Laboratory for the global perspectives of Italian Thought

Laboratorio sulle prospettive globali del pensiero italiano

Coordination: Gabriele De Angelis

Presentation

Set up at the Center for Global Studies of the Aberta University of Lisbon, the Laboratory is part of the international network of Laboratories and Study Centers focused on Italian thought, named “Italian Thought Network”, founded in December 2016.

The Laboratory integrates members of the CEG, as well as of other UI of the Portuguese university system, and collaborates with the aforementioned Units in fulfilling its programmatic functions.

Following the guidelines of the IT Network and the statutes of the CEG, and in collaboration with the other study centres of the international network, the “Italian Differences” Laboratory of the CEG aims to study and understand the influences and perspectives that Italian thought opens in the epistemological context of global studies.

In this sense, the Laboratory works to understand the multiple fields through which Italian thought has influenced the definition of thought systems, that has spread globally. In particular, it examines this in the context of Lusophony.

Following a historical perspective, the research activities of the Laboratory focus on the analysis of those “codes” and attitudes of Italian thought that appear particularly relevant to the context of global studies. Specifically, the definition of critical attention towards the historical present and the practice of systematically oriented thought as constituting a form of “difference” with respect to the epistemological, political and spiritual frameworks of the historical present.

The presence and the persistence of this code and this attitude – traceable in thinkers across various disciplinary frameworks – make authors such as Dante Alighieri, Niccolò Machiavelli, Giordano Bruno, Giovambattista Vico, Giacomo Leopardi, Benedetto Croce, Giovanni Gentile, Antonio Gramsci, the different currents of Italian workerism, and the Italian thought on biopolitics, points of reference for this research.

Objectives

The main objectives of the Laboratory are:

• the dissemination of research on Italian thought in the Lusophone context;
• the translation and editing of texts by Italian thinkers or influenced by Italian thought;
• the editing of an anthology of Italian thought oriented by the notion of difference and criticism concerning the historical present;
• the organization of seminars and conferences on Italian thought.