosopher, essayist and theater critic.
Biography
Tilgher was born in Resina (now Ercolano, Province of Naples). His father was a German glassmaker and his mother from Valle d'Aosta. He lived in Rome where he was a friend and collaborator of Ernesto Buonaiuti (a scholar of the history of Christianity and an exponent of Italian modernism) until his death. He worked as a librarian at the Alessandrina and collaborated with several newspapers (among others, Il Mondo and Il Popolo di Roma), many of which were then suppressed by the Fascist government. His main works are: The World Crisis (1921), Aesthetics (1931) and The Philosophy of Morals (1937), in which he outlines his original individualistic vision. In the '20s he collaborated with the satirical newspaper Il Becco Giallo.
In 1925, he was among the signatories of the Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, drafted by Benedetto Croce. Among his various anti-fascist writings, the Truncation of Giovanni Gentile (1925), especially in the ironic and irreverent subtitle, expresses a desecrating judgment on propaganda with the eloquent phrase, of Brunian inspiration, "the peddling of the triumphant beast".[1]
He also worked as a literary and theatrical critic: he was among the first to note the originality of Luigi Pirandello's plays, despite attempts by the fascist regime to challenge it.[2] Tilgher interpreted Pirandello's theater as an expression of the contrast between Life (la Vita) and Form (la Forma), a view Pirandello adopted as his own. However, despite his friendship with Pirandello, Tilgher broke with him when Pirandello became a member of the Fascist Party.[3]
In the philosophical sphere, he affirmed that there is no single moral science, but rather a plurality of morals that emerge from a chaotic background by virtue of an initiative that is partly the creator of values and partly the effect of chance coincidences, even if fortunate. He revealed his own relativistic and irrational understanding of life and refuted all types of metaphysics. In Tilgher, the Manichean dualism of good and evil resurfaces, rebelling against any dialectical composition proper to any comfortable, illusory and superficial optimism. He considered mythical, utopian, the concept of progress that does not consider as equally real "the regression, the fall and the guilt".
In the well-known Antologia dei Filosofi Italiani del dopoguerra ("Anthology of Postwar Italian Philosophers"), published in 1937, in addition to his own texts he included excerpts from the works of Antonio Aliotta, Ernesto Buonaiuti, Julius Evola, Piero Martinetti, Costanzo Mignone, Emilia Nobile, and Giuseppe Rensi.
He died in Rome in 1941.
Works
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- Arte, Conoscenza e Realtà (1911)
- Teoria del Pragmatismo trascendentale (1915)
- Filosofi antichi (1921)
- La crisi mondiale e Saggi di socialismo e marxismo (1921)
- Voci del tempo (1923)
- Relativisti contemporanei (1923)
- Studi sul Teatro contemporaneo (1923)
- Ricognizioni (1923)
- La scena e la vita (1925)
- Lo Spaccio del Bestione trionfante. Stroncatura di Giovanni Gentile. Un libro per filosofi e non filosofi (1926; with an essay by Antimo Negri, 1998; with preface by Gabriele Turi, 2017)
- La visione greca della vita (1926; 1996)
- Saggi di etica e di filosofia del diritto (1928)
- Homo faber (1929; reprinted as Storia del concetto di lavoro nella civiltà occidentale, 1983)
- La poesia dialettale napoletana 1880-1930 (1930; 2001)
- Estetica (1931)
- Etica di Goethe (1932)
- Filosofi e Moralisti del Novecento (1932)
- Studi di poetica (1934)
- Cristo e Noi (1934)
- Critica dello Storicismo (1935)
- Antologia dei filosofi italiani del dopoguerra (1937; editor)
- Filosofia delle Morali (1937)
- Moralità. Punti di vista sulla vita e sull'uomo (1938)
- Le orecchie dell'aquila. Studio sulle fonti dell'attualismo di Giovanni Gentile (1938)
- La filosofia di Leopardi (1940; edited by Raoul Bruni, 2018)
- Il casualismo critico (1941)
- Mistiche nuove e Mistiche antiche (1946)
- Tempo nostro (1946)
- Diario politico 1937-1941 (1946; edited by Liliana Scalero)
- Marxismo socialismo borghesia (1978)
- Carteggio Croce-Tilgher (2004; edited by Alessandra Tarquini)
- Pirandello (2015; with texts by Antonio Gramsci)
- Alberto Einstein (2016; edited by S. Trappetti and F. Secci)
Notes
- ↑ Spaccio della bestia trionfante is a work of the philosopher Giordano Bruno, consisting of three dialogues of moral argument, published in London in 1584. The triumphant beasts are the signs of the celestial constellations, represented by animals: it is necessary to "pass them off", or chase them from the sky as they represent old vices that need to be replaced with modern virtues.
- ↑ A note of the OVRA on an alleged attempt to challenge Pirandello in the tour in Argentina "refers to a serious confidential statement made by the well-known anti-fascist scholar Adriano Tilgher to the Hon. Bruno Cassinelli, a statement that reveals not only the bilious animosity of Tilgher against Pirandello but also and above all a plan prearranged for over three months by renegades against Italians who are preparing to introduce to our compatriots in Argentina, the latest literary novelties of Italian authors". Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., who reproduces the note, underlines the negative emphasis with which in it is presented the noted anti-fascist writer Adriano Tilgher and with which he dwells "above all on his persistent hateful attitude of challenge and rebellion to fascism. It is significant, in the light of Canali's studies, that the intermediary between the political police and Adriano Tilgher was the Hon. Bruno Cassinelli [...] Cassinelli became Pirandello's friend and he speaks of him with deference in two letters to Abba in 1933 and 1936".
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Referencew
- Giannangeli, Pierfrancesco (2008). Adriano Tilgher: Filosofia del Teatro. Macerata: Eum.
External links
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