RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

The legacies of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche: archival texts, digital editions, and libraries.

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di PADOVA - FILOSOFIA - PADOVA(PD)

Research Unit Leader

Francesco (Franco) VOLPI

Description

The purpose of this research unit is to continue the Italian edition of Schopenhauer's "Scritti postumi" by Adelphi, the publication of single treatises included in the legacy, and the reconstruction of Schopenhauer's private library. The aim is to complete the started Italian edition and translation of Schopenhauer's «Scritti postumi» which, analogous to the edition of Nietzsche's posthumous fragments by G. Colli and M. Montinari, shall provide a reliable textual basis for historical and critical investigation of Schopenhauer's work and thought. The importance of the presented project is all the greater because the prevailing image of Schopenhauer is almost exclusively based on the works published in his lifetime. Only recently and incompletely a new perspective has taken shape from which one can see that Schopenhauer's system of pessimism has had an origin, a development, and an evolution. The planned edition of his postumous writings will disclose new ways for a better, genetic comprehension of his philosophy, his relationship with Kantianism, his detailled confrontation with the sciences of that time and his discovery - through the introduction of a new view of the Will - of that continent of the Irrational, whose most celebre representives are Nietzsche and Wagner and that has deeply influenced modern German culture.
Based on a re-examination, which has already begun, of the material in manuscript which is kept in the Schopenhauer-Archiv in Frankfurt, and on preliminary works, which also has been initiated, to the edition, the presented research-project aims to achieve the complete edition of the postumous wrintings, their Italian translation, the reconstruction of the private library and the genetic interpretation of Schopenhauer's thought based on the material that the new edition will uncover. The first step of the research-project is to complete the re-examination of the material in manuscript, that is much more than the previously published manuscripts, especially for the section on the so called Orientalia, the University of Berlin lectures and for his late notes.
In pursuit of this objective we have already contacted the Archives of Francfort and Berlin, which have agreed his consense to host the missions of the research-team. The aim of these missions will be to find out, to photocopy and to transcribe the posthumous manuscripts which are not included in the present editions, and to organize them in a coherent form. The first phase of the research-programm is to be performed mainly at the Archiv in Frankfurt. A catalogue of the bibliography which Schopenhuaer read and annoted must be also compiled, which is indispensable in order to produce the critical notes of the edition and to investigate the sources of his thought.
After a first evaluation of the existing material, a provisory plan of the edition can be established, to be published by Adelphi following this schedule:
vol. 1: «I manoscritti giovanili 1804-1818», translated and edited by Sandro Barbera, already published: Adelphi: Milano 1996, pp. XXIII-732.
vol. 2: «Confronti critici 1809-1818», translation by Gaetano Rametta, already completed, with additional critical notes, pp. 600 ca.
vol. 3: «I manoscritti berlinesi 1818-1830», translated and edited by Giovanni Gurisatti, already published: Adelphi: Milano 2004, pp. XXXII-1040.
vol. 4: «Lezioni berlinesi 1820-1821», including: 1) 1) «Teoria dell’intero rappresentare, pensare e conoscere»; 2) «Metafisica della Natura»; 3) «Metafisica del Bello; 4) «Metafisica dei costumi», translation and critical notes, pp. 1500 ca., to be assigned.
vol. 5: «I manoscritti rilegati 1830-1852», translation and critical notes by Giovanni Gurisatti, pp. 700 ca.
vol. 6: «I manoscritti senili. - Glosse - La biblioteca di Schopenhauer», translation and critical notes by F. Volpi, pp. 500 ca.
The edition of singles treatises from the «Nachlaβ» is also planned. After the «Eristische Dialektik» (1991), the «Abhandlung über die Ehre» (1997), the «Eudämonologie» (1998) and the «Eis heauton», which F. Volpi and G. Gurisatti have edited, the aims ist to publish others of these treatises in German and other languages. Further more the publication of studies on the new perspective opened by these texts on Schopenhauer's thought is planned.