La religione ‘secondo l’Illuminismo’

Note per un inquadramento del concetto

Abstract

Religion ‘According to the Enlightenment’: Notes for a Conceptual Framework 

This essay aims to clarify the idea of ‘religion’ according to the spirit of the Enlightenment. Indeed, the Enlightenment gave prominence not only to reason, but also to the disclosure and iniquity of evil, which it investigated with the aid of the hermeneutical guide provided by critical philosophy. Wilhelm Dilthey, in particular, in his work on the formation of the historical world in the human sciences, emphasized the fact that the Enlightenment introduces for the first time a broad scientific vision which fully appreciates the historical nature of both religion and art and considers them to be the expression of a transcendental relationship rooted in human nature. However, from this perspective, a reference to Antonio Rosmini, a real «poet of philosophy» (G. Moretto) also seems of relevance. Rosmini believed that humans have an innate abstract sense of ‘truth’, which can be inferred from empirical reality: Erlebnis, i.e. the lived experience, thus becomes a regulative principle for moral judgement and also a basis for poetic inspiration and social life.