Last week (17–20 September), Ferrara hosted the 12th congress of the Internationale Johann Gottlieb Fichte-Gesellschaft. Just under a hundred scholars from all over the world gathered in the delightful setting of this Renaissance town – once ruled by the Este dynasty, and where poets such as Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso stayed and wrote their masterpieces – to present the results of their research on the German philosopher.
After all, the choice to host this conference on Fichte’s thought in a city of art should come as no surprise: the theme of the conference was Philosophie als Kunst. Imagination – Leben – System (Philosophy as Art. Imagination – Life – System). The aim was to highlight certain aspects of Fichte’s philosophy that have not always been sufficiently considered by critical literature, which reveal a lively thought, attentive to numerous aspects of existence and spiritual experience, despite the often difficult and abstrusely technical form of its systematic construction.
Maurizio Maria Malimpensa, a member of the TRIERTIUM research group, contributed to the conference in several ways: “I am glad to have been able to represent the Czech research community with my presence – in addition to the Italian community where I was born and educated – and that this occasion was my first public appearance under the affiliation of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology at Palacký University in Olomouc. I am also pleased to have been able to do so in three different contexts: the presentation of the new critical edition of Fichte’s so called Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo (published in April this year by Frommann-Holzboog, edited by myself and Prof. Ives Radrizzani), the reading of a paper dedicated to the role of aesthetics (in the broad sense) within Fichte’s thought, and the moderation of a panel of a research group from the University of Bamberg, led by Michael Gerten, dedicated to the investigation of interpersonality in Fichtean philosophy.”
The conference was very rich, comparing very different perspectives and traditions of study (with a large presence of the Asian research community, but also from Latin America), thus offering each of the participants the opportunity to learn a great deal. Very impressive were the ‘traditional’ plenary lectures given by Petra Lohmann, Gaetano Rametta, Alexander Schnell and Max Marcuzzi – alongside which a lecture-concert was held, in which Alessandro Bertinetto presented and brought to life the perforative elements of Fichte’s thought, alternating scientific exposition with the performance of classical and jazz pieces on the saxophone, accompanied by a group of extremely talented local musicians.
According to some long-standing participants, the event was one of the best Fichte-Kongress that has taken place since the society was founded. An atmosphere of exchange and renewal between the various generations of Fichte scholars was indeed palpable. The theme chosen, moreover, is one of the most important in the German philosopher’s thought and one of the major legacies with which contemporary philosophy must grapple in order to escape from the shallows of certain sterile oppositions in which it still sometimes seems to be stuck.
Malimpensa concludes: “What Fichte’s thought invites us to consider is that the fundamental operator in the constitution of reality and its understanding is an artistic gesture – in the broadest sense of the term, i.e. in its aesthetic, but also technical and practical value. This, by a curious coincidence, is to some extent the subject of my research here in Olomouc, which I hope to have the opportunity to discuss and explore in depth with friends and colleagues.”
