Books by Rocco Pezzimenti

Contrary to the view held by a number of contemporary economists, the conviction is fast gaining ground that before the socio-political situation can be changed it is first necessary to change the economic processes, these last being seen as the structure on which the superstructure is built (an interpretation shared by Karl Marx and Adam Smith, in different, though symmetrical, fashion). This book attempts to show that history in fact demonstrates, frequently, the opposite. England was able to experience the industrial revolution only after it had consolidated a revolution of rights. Indeed such has always been the case. Peace itself cannot be seen as the objective because it is actually a pre-condition, as the classic writers of the ancient and medieval world pointed out. The political field must thus recover both authority and autonomy from the economic sphere. What we need is dynamic order, without which there can be no progress. Another point emerges from thus study: many have adopted a negative and pessimistic attitude towards economic activity, asserting that it is only irrepressible human selfishness that creates private initiative. Yet from such initiative stems the well-being of society and the improvement of life. It is therefore in the interest of everyone that these aspirations are fulfilled within a legal framework. Lastly, uncertainty is a typical characteristic of human life and to the extent of being one of the components of everyday life. Because of this financial institutions such as insurance companies have grown up and these actually work with the nature of risk. This again demonstrates how unacceptable an anarchical-libertarian position is since through its uncertainty it brings with it risks that are not confined to the economy. However this study does not look forward to a world in which the positions are reversed and where politics can reach the point of stifling the economy.

After a first part, which is critical of a philosophical vision and which leads from the search for a provisional morality to a morality provisional by nature, this work analyzes the problem of moral and social values in an attempt to arrive at a social morality shared by all. A series of premises is discovered, and they are inalienable - such as work, the person, responsibility, pluralism, the ethics of conflict, the right to truth, a sense of limits, faith in society, citizenship, brotherhood, and their corollaries: freedom, dignity, equality, justice, solidarity, and others, as well - which are the cornerstones of a social life in which all people can fulfil their own, most legitimate aspirations. These social values, in a climate of growing security, make the development of intelligence and growth of culture possible. These aspirations are what characterize human nature.The book concludes with a very brief itinerary for an historical analysis, a draft to enable further research, with the intention of bringing out the fact that despite some recurring pessimistic views, the pathway of humanity is accompanied by a constant effort to improve, even though at times it is strewn with frustrations and dangerous phases of political abnormality.

This study takes up where the previous volume in this series, on open societies in the ancient and medieval periods, left off. Setting out from that point, it analyzes the difficult, often dramatic and highly conflicted, relationship between theoreticians of the open society and those who have actually pursued Utopian ideals and various other chimeras. The thread uniting the two studies passes through the political institutions of the Roman Republic and English parliamentarianism, the bulwarks of truly free societies (however imperfect, and thus subject to improvement, they may be). it is certainly no accident that all the great figures in this field, such as Vico, Montesquieu, Hume and the like, refer to these two models: the departure points for modern liberalism.Rocco Pezzimenti charts the difficult progress towards the achievement of rights, and reviewing modern political thought and the approach of contemporary analysis, offers a critique of a number of platitudes and demonstrates how even in the most recent centuries the complete negation of the open society has come about, often due to thinkers who have long been considered amongst the most enlightened.This has happened not only explicitly, due to those readily identified as the enemies of freedom, but also surreptitiously, occasioned by various Utopian visionaries. The analysis of those elements called the paradoxes of modernity has, under the cover of apparently innovative ideas, exalted methods and principles which have nothing to do with liberty and its history.The purpose of these pages is to provide an historical profile of the problem and alert each of us as to how delicate the balances of the open society are; societies which must be defended with the greatest possible lucidity and determination, a defence on a par with that of freedom itself.

Western man has long lost his way in his quest for constructivist models, largely because of his infatuation with utopian ideals. These models have represented a complete negation of the Open Society.In the latter part of the twentieth century there has been a dramatic reawakening from these dreams. The time has now come to reappraise the thinking of the past, which simply described possible systems for social organization on behalf of the common good and not models for perfect societies.Rocco Pezzimenti retraces and analyses paths towards a true balance between "laws" and "rights" in society, something often neglected in recent western thought.First formulated in ancient Rome, the concept of rights is to be found - not by chance - at the heart of the speculations of thinkers such as Montesquieu, Vico, Hume, and others who set forth the premises for the liberal systems in which, despite many problems, we have the fortune to live.Essential to this analysis is a division of the Greco-Latin binomial, considered indivisible for far too long. These two cultures of the ancient world remain relevant and very close to us as the roots and bases of our contemporary western civilization.However, the author shows that it is a reclaiming of the Latin culture that can pave the way to the Open Society in which, even today, few people can claim to live. He looks at western political thought from Cicero to William of Ockham, re-examining as well much of the best thought of the intervening centuries. He traces progress towards a liberal and truly federated society - the Open Society, which we may regard not as an imposed Utopia but the fruit of history.