The Problem of Atheism

The Problem of Atheism

The Problem of Atheism

The Problem of Atheism

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Overview

In 1964, Augusto Del Noce assembled in a book some of his best works on Marxism, atheism, and the history of modern philosophy. The result was Il problema dell’ateismo, which he always regarded as foundational to his way of thinking. The book remains his best-known work and is still in print in Italy almost sixty years later.The Problem of Atheism offers the first English translation of this landmark book, one of the earliest works to recognize the new secularizing trends in Western culture following World War II. Del Noce situates atheism historically, reconstructing its philosophical trajectory through European modernity. Documenting the author’s entire intellectual experience, these essays explore the birth of modern philosophy, reckon with the great European crisis of 1917 to 1945 and the Cold War that followed, and mine the opposition between Marxism and the rise of the affluent society. The result is rich with premonitions of the cultural landscape that would take shape throughout the 1960s and the decades that followed.Proving its English translation to be long overdue, The Problem of Atheism remains relevant to contemporary debates about secularization, political theology, and modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780228009061
Publisher: McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date: 01/05/2022
Series: McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas , #84
Pages: 528
Sales rank: 740,982
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Augusto Del Noce (1910–1989) was professor at La Sapienza University of Rome and a distinguished philosopher, political thinker, and public intellectual. Carlo Lancellotti is professor at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction xiii

I The Concept of Atheism and the History of Philosophy as a Problem (1964) 3

1 On the Concept of Atheism 7

(Rationalism - Empiricism - Rationalist Denial of Original Sin - Classification of Atheism - Schopenhauer, Comte, Stirner, Sartre, Juvalta - An Objection)

2 Atheism, Anti-Clericalism, Heresy 34

(Essence of Anti-Clericalism - Renouvier - Martinetti)

3 Criteria for a History of Atheism 48

4 From the Concept of Atheism to the History of Philosophy as a Problem 50

(Axiological Meaning of Modernity - Atheism and Historicism - Three Objections)

5 Visions of History and the Idea of Revolution 60

(The Four Essential Visions - Their Opponents - Need for a Critique)

6 Towards a Critique of the Ordinary Vision of the History of Philosophy 63

(Idealist Vision - Brunchvicg - Philosophy through History - Marxist Visions)

7 The Role of the Religious Philosophy of Existence in the Problematization of the History of Philosophy 70

(Religious Existentialism - Decadentism - Ontologism)

8 The Place of Marxism in the History of Philosophy 83

(My View - Historicist Objections - Unique Philosophical Character of Marxism - Consequences)

9 Contemporary History as Philosophical History 99

10 The Greatest Mistake When Interpreting Marxism, and Its Consequences 101

(Relationship between-Marx and Feuerbach - Continuations of Feuerbach)

11 The Form of the Critical Power of Marxism 114

(Annihilation of Historicism and Existentialism - Fascism - Nazism - Evolution of Communism - Contradiction and Necessary Crisis of Marxism)

12 The Nietzsche Problem 140

(Incompatibility of Marx and Nietzsche - Nietzsche and Nazism - Shestov)

13 Order of Research 157

II Marx's "Non-Philosophy" and Communism as a Political Reality (1946) 169

1 The Methodological Interpretation 169

2 Marx's Non-Philosophy 190

3 Marxism and Western Culture 201

III Marxism and the Qualitative Leap (1948) 215

1 The Qualitative Leap 215

2 Critique of the Christian-Marxist Interpretation 222

3 Chnstianity and Marxism 230

IV Notes on Western Irreligion (1963) 237

1 Atheism or "Natural Irreligion"? 237

2 On Contemporary Sociologism 260

V Reflections on the Atheistic Option (1961) 272

1 Absolute Atheism and Practical Atheism 272

2 Atheistic Moments in the History of Philosophy 282

3 The Atheistic Option 289

4 Atheism and Criterion of Truth 299

5 Pascal's Definition of Atheism 302

VI The Pascal Problem and Contemporary Atheism (1964) 308

1 Lucien Goldmann's Marxist "Pari" 308

2 The Standard Secular Vision of the History of Modern Philosophy 318

3 Inevitability of the Cartesian Beginning 329

4 The Concept of Catholic Reformation 334

5 Goldmann on Descartes and Pascal 335

6 The "Significant Structure"of Cartesianism 342

7 The Crisis of Molinism in Descartes 356

8 From Descartes to Pascal 368

9 From Pascal to Maleranche 383

10 From Malebranche to Vico 394

11 Continuity of the Philosophy of the Catholic Reformation 416

VII Political Theism and Atheism (1962) 420

1 The Postulate of Progress and the Postulate of Sin 424

2 Free Will and Political Freedom 440

Conclusion 450

Index of Names 475

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