Gianfrancesco Zanetti, Equality And Vulnerability In The Context Of Italian Political Philosophy. Italian Efficacy, Springer, Cham, 2023, 135 Pp

Resumen

The volume stems from reflections emerged during classes of the PhD program in Italian Studies that Professor Zanetti conducted at the University of Berkeley (California) during the spring of 2021. Thoughts arisen by his researches, but also by the debate with his students, gave the Author the opportunity to find a thread that connects the Italian political-philosophical agenda, that is to say: equality as practice (p. 4). This ‘kind’ of equality, linked to a perceived phenomenon of vulnerability (p. 6-9),“is a way of making sense of that very world, at the same time criticizing those valuablenarratives of universal equality that are meant to somehow legitimize bare efficacy phenomena” (p. 10). Following the title of the book, it is possible to gather the contributions of the authors
in three groups, relating to three key-concepts: equality, vulnerability and efficacy. Starting from the notion of equality means starting from Giambattista Vico (1668- 1744), particularly from the distinction between basic equality and equality as a goal. The first notion implies to sustain that all human beings are equal, because God saidto believe in it. However, it is possible that differences exist: there are some conditions that are not always equal. Not because the nature of some human beings is different, but because of the social structure, that makes some groups of people more vulnerable thanothers (and therefore not equal).