Books by Tiziana Faitini
Brill - Schöningh, 2023
The figure of the “professional” looms large in our contemporary society as an ideal for economic... more The figure of the “professional” looms large in our contemporary society as an ideal for economic activity and socio-political inclusion, and even as a model for individual self-development. But how and when did this figure arise? And what has led professional activity to become such an essential part of our personal, social, moral, economic, and political life? While Max Weber and others have famously addressed these questions, this book reveals a more nuanced history of the concept of “profession” and “professional duty,” and offers the first comprehensive study of the discourse of professional ethics from a historical perspective. Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom provide most of the rich corpus of philosophical, juridical, and theological sources discussed throughout the book in its longue durée journey from Ancient Rome to the present.
L’intento di rendere conto di una possibilità reale di resistenza e trasformazione anima l’ultima... more L’intento di rendere conto di una possibilità reale di resistenza e trasformazione anima l’ultima fase del pensiero di Michel Foucault. La ridefinizione teorica di uno spazio di libertà per il soggetto si accompagna in essa ad un’incessante riflessione etica, che investe direttamente lo statuto del pensare e, con ciò, quello della filosofia. Il saggio qui presentato si propone di ripercorrere i testi di Foucault in funzione di questo problema e di costruire, in essi, questa possibilità di resistenza e trasformazione: di chiarirne il significato, ipotizzarne alcuni presupposti su un piano ontologico e concettuale, individuare alcune condizioni per il suo esplicarsi. Si vorrebbe così mettere alla prova un metodo di ricerca che porta la filosofa a coincidere, in prima e in ultima istanza, con un’ontologia politica.
![Research paper thumbnail of Il lavoro come professione. Una storia della professionalità tra etica e politica [Work as vocation. A history of professionalism between ethics and politics]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/55306274/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Grounded in a rich corpus of philosophical, juridical and theological sources, this book is an hi... more Grounded in a rich corpus of philosophical, juridical and theological sources, this book is an historical inquiry into the discourse of professional ethics and the concept of the profession, with the more general aim of contributing to investigate the valorisation – at a moral, legal, social and epistemological level – which seems to have shaped that specialised existence entailed in being a professional.
The forward contains some reflections on method and contemporary background, in order to explain the critical and philosophical underpinning of the historical inquiry, and to demonstrate its political significance. Firstly it clarifies how – to recast the definition of experience used by Michel Foucault in his studies on sexuality – we can talk about professionalism as an experience, and how this experience connects with the moral problematization in which professional ethics engages. I go on to comment on the unresolved dialectic between liberation and abstraction which characterizes the historical flux of both the concept and the practice of professional activity and, more generally, of labour. These comments provide a critical insight on the link between professional activity and socio-political inclusion which has been a key feature of Western society since the Modern age and which is now – in the current neoliberal climate – undergoing significant change.
Chapter I summarizes the extensive current Western discourse of professional ethics, and explains its direct 19th and 20th Century antecedents. Texts explicitly devoted to professional ethics in the medical field first appeared in early 19th Century England; it was here that subsequent deontological developments in other fields, and in the US and Europe, found their origin. In mapping contemporary professional ethical discourse, the real objective is to highlight the affinity between it and today’s web of economic and political relations.
This affinity indeed justifies, or so I believe, the need for a historical investigation. How was this discourse constructed? How was the experience of the profession, which it problematizes, constructed? And how did the concept of “profession”, to which it refers, develop? Facing these questions, the account given in the following chapters is intended to reveal, in terms of “inclusion within an order” – the interweaving of the theological, political and economic roots of the concept of “profession”. This allows us to cast light on the present understanding of the profession and helps to explain the undoubted ethical significance that has been accorded to occupation – both manual and intellectual – since the modern age, and its importance as far as political inclusion and citizenship are concerned. My intention is in fact not so much to provide a description of the history of professional ethics, as to reveal some of the historical conditions of possibility of the construction of this discourse, of the experience with which it is connected and of the paradigm of socio-political inclusion with which it is intertwined.
Chapter II considers some aspects of the meaning of profiteor/professio in Ancient Rome, connected to the teaching of specific disciplines. With the help of some lexical research, it reveals a number of factors which, more than the epithet of liberal or the problematic status of remuneration, seem to place both law and medicine in a sort of structural symmetry which plays out between two dimensions, that of the sacred and that of teaching.
The connection between profession and inclusion within the established order lies at the heart of Chapter III. This link is explored through an examination of the juridico-political and theological convolutions of the Roman institution of the census (professio census) throughout the historical metamorphoses it underwent from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages.
Chapter IV starts with the medieval concept of religious profession, then considers the status vitae, before going on to interrogate the concept of the order (ordo) – a cornerstone of medieval life – and here analysed in its connection with a gradual reworking of the concept of duty (officium). I examine the medieval thinking on the duties that accompanied certain positions in religious or social life. These themes were indeed widely elaborated upon from both theological and canonical perspectives, and during the slow moralisation of the active life (vita activa) the secular world was to receive ever more attention. Thanks to such elaboration (and corresponding practice), social position, the carrying out of an activity and the fulfillment of a moral and legal duty become inextricably entwined. The chapter ends with some observations on the treatises on manners and the states of life written during the Counter Reformation and on the emergence of professional duties, in relation to the new figure of the public servant as well as within the religious context.
Chapter V deals with some aspects of the medieval academic world of studia generalia, focusing particularly on Italy. By analysing, on the one hand, the juridical and theological elaboration on learned professions and their income, and, on the other, some practical aspects of the activity of the professors, of their social position and of administrative experience of monks, the intention is to highlight the process of moralization and valorization which affected not only the performance of an activity, but also any income linked to it.
The Conclusion is an attempt to complete the mosaic by filling in some other elements related to the long journey from the Ancien Régime to the economic and political order of the bourgeois era, thus leading back – both in time and thematically – to our starting point.
Papers by Tiziana Faitini
Rosmini Studies, Feb 2, 2021
This paper presents an overview of Robert Castel's discussion on the status of the individual and... more This paper presents an overview of Robert Castel's discussion on the status of the individual and its «problematic character» by focusing on the notions of social supports of individuality and social property. In exploring these notions and the history of the wage-earning society, the French sociologist sheds light on the genealogy of the crucial link between work, social (dis)affiliation and individual identity. Far from adopting a workist approach, he argues in favor of the reshaping of social welfare and labour law in contemporary, neoliberal, societies.
in: Christianity and International Law. An Introduction, ed. P. Slotte and J.D. Haskell, CUP, Cambridge, 2021
This paper explores the historical formation of the deontology of public officers, and of ambassa... more This paper explores the historical formation of the deontology of public officers, and of ambassadors in particular. After introducing the Latin concept of officium (office/duty), we will comment briefly on the gradual conceptualization and organization of the Christian Church around different ministers and figures, each with its specific status, duties and functions, as clearly attested by the Christian literature de officiis (from Ambrose to Isidore, to William Durand). We will then focus on two jurists, Lucas de Penna († c. 1390) and Bernard du Rosier (1400-1475) who played important roles in modelling the public figure of the ambassador and his professional, moral and juridical duties; Penna and Rosier were among the first authors to deal explicitly with this issue, thus paving the way for subsequent thought. Their texts, informed by their active participation in political life, built on the legacy of the abovementioned Christian tradition de officiis in defining the role of the ambassador, and made express references to the Bible, theological works and canon law. Analysis of these texts thus provides an important perspective for an appreciation of the contribution made by Christianity to the shaping of one of the leading actors on the stage of international law.
Storica, 2020
This essay explores Alessandro Fontana’s interpretation of Michel Foucault’s work as a political ... more This essay explores Alessandro Fontana’s interpretation of Michel Foucault’s work as a political theatre of truth, focusing on the notions of style and fiction, and on the centrality of the practice of lecturing. A long-term collaborator of the French philosopher and an inspired intellectual and teacher himself, Fontana knew, perhaps better than anyone, what doing research with Foucault could, and can, mean. In clarifying the mode of enunciation of Foucauldian analyses, he provides the reader with a number of hints which are key to grasping Foucault’s style of research and the political implications of an aesthetics of existence.
La versione finale dell’articolo, pubblicata su «Storica», è disponibile qui: https://www.viella.it/rivista/9788833138251
P.O.I. Rivista di indagine filosofica e di nuove pratiche della conoscenza, 2019
The article contributes to mapping the contemporary Italian semantic field of "work" ("lavoro"), ... more The article contributes to mapping the contemporary Italian semantic field of "work" ("lavoro"), and focuses on some elements of the indetermination and the hypertrophy of this concept. In particular, the overly high expectations about work (meant as a socially organized activity) that can be identified in the current use of the concept in two contexts will be discussed. First, grounding on a number of qualitative interviews, the article will consider the claims for moral recognition put forward by professionals or workers which, both habitually and inappropriately, are referred to the market. This will allow us to highlight the relevance of the Marxian category of capital as an inhuman abstract subject. Second, a few remarks on the debate on "lavoro dignitoso", the Italian phrase which translates, and extends, the English phrase "decent work", will be offered.
Journal of Early Modern Christianity, 2020
This paper investigates the theorisation of the duties belonging to different-both lay and profes... more This paper investigates the theorisation of the duties belonging to different-both lay and professional-conditions, elaborated upon by post-Tridentine moral theology, in order to highlight its contribution to the modern conceptualisation of the profession, and, more generally, to modern economic and political rationality. It focuses particularly on how work and professional activities are dealt with in Juan Azor's Institutiones morales, Hermann Busenbaum's Medulla theologiae moralis and Alfonso de Liguori's Theologia moralis, between the early seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries. The paper begins with some quick historical remarks on the theological elaboration on the states of life (in the context of early-modern political and moral thought on duty and office) and the tradition de officiis underpinning these sources. The specific prescriptions imposed by these sources on professional activities in their discussions of the Third Commandment, and the obligation to rest or fast on certain days, are then examined. A brief analysis of the paragraphs explicitly devoted to the duties of professionals (legal and health professionals in particular) precedes some final observations about the post-Tridentine model of profession and its influence on the moral and socio-political valorisation of professional activities.
E. Cavanagh (ed.), Empire, Law, and Legal Thought: Ideas and Institutions within Western and Imperial Legal Traditions from the Ancient World to the Modern World, Leiden: Brill, 2020
This chapter explores the interpretations given by various late medieval authors of the universal... more This chapter explores the interpretations given by various late medieval authors of the universal census which, according to the Gospel of Luke (2:1–2), was ordered by Augustus at the time of Jesus’s birth. After some remarks on the juridical institution of the census in ancient Rome, and on the theological translation of this institution developed by Christian thinkers such as Ambrose and Orosius, the use of this translation in certain medieval political and juridical texts to discuss the legitimacy and universality of imperial authority is examined. A number of sources, including the Quaestiones de iuris subtilitatibus, Ptolemy of Lucca’s De regimine principum, Dante’s De Monarchia, Bartolus of Saxoferratus’ comment on the lex ‘Hostes’, Ockham’s Breviloquium de principatu tyrannico, and the Somnium Viridarii, are considered. The aim of the chapter is twofold. It argues that the political value of Luke’s pericope should be reassessed, which requires that the passage be considered alongside other, nowadays better-known biblical references – such as Matthew 22:21, Rom 13:1–7, 1Pet 2:13–14, John 19:11 – that were so importantly used in discussions of both the extent of political submission and the relationship between spiritual and temporal authority from Christian perspectives. It also demonstrates that the census, and the invocation of a universal authority implicit to it, provides an excellent example of the overlapping and intertwining of theological, political, and juridical conceptualisations and practices in Western thought. On this ground, the historical understanding of the conceptualisation of ‘universal authority’, ‘empire’ and ‘emperor’ in the Western tradition can then be deepened.
* This chapter is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665958.
History of Political Thought, 2017
This paper argues that the Latin notion and practice of the professio (declaration) played an imp... more This paper argues that the Latin notion and practice of the professio (declaration) played an important role in the shaping of the modern concept – and ethical and politico-social significance – of ‘profession’. The Roman law institution of the census (professio census), and its subsequent reinterpretations in both theology and law, were key in this process. The theological interpretation of the census at the time of Jesus’ birth, and that of religious profession by Christian authors such as Ambrose, Bede, Isidore, Aelred, and the medieval practice of the professiones iuris, are examined, in order to demonstrate that the professio coincides with the act of inclusion within an established and salvific order.
Ius commune graeco-romanum. Essays in honor of Laurent Waelkens, Peeters 2019, 2019
in W. Decock, P. Angelini, W. Druwé, M. Castelein (eds.), Ius commune graeco-romanum. Essays in h... more in W. Decock, P. Angelini, W. Druwé, M. Castelein (eds.), Ius commune graeco-romanum. Essays in honor of Laurent Waelkens, Peeters, Leuven 2019, pp. 37-52.
in "Filosofia politica" 1/2016, pp. 109-122.
This essay aims to contribute to the history of the ... more in "Filosofia politica" 1/2016, pp. 109-122.
This essay aims to contribute to the history of the concept of profession, by investigating the Roman law institution of professio census and its use in the exegesis of the Gospel of Luke (2, 1-5) given by Christian authors (Origen, Ambrose, Bede among others). This analysis helps to reveal certain historical conditions which, well before the Protestant Reformation, made the modern valorisation of the profession possible.
The Church and Empire. Studies in Church History (Stewart J. Brown, Charlotte Methuen, Andrew Spicer eds.) - Cambridge University Press, 2018
This paper focuses on the exegetical interpretation of Luke's narrative on the census (or registr... more This paper focuses on the exegetical interpretation of Luke's narrative on the census (or registration) carried out at the time of Jesus' birth (Luke 2:1-5). After some quick remarks on the juridical institution of the census (the so called professio census) in ancient Rome, a selection of the exegetical interpretations of this pericope developed by various ancient and medieval authors is presented. Origen, Ambrose, Orosius, Bede and Bonaventure are discussed, among others. A number of medieval authors, as Dante Alighieri and Bartolomeus of Saxoferrato, are also referred to. The analysis is meant to argue, on the one hand, that a spiritualisation of the institution of the census occurred and led to the spiritual empire of Christ replacing the temporal empire of Augustus; on the other, that the reference to this institution was used to legitimise political authority in the eyes of the believers. This interpretative tradition is thus shown to offer a vivid example of the close intertwining of theological and juridical concepts, and practices, which has characterised the relationship between the Church and Empire from the former's very beginning.
IUL Research, 2020
The article presents the model for vocational education, research, innovation and development whi... more The article presents the model for vocational education, research, innovation and development which, since 2007, has been studied and implemented at the Istituto Pavoniano Artigianelli per le Arti Grafiche (Trento) in collaboration with the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science of the University of Trento. The article aims to contribute to the development of a new coherent didactic model, highlighting the contribution that the theories of complex systems can give in the interpretation of the characteristics of knowledge society. On this ground, the pedagogical guidelines and their practical-didactic and organizational-implementation will be described.
Scuola democratica. Learning for democracy, 2019
English title: ART. A learning ecosystem for an innovative, inclusive and sustainable development... more English title: ART. A learning ecosystem for an innovative, inclusive and sustainable development.
Abstract L'articolo presenta il modello integrato per la formazione, la ricerca, l'innovazione e lo sviluppo che è stato implementato presso l'Istituto Pavoniano Artigianelli per le Arti Grafiche di Trento. Nato per supportare i percorsi di ragazzi affetti da disturbi pervasivi dello sviluppo, il modello si è dimostrato estremamente efficace per sviluppare il potenziale cognitivo, emotivo e relazionale di tutti gli studenti dell'Istituto, nonché per supportare le aziende nel percorso di innovazione. Verrà sinteticamente descritta l'architettura dell'ecosistema-con attenzione alle soluzioni didattiche introdotte, alle interazioni con il tessuto economico e alle potenzialità in termini di innovazione e inclusione-e verranno chiariti alcuni dei presupposti teorici che ne hanno guidato l'implementazione e che lo rendono particolarmente sintonico rispetto alle esigenze della società della conoscenza.
in Parrhesia e dissimulazione. La verità di fronte al potere, "Politica e religione", 2012/13, pp. 11-28.
This essay is intended to provide a wide-ranging reconstruction of the history of the concept of ... more This essay is intended to provide a wide-ranging reconstruction of the history of the concept of parrhesia in relation to its political impli- cations. Moving from Michel Foucault’s reading of the concept, the paper gives a succinct overview of its use in classical Greece and in biblical texts, in order to emphasize the internal dialectic which has always riven the relationship between parrhesia and democracy but arrived at its most intense with the modern separation of external and internal fora.
in Etica e professioni sanitarie in Europa. Un dialogo tra medicina e filosofia, a c. di T. Faitini, L. Galvagni e M. Nicoletti, Quaderni del Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Trento, Trento, 2014
complete free electronic version of the book on http://eprints.biblio.unitn.it/4371/
Human Affairs 18(2008), 2008
The accommodation of a plurality of values within the same institutional framework is one of the ... more The accommodation of a plurality of values within the same institutional framework is one of the main challenges with which contemporary democracies have been persistently confronted. This challenge has recently gained strength even in such traditionally homogeneous countries as Italy, as a consequence of an increase in the number of residents committed to diverse religious beliefs. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on the case of requests for the legal recognition of religion-specific holy/rest days in Italy. The analysis of such a case will disclose—or so we believe—some valuable pointers as to how democratic societies could try to accommodate religious diversity in a way that is both respectful of the specificities of each religious group and compatible with the typically liberal commitment to the safeguard of individual freedom.
Issues by Tiziana Faitini
Politica e Religione, 2016
Politica e religione, 2017
ed. by T. Faitini and M. Nicoletti
The issue investigates the history of the concept of redemptio... more ed. by T. Faitini and M. Nicoletti
The issue investigates the history of the concept of redemption. Special attention is paid to the close relationship between the Christian theological interpretation of Jesus’ salvific action, on the one hand, and the practical and theoretical tradition of the delivery of prisoners or debtors, which is crystallised in the juridical institution of the redemptio, on the other. Such a relationship sheds light on the history of the concept and helps to better grasp its wide, nuanced spectrum, which – far from focussing on a momentous event – seems to cover a complex network of theological, social, political and economic relations. The use of the term “redemption” within Western political and revolutionary literature from the Early modern period onwards is also analysed, to show that the original, juridical, meaning of redemptio ab hostibus is a key reference.
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Books by Tiziana Faitini
The forward contains some reflections on method and contemporary background, in order to explain the critical and philosophical underpinning of the historical inquiry, and to demonstrate its political significance. Firstly it clarifies how – to recast the definition of experience used by Michel Foucault in his studies on sexuality – we can talk about professionalism as an experience, and how this experience connects with the moral problematization in which professional ethics engages. I go on to comment on the unresolved dialectic between liberation and abstraction which characterizes the historical flux of both the concept and the practice of professional activity and, more generally, of labour. These comments provide a critical insight on the link between professional activity and socio-political inclusion which has been a key feature of Western society since the Modern age and which is now – in the current neoliberal climate – undergoing significant change.
Chapter I summarizes the extensive current Western discourse of professional ethics, and explains its direct 19th and 20th Century antecedents. Texts explicitly devoted to professional ethics in the medical field first appeared in early 19th Century England; it was here that subsequent deontological developments in other fields, and in the US and Europe, found their origin. In mapping contemporary professional ethical discourse, the real objective is to highlight the affinity between it and today’s web of economic and political relations.
This affinity indeed justifies, or so I believe, the need for a historical investigation. How was this discourse constructed? How was the experience of the profession, which it problematizes, constructed? And how did the concept of “profession”, to which it refers, develop? Facing these questions, the account given in the following chapters is intended to reveal, in terms of “inclusion within an order” – the interweaving of the theological, political and economic roots of the concept of “profession”. This allows us to cast light on the present understanding of the profession and helps to explain the undoubted ethical significance that has been accorded to occupation – both manual and intellectual – since the modern age, and its importance as far as political inclusion and citizenship are concerned. My intention is in fact not so much to provide a description of the history of professional ethics, as to reveal some of the historical conditions of possibility of the construction of this discourse, of the experience with which it is connected and of the paradigm of socio-political inclusion with which it is intertwined.
Chapter II considers some aspects of the meaning of profiteor/professio in Ancient Rome, connected to the teaching of specific disciplines. With the help of some lexical research, it reveals a number of factors which, more than the epithet of liberal or the problematic status of remuneration, seem to place both law and medicine in a sort of structural symmetry which plays out between two dimensions, that of the sacred and that of teaching.
The connection between profession and inclusion within the established order lies at the heart of Chapter III. This link is explored through an examination of the juridico-political and theological convolutions of the Roman institution of the census (professio census) throughout the historical metamorphoses it underwent from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages.
Chapter IV starts with the medieval concept of religious profession, then considers the status vitae, before going on to interrogate the concept of the order (ordo) – a cornerstone of medieval life – and here analysed in its connection with a gradual reworking of the concept of duty (officium). I examine the medieval thinking on the duties that accompanied certain positions in religious or social life. These themes were indeed widely elaborated upon from both theological and canonical perspectives, and during the slow moralisation of the active life (vita activa) the secular world was to receive ever more attention. Thanks to such elaboration (and corresponding practice), social position, the carrying out of an activity and the fulfillment of a moral and legal duty become inextricably entwined. The chapter ends with some observations on the treatises on manners and the states of life written during the Counter Reformation and on the emergence of professional duties, in relation to the new figure of the public servant as well as within the religious context.
Chapter V deals with some aspects of the medieval academic world of studia generalia, focusing particularly on Italy. By analysing, on the one hand, the juridical and theological elaboration on learned professions and their income, and, on the other, some practical aspects of the activity of the professors, of their social position and of administrative experience of monks, the intention is to highlight the process of moralization and valorization which affected not only the performance of an activity, but also any income linked to it.
The Conclusion is an attempt to complete the mosaic by filling in some other elements related to the long journey from the Ancien Régime to the economic and political order of the bourgeois era, thus leading back – both in time and thematically – to our starting point.
Papers by Tiziana Faitini
La versione finale dell’articolo, pubblicata su «Storica», è disponibile qui: https://www.viella.it/rivista/9788833138251
* This chapter is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665958.
This essay aims to contribute to the history of the concept of profession, by investigating the Roman law institution of professio census and its use in the exegesis of the Gospel of Luke (2, 1-5) given by Christian authors (Origen, Ambrose, Bede among others). This analysis helps to reveal certain historical conditions which, well before the Protestant Reformation, made the modern valorisation of the profession possible.
Abstract L'articolo presenta il modello integrato per la formazione, la ricerca, l'innovazione e lo sviluppo che è stato implementato presso l'Istituto Pavoniano Artigianelli per le Arti Grafiche di Trento. Nato per supportare i percorsi di ragazzi affetti da disturbi pervasivi dello sviluppo, il modello si è dimostrato estremamente efficace per sviluppare il potenziale cognitivo, emotivo e relazionale di tutti gli studenti dell'Istituto, nonché per supportare le aziende nel percorso di innovazione. Verrà sinteticamente descritta l'architettura dell'ecosistema-con attenzione alle soluzioni didattiche introdotte, alle interazioni con il tessuto economico e alle potenzialità in termini di innovazione e inclusione-e verranno chiariti alcuni dei presupposti teorici che ne hanno guidato l'implementazione e che lo rendono particolarmente sintonico rispetto alle esigenze della società della conoscenza.
Issues by Tiziana Faitini
The issue investigates the history of the concept of redemption. Special attention is paid to the close relationship between the Christian theological interpretation of Jesus’ salvific action, on the one hand, and the practical and theoretical tradition of the delivery of prisoners or debtors, which is crystallised in the juridical institution of the redemptio, on the other. Such a relationship sheds light on the history of the concept and helps to better grasp its wide, nuanced spectrum, which – far from focussing on a momentous event – seems to cover a complex network of theological, social, political and economic relations. The use of the term “redemption” within Western political and revolutionary literature from the Early modern period onwards is also analysed, to show that the original, juridical, meaning of redemptio ab hostibus is a key reference.
The forward contains some reflections on method and contemporary background, in order to explain the critical and philosophical underpinning of the historical inquiry, and to demonstrate its political significance. Firstly it clarifies how – to recast the definition of experience used by Michel Foucault in his studies on sexuality – we can talk about professionalism as an experience, and how this experience connects with the moral problematization in which professional ethics engages. I go on to comment on the unresolved dialectic between liberation and abstraction which characterizes the historical flux of both the concept and the practice of professional activity and, more generally, of labour. These comments provide a critical insight on the link between professional activity and socio-political inclusion which has been a key feature of Western society since the Modern age and which is now – in the current neoliberal climate – undergoing significant change.
Chapter I summarizes the extensive current Western discourse of professional ethics, and explains its direct 19th and 20th Century antecedents. Texts explicitly devoted to professional ethics in the medical field first appeared in early 19th Century England; it was here that subsequent deontological developments in other fields, and in the US and Europe, found their origin. In mapping contemporary professional ethical discourse, the real objective is to highlight the affinity between it and today’s web of economic and political relations.
This affinity indeed justifies, or so I believe, the need for a historical investigation. How was this discourse constructed? How was the experience of the profession, which it problematizes, constructed? And how did the concept of “profession”, to which it refers, develop? Facing these questions, the account given in the following chapters is intended to reveal, in terms of “inclusion within an order” – the interweaving of the theological, political and economic roots of the concept of “profession”. This allows us to cast light on the present understanding of the profession and helps to explain the undoubted ethical significance that has been accorded to occupation – both manual and intellectual – since the modern age, and its importance as far as political inclusion and citizenship are concerned. My intention is in fact not so much to provide a description of the history of professional ethics, as to reveal some of the historical conditions of possibility of the construction of this discourse, of the experience with which it is connected and of the paradigm of socio-political inclusion with which it is intertwined.
Chapter II considers some aspects of the meaning of profiteor/professio in Ancient Rome, connected to the teaching of specific disciplines. With the help of some lexical research, it reveals a number of factors which, more than the epithet of liberal or the problematic status of remuneration, seem to place both law and medicine in a sort of structural symmetry which plays out between two dimensions, that of the sacred and that of teaching.
The connection between profession and inclusion within the established order lies at the heart of Chapter III. This link is explored through an examination of the juridico-political and theological convolutions of the Roman institution of the census (professio census) throughout the historical metamorphoses it underwent from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages.
Chapter IV starts with the medieval concept of religious profession, then considers the status vitae, before going on to interrogate the concept of the order (ordo) – a cornerstone of medieval life – and here analysed in its connection with a gradual reworking of the concept of duty (officium). I examine the medieval thinking on the duties that accompanied certain positions in religious or social life. These themes were indeed widely elaborated upon from both theological and canonical perspectives, and during the slow moralisation of the active life (vita activa) the secular world was to receive ever more attention. Thanks to such elaboration (and corresponding practice), social position, the carrying out of an activity and the fulfillment of a moral and legal duty become inextricably entwined. The chapter ends with some observations on the treatises on manners and the states of life written during the Counter Reformation and on the emergence of professional duties, in relation to the new figure of the public servant as well as within the religious context.
Chapter V deals with some aspects of the medieval academic world of studia generalia, focusing particularly on Italy. By analysing, on the one hand, the juridical and theological elaboration on learned professions and their income, and, on the other, some practical aspects of the activity of the professors, of their social position and of administrative experience of monks, the intention is to highlight the process of moralization and valorization which affected not only the performance of an activity, but also any income linked to it.
The Conclusion is an attempt to complete the mosaic by filling in some other elements related to the long journey from the Ancien Régime to the economic and political order of the bourgeois era, thus leading back – both in time and thematically – to our starting point.
La versione finale dell’articolo, pubblicata su «Storica», è disponibile qui: https://www.viella.it/rivista/9788833138251
* This chapter is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665958.
This essay aims to contribute to the history of the concept of profession, by investigating the Roman law institution of professio census and its use in the exegesis of the Gospel of Luke (2, 1-5) given by Christian authors (Origen, Ambrose, Bede among others). This analysis helps to reveal certain historical conditions which, well before the Protestant Reformation, made the modern valorisation of the profession possible.
Abstract L'articolo presenta il modello integrato per la formazione, la ricerca, l'innovazione e lo sviluppo che è stato implementato presso l'Istituto Pavoniano Artigianelli per le Arti Grafiche di Trento. Nato per supportare i percorsi di ragazzi affetti da disturbi pervasivi dello sviluppo, il modello si è dimostrato estremamente efficace per sviluppare il potenziale cognitivo, emotivo e relazionale di tutti gli studenti dell'Istituto, nonché per supportare le aziende nel percorso di innovazione. Verrà sinteticamente descritta l'architettura dell'ecosistema-con attenzione alle soluzioni didattiche introdotte, alle interazioni con il tessuto economico e alle potenzialità in termini di innovazione e inclusione-e verranno chiariti alcuni dei presupposti teorici che ne hanno guidato l'implementazione e che lo rendono particolarmente sintonico rispetto alle esigenze della società della conoscenza.
The issue investigates the history of the concept of redemption. Special attention is paid to the close relationship between the Christian theological interpretation of Jesus’ salvific action, on the one hand, and the practical and theoretical tradition of the delivery of prisoners or debtors, which is crystallised in the juridical institution of the redemptio, on the other. Such a relationship sheds light on the history of the concept and helps to better grasp its wide, nuanced spectrum, which – far from focussing on a momentous event – seems to cover a complex network of theological, social, political and economic relations. The use of the term “redemption” within Western political and revolutionary literature from the Early modern period onwards is also analysed, to show that the original, juridical, meaning of redemptio ab hostibus is a key reference.
Similarly different meanings of the term also occur in the Bible. In the LXX version, for instance, parrhesia is the action of openly telling the truth, or refers to the courage of the righteous man before God and others. In the New Testament, the word is used to describe Jesus’ public preaching as well as the apostles’ fearless testimony and boldness, which came as a gift from the Holy Spirit.
Ancient traditions thus clearly show that the concept of parrhesia offers precious insight into the relationship between politics and truth, which is actually explored by Michel Foucault and the lectures he dedicated to this theme in the last years of his life. The volume aims to develop such an insight through a close historical and conceptual reconstruction of the notion of parrhesia, particularly as far as theological and political implications of “telling the truth” are concerned. In so doing, it also focuses on the biblical episode of Naaman the Syrian (2Kings 5, 18-19), moving from the reading given to it by Thomas Hobbes, who referred to the passage in order to introduce a distinction between private belief and public cult, and to allow for religious dissimulation.
Theopopedia is a peer reviewed academic resource dealing with the history of theologico-political concepts.
Hosted by the Department of Humanities of the University of Trento (Italy), it is being developed by an international network of scholars from different backgrounds (history of political thought, history of law, philosophy, history, theology, jewish studies, islamic studies, etc.) under the supervision of the Editorial board. Through its entries, it aims to explore questions related to “political theology” from an historical perspective, by investigating concepts within which politics and religion always seem to have been inextricably intertwined. Entries on a number of authors in the field of “political theology” are also included. Theopopedia is constantly expanding: contributions and proposals are welcomed.
Il ciclo "Il filosofo e il coraggio della verità" vede al centro delle proprie riflessioni il tema della parrhesia intesa come cultura del sé e degli altri. A partire dalle ultime lezioni del filosofo francese al Collège de France attorno ai temi della parrēsia, si delineerà una riflessione sull'ethos parresiastico e sui campi di problematizzazione che esso determina per il singolo che lo vive e per la comunità che lo ospita
I profondi cambiamenti avvenuti nei sistemi socioeconomici negli ultimi anni hanno messo in crisi le modalità tradizionali di passaggio dai sistemi formativi al mondo del lavoro e hanno fortemente precarizzato le condizioni lavorative, per le fasce più deboli e non solo. Inoltre, le nuove opportunità di business nascono sempre più spesso dalla contaminazione tra settori differenti e dall’interazione “bottom-up” tra giovani e imprese. Le sfide che la contemporaneità pone richiedono dunque di ripensare, con approccio critico e di ampio respiro, il sistema di incontro tra mondo della scuola e mondo del lavoro. L’alternanza “scuola-lavoro”, in questo senso, rappresenta solo una risposta parziale, che da un lato non sempre è in grado di accrescere l’autonomia del ragazzo e di soddisfare le esigenze di innovazione delle aziende, e dall’altro rischia di impoverire il sistema formativo funzionalizzandolo nei confronti delle esigenze di una singola impresa. Una risposta più promettente è rappresentata dal modello di un “ecosistema di apprendimento” che favorisca la concreta interazione tra aziende, realtà formative e studenti di varie fasce di età e abbia al centro la valorizzazione della differenza, ovvero una visione antropologica che riconosce il valore di ogni individuo – nella sua specificità di limiti e risorse – per lo sviluppo dell’intera comunità e per l’individuazione di soluzioni innovative nella risoluzione di problemi complessi. L’utilizzo di metodologie codificate per la risoluzione dei problemi, quali il “Design thinking” e il “Service Design Thinking”, garantisce un’interazione sistematica e strutturata tra tutte le parti dell’ecosistema. Ciò consente anche di ripensare alla disabilità in termini di opportunità e di favorire un’inclusione dignitosa che, attraverso il lavoro, valorizzi l’autonomia del singolo e risulti solidale, innovativa e competitiva sul mercato.
partecipanti: Tiziana Faitini, Erik Gadotti, Stefano Cainelli
Michele Nicoletti is Professor of Political Philosophy and International Studies at the University of Trento (Italy), and Former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Al centro di questo intervento sarà il concetto di Beruf (professione/vocazione), di cui ci si propone di esplorare, attraverso l'analisi di una selezione di testi di Martin Lutero, la ricchezza semantica e pratica. Muovendo da alcuni aspetti dell'interpretazione costruita da Max Weber ne L'etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, si intende contestualizzare e problematizzare il contributo dato da Lutero e dalla svolta protestante alla messa in forma dell'«homo oeconomicus» moderno e ad una valorizzazione tanto soggettiva quanto intersoggettiva dell'attività professionale.
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Conference "Inclusion and Exclusion in the History of Ideas" - Helsinki, 14-15.12.2017
14.30, Dipartimento di lettere e filosofia, Trento - aula 001
Nel mio contributo ho abbozzato alcune considerazioni a partire dalla nozione di riconoscimento, nell’intento di problematizzare il concetto di “lavoro dignitoso” e di disegnarne alcuni confini, chiedendomi in particolare in che misura esso rischia di essere funzionale alle relazioni economiche che pure intenderebbe modificare e normare.
Il sito raccoglie alcuni risultati di una ricerca teorica ed empirica sull'etica professionale e la filosofia del lavoro. Oltre alla pubblicazione di una serie di interviste qualitative a professionisti di vari settori, contiene una bibliografia tematica e un database di codici deontologici italiani (versione vigente e - ove possibile - versioni precedenti)
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Scopo di questa ricerca è interrogarsi sulla storia del campo di problematizzazione dell'etica professionale e sulle condizioni di possibilità per il darsi di un tale campo, nella convinzione che ciò consenta di riflettere da una prospettiva critica meno usuale sulla rilevanza politica del lavoro, che funge indubbiamente - nella società occidentale contemporanea - da elemento essenziale di inclusione esplicandosi come funzione normata di produzione di identità politico-sociale. Dopo aver reso conto dell'attuale dibattito in materia di etica e deontologia professionale, dei suoi immediati antecedenti e della sua relazione di affinità rispetto al contesto socioeconomico in cui esso matura, l'attenzione si concentra pertanto su una ricostruzione storica del concetto di professione che – ragionando non tanto sul versante weberiano del Beruf quanto su quello latino della professio, con speciale riferimento alla professio census e alla tematizzazione de officiis – muove dal diritto romano e dal pensiero patristico risalendo fino all'esperienza medievale, alla trattatistica della Controriforma e al graduale emergere di un'etica professionale in senso stretto sul finire del Settecento, per provare a chiarire nei termini di “inclusione nell'ordine” quell'intreccio tra radice teologica, politica ed economica che aiuta a comprendere il rilievo che alla professione è stato via via riconosciuto sul piano etico e politico-sociale.