Thirty-One

ANTONIO ROSMINI AND THE ROSMINIAN CONTROVERSIES

1. Life and First Writings. Nuovo Saggio. Rinnovamento. Polemic with Mamiani. Writings on Morality. . Polemic with Gioberti. Teosofia Serbati was born on 24 March 1797 at Rovereto from a rich and noble family. Pietro Orsi, a , taught him the first elements of phi- losophy and, between 1815 and 1816, “with the power of truth and with the sweetness of friendship, teaching him philosophy,” enamored him with virtue, influencing the youth with personal prestige more than with professed doc- trines. Drafted in Rome on 3 May 1829, the affectionate dedication to Orsi of Nuovo saggio sull’origine delle idee (New essay on the origin of ideas) is full of a profound gratitude. From his first writings Rosmini opposed the Lockean sensism that was the main component of the of the time and to which Orsi subscribed. It is said that, at this time, Rosmini read and meditated Plato, deducing from these readings objections against his teacher, who was at first embarrassed but then convinced of having an ingenious disciple. Cer- tainly Gioia, Romagnosi, and the most conspicuous representatives of Condil- lac’s movement found immediately a stern adversary in Rosmini, who looked also at Galluppi’s critical empiricism with a serious suspicion. The nature of the philosophical studies of the period 1815–1816 was es- sentially introductory. Though Rosmini began to approach Kantism through unreliable works and studied Franz Samuel Karpe and Karl Leonhard Rein- hold, he still dreamed, on the footsteps of Bacon, to construct “a sacred tem- ple that would represent and express the world” (un sacro tempio il quale rappresenti ed esprima il mondo). Under the influence of sensism, with some modest hints to a separation from it, was the Florentine Cesare Baldinotti, who had taught philosophy at the until 1809 but who was still living in 1817 when Rosmini came to study theology in Padua. Rosmini loved to stop and chat with the very old and near to death Baldinotti, raising questions, and observ- ing as he used to do with Orsi. Though Baldinotti made the distinction be- tween act of consciousness, sensible perception, and perception of ideas, he 846 HISTORY OF remained faithful to empiricism in 1787 with De recta humanae mentis insti- tutione (On the right training of the human mind, Pavia 1787) and in the only volume published in 1817 of the three written on Tentaminum metaphysi- corum (Exercises in metaphysics). Baldinotti also authored the first outline of a history of philosophy, Historiae philosophiae prima et expeditissima adum- bratio that arrived at Kant and perhaps helped Rosmini to a better knowledge of Kantism. With that book Baldinotti helped also Jacopo Bonfadini who, too, wanted to study Kant. In the fight against the Enlightenment, Rosmini looked for weapons instead of in the French thought of like and Louis-Gabriel-Antoine Bonald, in the Italian philosophical tradi- tion from Thomas to Gerdil, and the disciple of Gerdil, Tommaso Vincenzo Falletti of Barolo, who in Studio analitico della religione had strenuously fought against Locke and Condillac. Falletti, dealing with the serious problem of a Storia dell’umanità, concluded around 1822 that “a restoration” before anything else must be a spiritual renewal, a triumph of the ideals of the Chris- tian civilization. This would certainly be possible only in a Christian society, in which every power would be posited under the universal authority of the papacy. This was precisely the thesis that Rosmini defended in 1823 in a eulogy of Pious VII. In Padua, Rosmini frequented Tommaseo and established a friendship that continued his whole life. In 1821, he was ordained priest and soon he formulated a life program that seemed to presage the confidence with which, a few years later, he moved to Rome bringing with him the Nuovo saggio sull’origine delle idee together with the constitutions for the establishment of a religious society whose members would be guided by the spirit of evangeli- cal love, the “Istituto della Carità,” to which he would dedicate generously himself. In a world that exalted “reason” and lessened altars, Rosmini wanted to diffuse a doctrine that would restore the solemn principles of the truth al- ready supported by the most venerable tradition, preaching at the same time those maxims of “charity” that are the essence of Christianity. Pious VIII, at the time of the request for the permission to found the “Istituto della Carità,” in 1829, exhorted Rosmini to occupy himself with the study and the writing of books, “It is the will of God that you should occupy yourself with the writing of books. It is your vocation…. Be convinced that you would be able by writ- ing to bring an advantage to your neighbor greater than by exercising any other activity in the sacred ministry (È volontà di Dio che voi vi occupiate nello scrivere de’ libri: tale è la vostra vocazione…. Tenetevi certo, che voi potrete recare un vantaggio assai maggiore al prossimo occupandovi nello scrivere, che non esercitando qualunque altra opera del sacro ministero). No contradiction was seen in the attitude, theoretical and practical, of the young priest, and in his candid conviction that one could not disjoin speculation from action. The spirit of Christian tradition for which charitas is the safer way to reach veritas would nourish his action. He would be seen constantly con-