We firstly aim to examine the criticisms levelled at the idea of humanism in recent decades, in particular from the ‘environmentalism’ viewpoint, without neglecting the possible dialogue between humanism and environmentalist perspectives. We propose, in particular, to investigate tensions and paradoxes within humanistic projects, which emerge when their rhetorical and conceptual tools are used to realise a decentralisation of perspective, dethroning the human subject from its self-proclaimed and presumed centrality in the cosmos, in order to look at man/woman from the point of view of the animal or even to rethink her/him in a plural space of living beings and non-living entities.

Presentation

In this conference we firstly aim to examine the criticisms levelled at the idea of humanism in recent decades, in particular from the ‘environmentalism’ viewpoint, without neglecting the possible dialogue between humanism and environmentalist perspectives, which some scholars have even hoped for and envisaged. Secondly, we mean to reflect on those internal tensions within the idea of humanism, which have been continuously re-proposed and re-actualised in the Western cultural tradition.

This scientific event aims to continue the reflective path begun with the mid-term conference “The ‘Invention’ of Humanism and the ‘Reconfiguration’ of the Idea of Nature between the Second Half of the 18th and the End of the 19th Century” (Naples, February 2025) and to take stock of the topics discussed during the various meetings and seminar series organised within the framework of the PRIN PNRR 2022 project “Paradoxical Humanism and Environmentalism” at the Department of Humanities at the University Federico II of Naples and the Department of Humanities, Philosophy and Education at the University of Salerno.

In the concluding conference of this project in progress, we firstly aim to examine the criticisms levelled at the idea of humanism in recent decades, in particular from the ‘environmentalism’ viewpoint, without neglecting the possible dialogue between humanism and environmentalist perspectives, which some scholars have even hoped for and envisaged. Secondly, we mean to reflect on those internal tensions within the idea of humanism, which have been continuously re-proposed and re-actualised in the Western cultural tradition, particularly in two epochal phases thereof :

• the first half of the 20th century, when, on the one hand, the historiographical category of humanism was consolidated (thanks primarily to the work of Cassirer, Kristeller, Garin) and, on the other, its re-proposition, its usefulness, its possible forms (also in a political usage) were questioned by thinkers such as Horkheimer, Sartre, and Heidegger ;
• the 15th and 16th centuries, i.e. the period that historiography has retrospectively identified as the era of the flowering –in philology and philosophy– of modern humanism.

We propose, in particular, to investigate tensions and paradoxes within humanistic projects, which emerge when their rhetorical and conceptual tools are used to realise a decentralisation of perspective, dethroning the human subject from its self-proclaimed and presumed centrality in the cosmos, in order to look at man/woman from the point of view of the animal or even to rethink her/him in a plural space of living beings and non-living entities.

Programme

October 21, 2025

Complesso di San Pietro Martire, Via Porta di Massa 1 – Napoli Ex-Cataloghi lignei

• 9 :30 Andrea Mazzucchi (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Director of the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Maria Teresa Catena (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Philosophy Section Coordinator. Welcome speech

• 9 :45 Raffaele Carbone (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Introduction. Humanism and Nature : état des lieux

Session 1 : Humanism, Nature and Environment : Contemporary Perspectives

Chair : Raffaele Carbone (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)

• 10 :00 Luis Arenas Llopis (Universitat de València)Wanted : Cosmogram for a World in its Infancy. Reward Will Be Given (Notes on Political Ecology and Ecological Humanities)

10 :30 Discussion and coffee break

• 11 :15 Christoph Henning (Universiteit voor Humanistiek, Utrecht) A Humanist Defence of Intrinsic Values of Nature
• 11 :45 Annette Hilt (Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe) An Anthropology of Vulnerable Nature – Strategies of Critique on Power and Human Nature

12 :15 Discussion

12 :45 Lunch

Session 2 : Intersections and Contaminations

Chair : Olivier Guerrier (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès/Institut Universitaire de France)

• 14 :30 Salvatore Carannante (Università degli Studi di Trento) “Strappare il fulmine alla natura”. Il rapporto tra uomo e ambiente naturale in Aby Warburg
• 15 :00 Joan Lluís Llinàs Begon (Universitat de València) Humanisme et écriture de l’essai : Montaigne et Joan Fuster
• 15 :30 Marco Sgattoni (Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo) Natura e mondo umano in Karl Löwith

16 :00 Discussion and coffee break

Session 3 : Humanism and Environment between Existentialism and Marxism

Chair : Marco Russo (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

• 17 :00 Anna Pia Ruoppo (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Umanismo al bivio : il dialogo a distanza fra Heidegger e Sartre
• 17 :30 Raffaele Carbone (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) “The Mirage of a World That Can Be Dominated Anthropocentrically” : Humanism and Nature in Horkheimer and Adorno
• 18 :00 Ana Ilievska (American University of Beirut–Mediterraneo) Praxis and Nature : Yugoslav Marxist Humanism between Human Self-Realization and Environmental Custodianship

18 :30 Discussion

20 :00 Dinner

October 22, 2025

Salerno, DISUFF, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132 – Fisciano (SA)

Sala Convegni della Biblioteca centrale E. R. Caianiello

• 9 :45 Paola Aiello (Università degli Studi di Salerno) Director of the Dipartimento di Scienze Umane, Filosofiche e della Formazione

Welcome speech

Session 4 : Humanism and Nature : Critical Perspectives

Chair : Anna Pia Ruoppo (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)

• 10 :00 Noé Expósito Ropero (UNED) The Concept of ‘Humanism’ in Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy and the School of Madrid
• 10 :30 Sabrina Cardone (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Antiumanesimo e umanesimo del “nuovo uomo” negli scritti messicani di Artaud

11 :00 Discussion and coffee break

Session 5 (Part One) : Humanism and Nature : Tensions and Conflicts in the Early Modern Period

Chair : Francesco Piro (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

• 11 :30 Manuela Sanna (ISPF-CNR) L’umanesimo complesso di Vico
• 12 :00 Pascale Gillot (Université François Rabelais de Tours) Descartes, l’humanisme philosophique et le concept de nature
• 12 :30 Paolo Ponzio (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro) Per una storia dell’antirinascimento : il naturalismo eterodosso della metafisica campanelliana

13 :00 Discussion

13 :30 Lunch

Session 5 (Part Two) : Humanism and Nature : Tensions and Conflicts in the Early Modern Period

Chair : Maurizio Cambi (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

• 15 :00 Ilenia Russo (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) Giordano Bruno e la tradizione meteorologica
• 15 :30 Paolo Castaldo (Università degli Studi di Salerno) La “dialettica” uomo-natura in Leonardo da Vinci
• 16 :00 Pasquale Terracciano (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata) Pico conteso : plasticità dell’Umanesimo

16 :30 Coffee break and discussion

20 :30 Dinner (Naples)

October 23, 2025

Napoli, DSU

Complesso di San Pietro Martire, Via Porta di Massa 1, Napoli

Ex-Cataloghi lignei

Session 6 : Humans and Animals in Early Modern European Culture

Chair : Nicola Panichi (Scuola Normale Superiore)

• 09 :30 Giovanni Alberti (Università degli Studi di Salerno) Bestiario albertiano. Zoologia e antropologia nelle opere latine di Leon Battista Alberti
• 10 :00 Maurizio Cambi (Università degli Studi di Salerno) Erasmo e gli animali virtuosi
• 10 :30 Nicolas Correard (Nantes Université) L’anthropocritique de la première modernité, ou l’humanité mise en procès par les vivants

11 :00 Discussion and coffee break

• 12 :00 Sylvia Giocanti (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) L’institution sceptique de la nature de l’homme dans les Essais de Montaigne
• 12 :30 Olivier Guerrier (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès/Institut Universitaire de France) “Foi d’animal” : la religion des bêtes, des traités animaliers de Plutarque à leurs avatars pré-modernes

13 :00 Discussion

13 :30 Lunch

Session 7 (Part One) : Criticisms and Strengths of Humanism

Chair : Clementina Cantillo (Università degli Studi di Salerno)

• 15 :00 Renato De Filippis (Università degli Studi di Salerno) Una prospettiva medievistica sulle origini dell’umanesimo : Walter Ullmann e Ronald G. Witt
• 15 :30 Massimiliano Marianelli (Università degli Studi di Perugia) Passaggio e senso dell’umano : il “silenzio” e la voce della natura nello spazio del “tra”

16 :00 Discussion and coffee break

Session 7 (Part Two) : Criticisms and Strengths of Humanism

Chair : Domenico Conte (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)

• 16 :30 Stefano Biancu (Università di Roma LUMSA) Umanesimo della forza e umanesimo della debolezza
• 17 :00 Marco Russo (Università degli Studi di Salerno) Morte e resurrezione dell’umanesimo. Paradossi contemporanei

17 :30 Discussion

• 18 :00 Maurizio Cambi and Raffaele Carbone Conclusions

 

Contacts : maurizio.cambi@unisa.it, raffaele.carbone@unina.it, sabrina.cardone@unina.it, ilenia.russo@unina.it