IMC 2024: Sessions

This session proposes to reflect on the perceptions of 'crisis', and the solutions thereto, in the 13th century, assuming the perspective of the Franciscan philosopher and scientist Roger Bacon, a figure of great influence and encyclopaedic erudition. It will focus on three aspects of his perception of 'crisis'. The first contribution will discuss how Bacon reflected on the problem of governing the multitudes. Bacon suggests solving governability crises by looking to a model of justice and social harmony derived from cosmology. The second contribution addresses the relationship between the morality of knowledge and the crisis of politics. The morality of philosophy and science, therefore their validation, is measured for Bacon in the ability to affect and govern relations, the tensions between humans and between political powers. The last contribution will focus on another aspect of Bacon's cultural proposal for the solution of 'crises', delving into the role attributed by him to music and rhetoric in service of the Church. Harmony in the construction of discourse and musical production can in fact contribute to persuading and sublimely elevating the listener's soul, thus producing a cultural, spiritual and aesthetic improvement.

Participants include Michele Campopiano (University of York), Paolo Evangelisti (Camera dei deputati, Roma), and Amalia Salvestrini (Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Napoli / Laboratoire d'études sur les monothéismes (UMR 8584), Aubervilliers).