The first part of the article tries to assess the debate that took place around E. Havelock's and J. Goody's theses concerning the birth of Greek philosophy and its relationship with the emergence of writing in Greece. The second part looks for traces, before Plato's Phaedrus, of a genuine philosophical reflection about writing: it outlines an interpretation of the data relating to Pherecydes of Syros, the importance of whom, for the history of philosophy, is located not in the content of his work, but in his formal appeal to prose.

This article aims at presenting an accurate analysis of the text and logical structure of the so-called Agathon's elenchus (Pl. Smp. 199c3-201c9). I shall argue that Socrates' elenchus is neither valid, as many scholars either presuppose tacitly or maintain explicitly, nor trivially invalid, as others' oversimplified readings suggest. Agathon's elenchus is an amazingly refined mechanism in which linguistic ambiguities and fallacious inferences are masterly employed by Socrates to achieve his purpose: making Agathon and the other symposiasts (and us the readers with them) ready for Diotima's teachings, by having them believe that their image of Eros is actually untenable.

La fallacia della forma dell'espressione (skēma tēs lexeōs, figura dictionis) e I'ultimo e forse it piu problematico tra i tipi di paralogismi che Aristotele presenta come dipendenti dal linguaggio (para tēn lexin, secundum dictionem o in dictione). In senso generale, I'errore compiuto da chi accetta come corretto un paralogismo di questo tipo consiste nell'assegnare un termine ad una categoria sbagliata (e quindi ad interpretame erroneamente il significato), per il fatto che esso è in qualche modo simile ad altri termini che appartengono effettivamente a quella categoria. Nelle parole di Aristotele: «I discorsi che si costituiscono in seguito alla forma dell'espressione accadono quando ciò che non è identico si interpeti in modo identico» (quando non idem similiter interpretatur, nella traduzione di Boezio)¹.

The article aims at demonstrating that Bruno's reflection on memory, since his Parisian works, cannot be considered as if it only refers to some technical details of memorative art. Memory plays a very important role in Bruno's metaphysical and cognitive theories and it actually is an instrument to understand and show the meaning of the fundamental relations between man, nature and God.
Moreover his perceived attention, especially showed with the last Dialoghi italiani, to the effects of time and oblivion related to memory and history, confirms the importance of this subject within the nolana filosofia.

The Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals is much more than a popular explanation of those ideas already contained in the third book of the Treatise. A close comparison between the two writings shows that Hume adopted a new argumentative strategy centred upon the key concept of utility. Hume replaced the individualistic approach of the Treatise with a socially-oriented approach to the problems of morality. Hume also avoided any deep inquiry into all such philosophical topics, such as the existence of a moral sense and the distinction between natural and artificial virtues, which could have offended the sensibility of the reader he was addressing - namely, the Hutchesonian philosopher.

Throughout Reid's lifelong activity, the study of natural philosophy represented one of his main interests. Reid knew about the Buffon-Linnaeus controversy and he came across Buffon's discoveries through the Histoire Naturelle. He advanced a conjecture about the generation of life according to the principles of common sense: life is produced directly by God. All living organisms are created according a divine design. Brute matter cannot organize itself into living bodies.

The conducting line of the essay regards the genesis of the Hegelian system related to the need to produce a coherent picture of reality and history. The problem I'm trying to highlight regards the contrast between the dialectic rationality and the multiplicity of the reality in which the former unfolds itself. If the concept of totality is seen as the seat in which the rights of the individuals are sacrijied, this essay tries instead to point out the availability of the system to a critical opposition with reality, aware of the accidental element and of conflict.

Reading Arendt's unpublished writings may send us back to the work we already know with eyes made more sensitive. Arendt's relation to individualism, wouLd be served by a careful and thorough re-examination of her treatment of individualism in her main works.
In the article Soc rate figure is crucial, which helps to understand that inner life is a dialogue «between the two who I am» and that solitude, just because it is the precondition of conscience, is «the necessary condition for the good functioning of the polis».