A cura di Andrea Cavalletti e Emanuele Edilio Pelilli
Polemos. Journal of Critical and Social Philosophy invites contributions for a monographic issue dedicated to the thought of Gianni Carchia, one of the most original figures in Italian philosophy of the late twentieth century. Twenty-five years after his passing, Carchia’s work continues to be an essential reference point for anyone reflecting on the relationship between aesthetics, myth, and the critique of modernity.
Carchia was one of the most significant Italian philosophers of the late twentieth century. His thought is distinguished by a focus on aesthetics, ancient philosophy, and the critique of modernity. After graduating in Turin in 1971 under the supervision of Gianni Vattimo with a thesis on “Truth and Language in the Early Benjamin”, Carchia pursued an academic career following years of teaching in high schools. He held the chair of Aesthetics first at the University of Tuscia and later, from 1992, at Roma Tre University.
Over the course of three decades, he developed an autonomous theoretical perspective, both broad and coherent, offering a radical interpretation of art and its relationship with philosophy. His approach intertwined the legacy of ancient thought with the critical concerns of the twentieth century. Engaging with Marxism, critical theory, structuralism, and modern and contemporary German philosophy, he explored the role of image, appearance, and myth in shaping knowledge and aesthetic sensibility. Through this inquiry, he investigated the tensions between myth and reason, between appearance and being, identifying a form of resistance to the instrumental logic of modernity.
Situated at a crossroads of influences ranging from Walter Benjamin to Karl Löwith, from Hans Blumenberg to Reiner Schürmann, from Plato to Kant, Carchia’s work spans from studies on Orphism and Greek tragedy to the philosophy of appearance, culminating in an in-depth analysis of aesthetics as a space of emancipation from modern rationalization.
Politically, he was aligned with the ideas of Jacques Camatte and the anarchist positions of figures such as Piero Flecchia and Arturo Schwarz. Carchia was also a translator of exceptional sensitivity, curating Italian editions of works by Adorno, Horkheimer, Marx, Benjamin, Blumenberg, Apel, Gehlen, Odo Marquard, and Reiner Schürmann. Despite his short but intense intellectual activity, he published numerous significant works, including Orphism and Tragedy (1979), Aesthetics and Eroticism (1981), From Appearance to Mystery (1983), The Legitimation of Art (1982), Art and Beauty (1995), The Fable of Being: Commentary on the Sophist (1997), Ancient Aesthetics (1999), and the posthumous The Love of Thought (2000).
Possible Areas of Investigation
- The role of aesthetic experience and the category of appearance in relation to instrumental rationality.
- “Hermeneutics of the archaic”: the theme of myth and the relationship between the archaic and the modern in connection with artistic and poetic forms.
- Ancient aesthetics, the question of artistic autonomy, and the role of the sublime in ancient rhetoric.
- Carchia as an interpreter of Plato and Platonism.
- Kant and the question of imagination.
- The relationship with Walter Benjamin’s thought and the idea of “critique as salvation.”
- Carchia and French philosophy: Bergson, Merleau-Ponty, Jankélévitch.
- The role of theoria and its political potential.
- The novelistic form and the dissolution of myth: from Lucretius to late antiquity, the novel as an aesthetic and cultural phenomenon.
- The relationship between myth and tragedy in Carchia’s aesthetic philosophy: analysis of the Orphic and tragic roots of aesthetic thought and their significance for modernity.
- Carchia’s translations and readings: his contribution to the diffusion of German critical thought (Marx, Horkheimer, Apel, Gehlen, Blumenberg, Schürmann) in Italy.
This issue aims to contribute to a renewed reception of Gianni Carchia’s work, situating it within contemporary aesthetic and philosophical research. We invite scholars to explore the scope of his thought, capable of rethinking the relationship between philosophy, image, and truth within and beyond modernity.
Submission Guidelines:
Articles, with a maximum length of 40,000 characters (including spaces), accompanied by a 1,000-character abstract (in both Italian and English), should be sent to cfp@rivistapolemos.it by April 25, 2025 (in one of the following formats: .doc, .docx, .odt) as a single document suitable for double-blind peer review and compliant with editorial standards. Contributions directly related to the suggested research lines are particularly welcome. Submissions in Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish are accepted.