Ethical Variations on a Theme by Rosmini-Serbati

Abstract

If it seem unnecessary even yet to consider his theories, such doubts can be dispelled by saying that they are suggestive; and they are so not because of his brilliance or originality but because he was a pivotal figure. The first half of the nineteenth century was somewhat late for such a man. By the sixteenth century, tolerance and liberalism had already appeared in the persons of Bruno, Mauvissière, Greville, Gentilis, Florio and Montaigne. By the seventeenth century the scientists and philosophical empiricists had arrived, and it was time for the pivotal figures — the thinkers who faced both ways in trying to move forward without deserting the best of the past. We need to mention only one such: Descartes, a very modern and independent speculator who wished to make advances while remaining faithful to the classical values which the scholasticism of the Middle Ages had preserved.