ANTONIO MASALA

Morte presunta e resurrezione incerta della filosofia politica nel secondo dopoguerra

220

Gennaio-Aprile 2009

Anno LXXIV    n. 1

Abstract -   The idea that Political Philosophy was going through a deep crisis in the first half of the twentieth century, and that it reawakened, more or less unexpectedly, only in 1971, with A Theory of Justice from John Rawls, had been a deeply-rooted common place in political studies for long time. Several thinkers have seen the “old tradition” succumb under the strokes of historicism, positivism and relativism, and some important philosopher (like Leo Strauss, Sheldon Wolin, Eric Voegelin) have laid the responsibility of the crisis on liberalism. Even though that common place is today often considered groundless, it is interesting to analyze it, at least from the post-war period. In fact those thinkers gave rise to a sort of “unconscious debate”, and the problems raised regarded not only political philosophy as discipline, but some crucial points regarding some of the main political theories. Such analyses can also be useful to make clear some differences between different political theories and in particular to evaluate the evolution of liberalism, a theory whose definition often seems controversial.