Phd in PHILOSOPHY

Thesis title: Libertà, normatvità, costituzione. Per una teoria critica delle forme della normatività a partire da Hegel

Contemporary Critical Theory of Frankfurt inspiration, beginning with the Habermasian turn, has by now distanced itself from the dialectical and speculative thought of Hegelian origin which, in various ways, had influenced the Left Hegelians, Western Marxism, and the first generation of the Frankfurt School. Fearing the metaphysical implications inherent in the intersection of dialectics and speculative thought, and convinced of the failure of any autonomous foundation of the former, contemporary Critical Theory has assumed the form of a post-metaphysical and normativist mode of thought. Its concern lies primarily with the justification of the critical standpoint and the identification of a stable normative level from which existing social reality can be judged as a more or less adequate realization of the norm. This work aims to reconstruct contemporary neopragmatist interpretations of Hegel’s philosophy and to examine their influence on contemporary Critical Theory and its normativist character. Upon completing such a reconstruction, it will become possible to return to the Hegelian text in order to develop an alternative interpretation—one that is more faithful to its dialectical and speculative form, and whose character, as will be shown, is not metaphysical but properly critical. Finally, from this renewed engagement with Hegel, the study will proceed to elaborate a dialectical-speculative and non-normativist model of social critique, to be contrasted with the main contemporary Frankfurtian approaches. Already within the Hegelian text itself—particularly in its analysis of the relationship between civil society and the state—it is possible to discern an applied example of such a critical theory of the forms of normativity.