Blîndețea filosofului politic. In amintirea lui Norberto Bobbio
The Meekness of the Political Philosopher. A Tribute to the Memory of Norberto Bobbio

Summary/Abstract: In order to individualize Norberto Bobbio as a political philosopher, the ar­ticle explores the meanings and uses the Italian author assigned to political philosophy. In so doing, the paper draws mainly on a later work, Elogio della mitezza e altri scritti morali (Pratiche Editrice, Milano, 1998), which was pu­blished in English under the title "In praise of meekness", in Convivium. Jour­nal of Ideas in Italian Studies, I, no. 1,1995, pp. 21-38. The paper's contention is that Bobbio uses once again his analytical method of understanding a concept by exploring its opposite. Thus, the Italian political philosopher goes against the mainstream that, from Machiavelli to Schmitt, focuses on aristocratic and heroic political virtues as courage, magnanimity, discretion, and the like in­ tended to empower some people to govern most of the people. Bobbio takes the side of a non-political virtue, namely meekness, described as the virtue of the private citizen who has no ambition to rule over things or people. Bobbio argues that a better appraisal of what politics is can therefore be achieved by considering what is beyond politics.

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