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Galli, Carlo
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2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Carlo Galli on the demise of sociology
Following the boom of the 1960s the unstoppable decline of sociology has now begun, writes Carlo Galli, professor of the history of political ideas at the University of Bologna, in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica. This, he says, is a result both of the discipline's approach and its subject: "The spread of sociology carried the seed of its own decline with it. Its claim to cover social reality in all its diversity led its spectrum to expand into numerous sociological fields which however - because they were mostly preoccupied with themselves and incapable of dialogue with each other - failed amidst their attempts to achieve their often extremely limited objectives. Only with great difficulty can they be traced back to the common cognitive science, the 'third culture' that sociology once claimed to be. … Added to this was the constant transformation of its subject, society. … Social upheavals disorient sociology even more than all other sciences. Because it wants to investigate each change it is condemned to follow and sometimes even experience itself the change of structures and patterns that is characteristic of this age of transition. The social whole has become so complex that it is difficult to believe."
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More from the press review on the subject » Science / Research, » Weltanschauung, » Global
Carlo Galli on the ethics of democracy
Carlo Galli describes in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica the balancing act between politics and morals to be performed in a modern democracy: "Has European liberal democracy really solved the millennial question of balancing morals and politics by privatising morals and juridifying politics? Not in the least. … In reality it's obvious that, in order to survive, liberal democracy denies both a total overlap between politics and morals and their total separation, both moralism and cynicism, and must foster a relationship between morals and politics. This relationship exists in the form of an analogy. It consists in a proximity or at least not a total contradiction between the way a politician treats those who are close to him (his morals) and the way he governs his fellow citizens and assumes responsibility towards them (his politics). The legitimation of a government's power consists therefore not only in winning elections but also in respecting at every opportunity and at all times that which is the ultimate goal of democracy, the democratic ethos: freedom of the individual, dignity of the citizens and human nature."
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More from the press review on the subject » Philosophy, » Europe, » Global
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