Feyerabend, truth, and relativisms: Footnotes to the Italian debate.
There is a substantial literature on Feyerabend's relativism-including a few papers in this collection-but fewer specific studies of the ways that his writings and ideas have been taken up among the non-academic public. This is odd, given his obvious interest in the lives and concerns of persons who were not 'intellectuals'-a term that, for him, had a pejorative ring to it. It is also odd, given the abundance of evidence of how Feyerabend's relativism played a role in a specific national and cultural context-namely, contemporary Italian debates about relativism. This paper offers a study of how Feyerabend's ideas have been deployed by Italian intellectuals and cultural commentators-including the current Pope-and critically assesses them.
IMT Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy. Electronic address: stefano.gattei@imtlucca.it.
Stefano
S
Gattei
D034462:Dissent and Disputes / Q000266:history*; D028781:Ethical Relativism / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007558:Italy; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*
Catholic Church; Feyerabend; Italy; Relativisms