Introduction I. - the question about the role of knowledge is at the centre of the discourse on modernity which includes the epistemological problems caused by the rise of scientific thought. This historical condition came to be characterised by a sense of crisis which is expressed by the inability of knowledge to grasp things as it is evident in the Cartesian doubt. The crisis of philosophy and knowledge in general is due to the loss of power which was assigned by Aristotle to philosophy. More specifically philosophy had a regulative function and the capacity to help people to orient themselves in the world. It can be said that modernity is the crisis. There are some possible paradoxes relating to the issue of knowledge that can be further explored. Ia – This section of the introduction serves to understand Sini’s thought by taking as a starting point the reflections of two major philosophers dealing with the problem of knowledge. The last book written by Husserl “The crisis of the European Sciences ...” has been the major inspiration for Sini’s work. By developing some of the themes treated in Hussserl’s book, I endeavour to connect them to Sini’s thought. For example the theme of praxis as theorized in the Lebenswelt. Husserl points out in his last work “The crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology” that there is no crisis of ¨the sciences¨ as such. Despite the fact the sciences have shown a remarkable success reached through the applications of the scientific and technological discoveries, it would be more appropriate to talk of the crisis of the sciences in relation to the Lebenswelt (life world) causing a profound transformation in the idea of Europe which had evident consequences in the practices of life. In other words, it can be said that the rise of the scientific knowledge and the consequent proliferation of the specialized languages has involved the scientists directly in their experience of the real life. In fact, it is can be said the problems due to the scientific growth have uncovered the complete ignorance about the questions regarding the sense and meaning of this knowledge and its lack of sense in dealing with the experiences of life. In the last two conferences held by Husserl in Vienna and Prague there was an attempt to revive philosophy. Husserl’s intention was to suggest the possibility of having a new philosophy with a strong foundation. Someone interpreted this new philosophy in being intrinsically tied to Aristotle’s metaphysics (Próte Philosophia). According to Sini, this interpretation does not completely correspond to the spirit of Husserl’s idea of philosophy. For Sini the Lebenswelt is not a metaphysics but a new knowledge ‘that has never been tried before’ as Husserl used to say. On his deathbed Husserl refered to this new knowledge as ‘a small beginning’. The purpose of the thought of practices is to start from this ‘small beginning’ and develop a knowledge with the task to face the problems that afflict our times as Merleau-Ponty, Sartre and Paci had only partially started doing. Ib- Heidegger Although in Heidegger’s thought truth is that movement in which the being in its own totality becomes available through the presence, the same truth is subject to a mysterious destiny: Being hides and withdraws itself in the darkness. The play between light and darkness places Being in ambiguous situation due to the inability of thought to seize it since thinking is essentially directed to the presence. Therefore, for Heidegger the task of philosophy is to try to think of the absence and concealment of Being However the kind of thought that can be used to unveil the movement of Being remains to be solved This is what caused an impasse in Heidegger’s thought which led him to ask himself if there was still a future for thought and philosophy. Nevertheless, in the context of this research, Heidegger is still important because of his insights on discourse (rede) and its corollaries about language is fundamental for the development of Sini’s thought. Ic - The thought of practices is not a metaphysics rather it can be seen as a physics that studies the material structures of work conceptualized as a constitutive element of knowledge. Therefore, the scope of this research is to focus on the ontogenesis of the absolute materialism: how to conceive the matter through the thought of practices. To give a brief account where the thought of practices comes from and stands in comparison with other schools of thoughts (speculative realism) and to highlight some contradictions present in his theoretical perspectives: on one hand the genealogical perspective which tries to go through the generation of the figures of iconism that is, the problems that rise when the finite contents of the representation become necessarily a constitutive part in the formation of any knowledge. On the other hand, Sini’s intention is to better offer to his thought a perspective which is openly affirmative and speculative enable to assign to philosophy to deal with a thought of infinite as in Spinoza and Bruno. Furthermore a literature review about Sini’s work. Chapter 1 After having identified the place which Sini’s thought occupies within the transformation of the Italian philosophy from 1960s to1980s, the chapter will continue to delimit the theoretical framework in which the principles of the thought of practices are exposed. Hermeneutics, the speculative semiotics by Peirce and the phenomenological praxis come to be recomposed within of the pragmatism that is, a philosophy of action. - the problem of knowledge is directly linked to representation: what is representation? In the representation at stake is the meaning, event, relation, sign, sense, distance, rebound, reference/deferral, signifier, signified, gesture, matter, transcendental field These are the themes which have been shared by hermeneutics and semiotics. However, a speculative semiotics which should not be confused with a semiotics of an empirical kind. Therefore there is a comparison between the hermeneutical circle in Heidegger and the sign relation in Peirce. It is here that the paradoxes of hermeneutics are analysed and reformulated towards a new way of thinking which has forced Sini to move away from the nihilistic turn of Hermeneutics. The confrontation between Sini and Vattimo. -Towards a philosophy of the operations. Husserl’s phenomenology and genealogy share the same scope: to see the operations that a philosopher carries out in the development of his thought. It is the explication of the emancipatory function of a philosophy which is no longer a metaphysics. - From the praxis to the practices Pragmatism as a study of action and habit of response. The great question of Being in action: what does it mean? Chapter 2 Philosophy seen through the thought of practices : the philosopher’s gaze and the ethical implication which involves the decision where the philosopher’s gaze has to be directed. The great unknown of Western knowledge: language as an instrument. The genealogy of a knowledge involves an analysis of the ‘physical conditions’ in which this knowledge is constituted. Chapter 3 The ontogenesis of the absolute materialism A brief history of the concept of matter. In the thought of practices there is no definition of matter but the matter is the support (the medium) and the support is every time the product of the doing of all and each (Hegel) which is the ‘work’ defined as socially determined (Marx). Analysis of the support , automaton and technics Possible connections with the matter of Giordano Bruno . Other considerations: the work of translation has been more difficult than I had expected and this is one of the reasons why I have take more time than anticipated.
