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Nicola Marcucci

EHESS-Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Institut Marcel Mauss (LIER), Post-Doc

New School for Social Research, Philosophy, Post-Doc

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After graduating in Philosophy at the University of Pisa and awarded of a Master in Political Philosophy at the University of Paris-X Nanterre, I completed my PhD in 2005 in History and Sociology of Modernity at the University of Pisa. After a four years post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Sociology of Milano-Bicocca, I joined the Institute for Social Sciences of the Humboldt University of Berlin for a two years Humboldt Foundation Fellowship. Later this period I've been visiting fellow at Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin and I co-teach with Prof. Adrian Favell, Philosophy of the Social Sciences at SciencesPo in Paris for two years (2012/2013; 2013/2014). Since September 2014 I'm Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow at School for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris and the New School for Social Research (NSSR) in New York City.
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Articles by Nicola Marcucci

The Authority of Revolution. Durkheim after Arendt

Durkheim & Critique

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more

Durkheim & Critique

2.1 Three interpretations of the intichiuma 56 5.1 Summer society / winter society among the Eski... more 2.1 Three interpretations of the intichiuma 56 5.1 Summer society / winter society among the Eskimos 112 6.1 Dualistic structure in The division of labour in society 139 6.2 The moral sources of solidarity 146 7.1 Integration and solidarity 163 7.2 Pre-reflexive and reflexive dimension 167 7.3 Models of solidarity 168

Justice as Institution. Durkheim on Obligation and Solidarity

The Anthem Companion to Émile Durkheim, 2022

Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gur... more Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gures in the development of sociology from the last two centuries. Covering the major advancements in sociological thought, these companions off er critical evaluations of key fi gures in the American and European sociological tradition, and will provide students and scholars with an in-depth assessment of the makers of sociology and chart their relevance to modern society.

Explorations with the New Durkheim

Introduction to the Durkheim Companion, 2022

Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gur... more Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gures in the development of sociology from the last two centuries. Covering the major advancements in sociological thought, these companions off er critical evaluations of key fi gures in the American and European sociological tradition, and will provide students and scholars with an in-depth assessment of the makers of sociology and chart their relevance to modern society.

“Between Facts and Wills. Tönnies, Durkheim and the sociological critique of modern obligation,” Durkheim in Germany, The Journal of Classical Sociology, Special Issue, (ed.) N. Marcucci and G. Fitzi, 2017, 17 (4), pp. 276-292.

Law contra sociology: The critique of the social sciences, 309 especially Durkheimian sociology, ... more

« Durkheim in Germany. The performance of a classic», with G. Fitzi, introduction to Durkheim in Germany, The Journal of Classical Sociology, Special Issue, (ed.) N. Marcucci and G. Fitzi, 2017, 17 (4), pp. 271-275.

Law contra sociology: The critique of the social sciences, 309 especially Durkheimian sociology, ... more

«Interazione senza società. Spinoza e Kant nella riflessione di Georg Simmel», in Wechselwirkung. Storia di un concetto, Quaderni Materialisti, Special Issue, (ed.) N. Marcucci, V. Morfino, 2019, 17, pp. 159-187.

Autorizzazione del Tribunale di Milano n. 391 del 28/06/2002. L'editore resta disponibile ad asso... more

«La volonté du sociologue. Réunifier le champ de la volonté, réinventer le droit naturel selon Ferdinand Tönnies», in Le concept de communauté, in C. Jouin (ed.), Cahiers de philosophie de l’université de Caen, Caen, 2019, 56, pp. 13-34.

Marcucci Lilluminismo eteronomo di Michel Foucault, Dialegesthai, 19, 2017

«Simmel und Tönnies», in H-P. Müller, T. Reitz, Simmel Handbuch, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 2018, pp. 561-566.

“Memory of a sign without history. Enlightenment, Revelation and Wonder in Spinoza”, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, New School for Social Research, 38, 1, 2017, pp. 173-197.

In §7 of the first chapter of the Theological-Political Treatise, which is dedicated to prophecy,... more

Europe as a political society_ Emile Durkheim, the federalist principle and the ideal of a cosmopolitan justice, (F. Callegaro, N. Marcucci), Constellations, 2018, 25, pp. 542-555.

One of the most important debates in contemporary social thought concerns the origin and meaning ... more

«La nature de l’obligation. Le ‘moment Spinoza’ dans la sociologie classique française», in E. Debray, K. S. Ong-Van-Kung, F. Lordon (ed.), Les passions du social, Paris, Editions Amsterdam, 2019, pp. 225-263.

«Modern times. Temporalities and sociology between multiple modernities and post-colonial critique», in V. Morfino, P. Thomas (ed.), London, Brill, 2016, forthcoming

Over the last decades, sociological theory, as well as political philosophy, has attempted to ret... more Over the last decades, sociological theory, as well as political philosophy, has attempted to rethink a linear and mono-directional conception of temporality by advocating a plural conception instead. For sociological theory, the concept of modernity is essential and strategic because it represents both an interpretative canon (implicitly referring to a political philosophy able to distinguish "normatively" what is modern and what is not); and the condition of its own experience 1 . Thus rethinking the notion of temporality from a sociological point of view means discussing the very notion of modernity.

«Lumières de la raison sociologique. Une lecture de Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse», Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, 2018, XX/2, pp. 265-286.

«Le pouvoir de reconnaître. Anthropologie et représentation dans le Léviathan de Thomas Hobbes» in F. Toto, T. Penigaud ed E. Renault (ed.), La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance. Archéologie d'une problématique moderne, Paris, ENS Edition, 2017, pp. 91-108

La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance. Archéologie d'une problématique moderne / Sous la dire... more La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance. Archéologie d'une problématique moderne / Sous la direction de Francesco Toto, Théophile Pénigaud de Mourgues et Emmanuel Renault -Lyon, ENS Éditions, impr. 2017 -1 vol. (326 p.) : couv. ill. ; 22 cm. (La croisée des chemins, ISSN 1765-8128). ISBN 978-2-84788-944-4 (br.) : 34 EUR Cet ouvrage est diffusé sur la plateforme OpenEdition books en HTML, ePub et PDF : http://books.openedition.org/enseditions/ Tous droits de reproduction, de traduction et d'adaptation réservés pour tous pays. Toute représentation ou reproduction intégrale ou partielle faite par quelque procédé que ce soit, sans le consentement de l'éditeur, est illicite et constitue une contrefaçon. Les copies ou reproductions destinées à une utilisation collective sont interdites.

« Sociologia e organizzazione della morale. Lezioni di sociologia sul lavoro, lo Stato e la giustizia» (with F. Callegaro), introduction to E. Durkheim, Lezioni di sociologia, Orthotes, Salerno, 2015, (in press)

«A lezione dai classici. Spinoza secondo Ferdinand Tönnies», introduction to F. Tönnies, Studi sul pensiero sociale e politico di Spinoza, Milano, Ghibli, 2015, pp. II-XIX, (in press)

«L’istituzione della giustizia. La solidarietà come obbligazione dei moderni secondo Durkheim», Scienza & Politica, XXVI, 51, 2014, pp. 63-65.

Le premesse di questo saggio hanno origine in un workshop da me organizzato presso il Centre Marc... more

«Storia di un segno senza memoria: meraviglia, rivelazione e superstizione secondo Spinoza», Etica & Politica/ Ethics & Politics, XVI, 2014, 1, pp. 116-141.

The Authority of Revolution. Durkheim after Arendt

Durkheim & Critique

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more

Durkheim & Critique

2.1 Three interpretations of the intichiuma 56 5.1 Summer society / winter society among the Eski... more 2.1 Three interpretations of the intichiuma 56 5.1 Summer society / winter society among the Eskimos 112 6.1 Dualistic structure in The division of labour in society 139 6.2 The moral sources of solidarity 146 7.1 Integration and solidarity 163 7.2 Pre-reflexive and reflexive dimension 167 7.3 Models of solidarity 168

Justice as Institution. Durkheim on Obligation and Solidarity

The Anthem Companion to Émile Durkheim, 2022

Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gur... more Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gures in the development of sociology from the last two centuries. Covering the major advancements in sociological thought, these companions off er critical evaluations of key fi gures in the American and European sociological tradition, and will provide students and scholars with an in-depth assessment of the makers of sociology and chart their relevance to modern society.

Explorations with the New Durkheim

Introduction to the Durkheim Companion, 2022

Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gur... more Anthem Companions to Sociology off er authoritative and comprehensive assessments of major fi gures in the development of sociology from the last two centuries. Covering the major advancements in sociological thought, these companions off er critical evaluations of key fi gures in the American and European sociological tradition, and will provide students and scholars with an in-depth assessment of the makers of sociology and chart their relevance to modern society.

“Between Facts and Wills. Tönnies, Durkheim and the sociological critique of modern obligation,” Durkheim in Germany, The Journal of Classical Sociology, Special Issue, (ed.) N. Marcucci and G. Fitzi, 2017, 17 (4), pp. 276-292.

Law contra sociology: The critique of the social sciences, 309 especially Durkheimian sociology, ... more

« Durkheim in Germany. The performance of a classic», with G. Fitzi, introduction to Durkheim in Germany, The Journal of Classical Sociology, Special Issue, (ed.) N. Marcucci and G. Fitzi, 2017, 17 (4), pp. 271-275.

Law contra sociology: The critique of the social sciences, 309 especially Durkheimian sociology, ... more

«Interazione senza società. Spinoza e Kant nella riflessione di Georg Simmel», in Wechselwirkung. Storia di un concetto, Quaderni Materialisti, Special Issue, (ed.) N. Marcucci, V. Morfino, 2019, 17, pp. 159-187.

Autorizzazione del Tribunale di Milano n. 391 del 28/06/2002. L'editore resta disponibile ad asso... more

«La volonté du sociologue. Réunifier le champ de la volonté, réinventer le droit naturel selon Ferdinand Tönnies», in Le concept de communauté, in C. Jouin (ed.), Cahiers de philosophie de l’université de Caen, Caen, 2019, 56, pp. 13-34.

Marcucci Lilluminismo eteronomo di Michel Foucault, Dialegesthai, 19, 2017

«Simmel und Tönnies», in H-P. Müller, T. Reitz, Simmel Handbuch, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 2018, pp. 561-566.

“Memory of a sign without history. Enlightenment, Revelation and Wonder in Spinoza”, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, New School for Social Research, 38, 1, 2017, pp. 173-197.

In §7 of the first chapter of the Theological-Political Treatise, which is dedicated to prophecy,... more

Europe as a political society_ Emile Durkheim, the federalist principle and the ideal of a cosmopolitan justice, (F. Callegaro, N. Marcucci), Constellations, 2018, 25, pp. 542-555.

One of the most important debates in contemporary social thought concerns the origin and meaning ... more

«La nature de l’obligation. Le ‘moment Spinoza’ dans la sociologie classique française», in E. Debray, K. S. Ong-Van-Kung, F. Lordon (ed.), Les passions du social, Paris, Editions Amsterdam, 2019, pp. 225-263.

«Modern times. Temporalities and sociology between multiple modernities and post-colonial critique», in V. Morfino, P. Thomas (ed.), London, Brill, 2016, forthcoming

Over the last decades, sociological theory, as well as political philosophy, has attempted to ret... more Over the last decades, sociological theory, as well as political philosophy, has attempted to rethink a linear and mono-directional conception of temporality by advocating a plural conception instead. For sociological theory, the concept of modernity is essential and strategic because it represents both an interpretative canon (implicitly referring to a political philosophy able to distinguish "normatively" what is modern and what is not); and the condition of its own experience 1 . Thus rethinking the notion of temporality from a sociological point of view means discussing the very notion of modernity.

«Lumières de la raison sociologique. Une lecture de Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse», Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, 2018, XX/2, pp. 265-286.

«Le pouvoir de reconnaître. Anthropologie et représentation dans le Léviathan de Thomas Hobbes» in F. Toto, T. Penigaud ed E. Renault (ed.), La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance. Archéologie d'une problématique moderne, Paris, ENS Edition, 2017, pp. 91-108

La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance. Archéologie d'une problématique moderne / Sous la dire... more La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance. Archéologie d'une problématique moderne / Sous la direction de Francesco Toto, Théophile Pénigaud de Mourgues et Emmanuel Renault -Lyon, ENS Éditions, impr. 2017 -1 vol. (326 p.) : couv. ill. ; 22 cm. (La croisée des chemins, ISSN 1765-8128). ISBN 978-2-84788-944-4 (br.) : 34 EUR Cet ouvrage est diffusé sur la plateforme OpenEdition books en HTML, ePub et PDF : http://books.openedition.org/enseditions/ Tous droits de reproduction, de traduction et d'adaptation réservés pour tous pays. Toute représentation ou reproduction intégrale ou partielle faite par quelque procédé que ce soit, sans le consentement de l'éditeur, est illicite et constitue une contrefaçon. Les copies ou reproductions destinées à une utilisation collective sont interdites.

« Sociologia e organizzazione della morale. Lezioni di sociologia sul lavoro, lo Stato e la giustizia» (with F. Callegaro), introduction to E. Durkheim, Lezioni di sociologia, Orthotes, Salerno, 2015, (in press)

«A lezione dai classici. Spinoza secondo Ferdinand Tönnies», introduction to F. Tönnies, Studi sul pensiero sociale e politico di Spinoza, Milano, Ghibli, 2015, pp. II-XIX, (in press)

«L’istituzione della giustizia. La solidarietà come obbligazione dei moderni secondo Durkheim», Scienza & Politica, XXVI, 51, 2014, pp. 63-65.

Le premesse di questo saggio hanno origine in un workshop da me organizzato presso il Centre Marc... more

«Storia di un segno senza memoria: meraviglia, rivelazione e superstizione secondo Spinoza», Etica & Politica/ Ethics & Politics, XVI, 2014, 1, pp. 116-141.

Il dominio dell ideale. Durkheim e la critica sociologica (2023)

Titolo e indice

La sovranità scomposta. Sull'attualità del Leviatano

by Lorenzo Bernini, Mauro Farnesi Camellone, and Nicola Marcucci

Modern Times: Sociological temporality between multiple modernities and post-colonial critique

Over the last decades, sociological theory, as well as political philosophy, has attempted to ret... more Over the last decades, sociological theory, as well as political philosophy, has attempted to rethink a linear and mono-directional conception of temporality by advocating a plural conception instead. For sociological theory, the concept of modernity is essential and strategic because it represents both an interpretative canon (implicitly referring to a political philosophy able to distinguish "normatively" what is modern and what is not); and the condition of its own experience 1 . Thus rethinking the notion of temporality from a sociological point of view means discussing the very notion of modernity.

Strategie della relazione. Riconoscimento, transindividuale, alterità, (ed.) with Luca Pinzolo, Roma, Meltemi, 2010.

Ordo e connexio. Spinozismo e scienze sociali, (ed.), Milano, Mimesis, 2012.

Tempora multa. Il governo del tempo, with Aa.Vv., Milano, Mimesis, 2013

F. Tönnies, Sul pensiero sociale e politico di Spinoza, (ed.), Milano, Mimesis, 2015, in press

E. Durkheim, Lezioni di sociologia, (ed. with F. Callegaro), Orthotes, Salerno, 2015, in press.

Spinoza e la storia, (ed.) with C. Zaltieri, Mantova, Negretto Editore, 2019.

Wechselwirkung. Il termine e i concetti, Quaderni Materialisti, Special Issue, (ed.) with V. Morfino, 2019, 17.

Durkheim & Critique, (ed.), New York, Palgrave, 2021

Durkheim Companion, (ed.) with G. Fitzi, London-New York, Anthem Press, 2020 (forthcoming)

Wechselwirkung Il termine e i concetti

by Vittorio Morfino and Nicola Marcucci

Quaderni Materialisti 17 , 2018

Le concept de communauté

Ce numéro des Cahiers de philosophie de l’université de Caen prend comme point de départ le conce... more Ce numéro des Cahiers de philosophie de l’université de Caen prend comme point de départ le concept de communauté élaboré par la sociologie allemande à la fin du XIXe et au début du XXe siècle. L’opposition de la « communauté » et de la « société » posée par Ferdinand Tönnies et prolongée par Max Weber est devenue incontournable pour la philosophie politique. À partir d’elle, l’enquête sur les racines médiévales de la catégorie de communauté (la communitas et la communio chrétiennes) et l’étude de certains de ses usages contemporains montrent que la modernité se pense elle-même comme critique et crise du lien communautaire

Justice as Institution

The Anthem Companion to Émile Durkheim

A symposium on Georg Simmel: Essays on art and aesthetics

Thesis Eleven

Georg Simmel has long been appreciated as a major theorist of the arts in society, as well as of ... more Georg Simmel has long been appreciated as a major theorist of the arts in society, as well as of aesthetic phenomena in general in social life. Yet Simmel’s essays in the area have remained dispersed for many years across the disparate parts of his corpus and have not been easy to survey in their full thematic cohesion and interconnection. This symposium article reflects on Austin Harrington’s comprehensive anthology of these writings in English, published in 2020, which assembles virtually all the relevant titles – many of them appearing in English for the first time. Among the central topics of discussion are Simmel’s fluid style of theorizing, his thinking about representation, reality and modernity in art, his relationships to philosophers and artistic personalities, and his legacy for the present.

Interview by Gregor Fitzi and Nicola Marcucci with Hans Joas on the reception of Émile Durkheim in Germany. Berlin: Humboldt University of Berlin, 6 October 2014

Journal of Classical Sociology, 2017

The interview offers a reconstruction of the German reception of Durkheim since the middle of the... more The interview offers a reconstruction of the German reception of Durkheim since the middle of the 1970s. Hans Joas, who was one of its major protagonists, discusses the backdrop that finally permitted a scholarly examination of Durkheim’s sociology in Germany. Focussing on his personal reception Joas then gives an account of the Durkheimian themes that inspire his work.

Between facts and wills: Tönnies, Durkheim, and the sociological critique of modern obligation

Journal of Classical Sociology, 2017

This article explores the relation between Durkheim and Tönnies’ sociological thinking. Instead o... more This article explores the relation between Durkheim and Tönnies’ sociological thinking. Instead of focusing on their divergences, it shows how the content of their mutual criticisms, before being naturalized in national sociological traditions, reveals a shared epistemological aim: to rethink modern moral and political obligation via sociological theory. From this perspective, the opposition between Durkheim’s social fact and Tönnies’ social will reveals how classical sociological theory has been engaged in a general critisicm of modern natural law in order to furnish a different understanding of modern poltical concepts, in particular of the notion of state.

RahelJaeggi, Critique of forms of life, Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018

Constellations, 2021

La souveraineté en personne

Qu’est-ce qu’un collectif ?, 2010

Une approche historique de la personnification des collectifs requiert que soient identifiées les... more Une approche historique de la personnification des collectifs requiert que soient identifiées les frontières temporelles – Sattelzeiten dans le vocabulaire de l’historien Reinhart Koselleck (1990) –, à l’intérieur et au travers desquelles la pensée moderne a déployé les changements sémantiques de ses propres concepts. Les collectifs ont été personnifiés sous différentes notions : personne, personnalité ou individu. Une pluralité de langages disciplinaires y a contribué de sorte que cette pers..

Le pouvoir de reconnaître

La reconnaissance avant la reconnaissance

Ordo e connexio : spinozismo e scienze sociali

Struggling without Recognition_APA Version

Is it possible – and if so in what terms – to talk of a Hobbesian theory of recognition? This is ... more Is it possible – and if so in what terms – to talk of a Hobbesian theory of recognition? This is the question that I will try to answer in the following pages. Before proceeding in this direction, however, it is be important to specify the meaning of this question. It is known that the topic of acknowledgement has become a central aspect of moral reflection and modern politics, starting from Fichte and Hegel’s German idealism1. In particular, the latter is credited with the codification of the concept of the inter-individual relationship within the scope of an historical vision of the slave/master relationship. The Hegelian codification takes form within a polemical relationship with the natural law and contractualism tradition, of which Hobbes is held as one of the greatest representatives. In order to speak of a Hobbesian theory of recognition, I will thus start from this juxtaposition, evaluating its most salient aspects and highlighting some points of continuity (I). Once I have...

Immanence and social normativity. Spinoza and the invention of sociology in France and Germany, 1871-1918

Nicola Marcucci vient d’obtenir une bourse Marie Curie (nternational Outgoing Fellowship), il pas... more Nicola Marcucci vient d’obtenir une bourse Marie Curie (nternational Outgoing Fellowship), il passera deux ans a la New School de New York et un an a l'EHESS. Son referent est Bruno Karsenti. My project will focus on the uses of Spinoza’s thought in French and German sociological literature from the last three decades of the 19th century up to the end of the First World War. It was in these countries and this period that sociology was progressively institutionalized as an academic discipline. (...)

La sovranità scomposta. Sull'attualità del Leviatano

Lumières de la raison sociologique. Une lecture de Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse

In the Elementary forms of religious life , Durkheim notoriously addresses modern philosophy from... more In the Elementary forms of religious life , Durkheim notoriously addresses modern philosophy from the perspective of his twofold path, opposing rationalism and empiricism. In this contribution, I intend to show how another alternative is at work in the text, the one that confronts Spinoza’s naturalism and Kant’s transcendentalism. Spinozism and Kantianism are here understood as the two main intellectual options in order to think the autonomy of human reason and its relation to religion and critique in the Enlightenment tradition. The article suggests that Durkheim’s reflection on the social origins of human knowledge and his criticism of an aprioristic account of the categories push his reflection toward a Spinozist standpoint. Nonetheless, his denial of the possibility to treat the positivity of religious life via the Enlightenment’s opposition between reason and belief entails – thanks to his theory of totemism - a criticism of Spinoza’s naturalism alike. In particular, what is at stake in his book is the possibility to give a sociological account of the notion of totality and, in this way, to radically revise our understanding of the autonomy of human reason by means of a socio-historical account of religious life. In this perspective, Durkheim’s argument not only stages a main alternative of modern philosophy, but also suggests that the task of sociology is to overcome it

Modern Times: Sociological Temporality between Multiple Modernities and Postcolonial Critique

The Government of Time, 2017

This volume studies the ‘subterranean currents’ of plural temporalities that have traversed the d... more This volume studies the ‘subterranean currents’ of plural temporalities that have traversed the development of the Marxist tradition. Chapters on Rousseau, Sieyes, Marx, Bloch, Althusser, Gramsci, Pasolini and Postcolonialism highlight the articulation of the plural temporalities of mass political action.

The Authority of Revolution: Durkheim After Arendt

Durkheim & Critique, 2021

My contribution aims to show how, according to Durkheim and Arendt, the self-instituting processe... more My contribution aims to show how, according to Durkheim and Arendt, the self-instituting processes initiated by the American and French Revolutions put these two societies in the unprecedented condition of grounding their own authority. Durkheim and Arendt seem to agree that the problem of these self-instituted societies has consisted in understanding themselves as inescapably bound to historical transmission, on the one hand, and as fundamentally breaking with history, on the other. According to both, modern political philosophy has not been able to confront this paradox because of a false premise within its own individualistic understanding of authority. Subsequently, for both, in order to regenerate our capacity to act in common, it becomes necessary to recover a viable conception of authority and to historically locate these processes of self-institution. From this point onward, Arendt and Durkheim fundamentally diverge. The singularity of American constitution-making, according to Arendt, is what made the historical transmissibility of this revolutionary experience possible. Durkheim, for his part, argues that the French revolutionary tradition needs to be intellectually revised and politically transformed in order to be accomplished. Making modern societies’ socialist aspirations sociologically self-reflexive is what Durkheim thinks is entailed in this need.

Durkheim in Germany: The performance of a classic

Journal of Classical Sociology, Nov 1, 2017

Europe as a political society: Emile Durkheim, the federalist principle and the ideal of a cosmopolitan justice

Constellations, 2018

One of the most important debates in contemporary social thought concerns the origin and meaning ... more One of the most important debates in contemporary social thought concerns the origin and meaning of the general concept of "society" as it was first introduced in the modern order of scientific knowledge by classical sociologists. It is an inescapable and pressing question for a reflexive understanding of the social sciences. The founding fathers of sociology could not have started comparing human societies and replacing their significant differences along the line of a ramified process, in order to explain and assess the break introduced in history by modernity, without first specifying what enabled the different kinds of human association and forms of collective order to be internal variations of one and the same social condition, seen as a universal anthropological feature. The present discussion thus tries to examine what allowed classical sociologists, when they started defining the project and program of their discipline, to distance themselves from the immediately given empirical reality in order to point out the existence, previously unnoticed, of that common reality to which they referred as the proper object of the new social science. This legitimate question, both historical and theoretical, has, however, progressively taken the form of a widespread reproach addressed to classical sociology as such, finally leading to a general criticism aimed at dismantling its project from its very bases. Indeed, according to some of the most prominent figures of contemporary sociology-Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, Alain Touraine, and many others-the founding fathers managed to trace the frontiers of the social only by wrongly taking for granted a specific form of associated life, both historically determined and normatively laden, implicitly considered as the parameter of an accomplished collective order: that of the modern nation-state. Denouncing in successive and ever more radical waves of critique, the intrinsic limits of this inherited methodological nationalism, these sociologists have thus been trying, in the last 30 years, to extricate themselves from this limitation as a preliminary step towards the elaboration of a new sociological paradigm-differently labeled and conceived as global, international, or cosmopolitan-better adapted to the challenges of the complex intertwined world characterizing our second, reflexive modernity. 1 If the contemporary self-interpretation of the history of sociology is true we should conclude that classic works are not only subject to seriously misleading socio-centric prejudices when dealing with premodern or non-European forms of life, 2 but also that they cannot help us to characterize political supranational entities like Europe. Indeed, Europe as an original collective order would have been, for classical sociologists, as unthinkable on its grounds just like 542

Memory of a Sign without History

Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 2017

Storia di un segno senza memoria: meraviglia, rivelazione e superstizione secondo Spinoza

My contribution aims to discuss an apparent paradox of Theological-Political Treatise concerning ... more My contribution aims to discuss an apparent paradox of Theological-Political Treatise concerning the real nature of Moses' Revelation. Moses heard a real voice or he just imagined it? Apparently, Spinoza supports both hypotheses. In this essay a try to explain this apparent paradoxical issue of Spinoza conception of religion, according a central role to the notion of wonder. In order to do this, try to show how Ethics' conception of wonder allows to distinguish two different uses of this notion in TTP. One directly connected with Moses' revelation, the other with superstition.

The Institution of Justice. Solidarity as the Obligation of the Moderns according to Durkheim

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Dec 28, 2014

Le premesse di questo saggio hanno origine in un workshop da me organizzato presso il Centre Marc... more Le premesse di questo saggio hanno origine in un workshop da me organizzato presso il Centre Marc Bloch di Berlino nel 2013, all'interno del gruppo di ricerca in filosofia. Un ringraziamento ai direttori del gruppo, Denis Thouard e Ayşe Yuva, per aver sostenuto questo progetto. Il saggio è dedicato alla concezione durkheimiana della giustizia. Si mostra come la polarizzazione hobbesiana tra diritto e giustizia possa essere ritenuta paradigmatica per il pensiero politico moderno. Il contributo durkheimiano riformula l'alternativa hobbesiana, mettendo diversamente a tema la tensione costitutiva tra diritto e giustizia. La critica durkheimana al contrattualismo riconfigura l'ordine giuridico alla luce del concetto di solidarietà, ritenuto da Durkheim la premessa impensata all'obbligazione moderna. Il contrattualismo è la modalità moderna per pensare il rapporto tra società, individuo, proprietà e lavoro. Il contrattualismo è l'istanza a partire dalla quale osservare il riemergere di una diversa concezione della giustizia che, attraverso la nozione di contratto giusto, mette in discussione i presupposti formali su cui si è costituito. La giustizia sociale converge con la solidarietà risemantizzando il concetto stesso di obbligazione.