Materialismo Storico

Aims & Scope

For a journal of philosophy, history, and human sciences with a historical-materialist orientation. For decades, studies with a historical-materialist orientation in philosophy – but not very different considerations could be made for history and the human sciences in general – have been in a difficult situation. The line of thought from Labriola to Gramsci and beyond, which rethought the categories of Marxism, linking them to their genetic relationship with Hegelian dialectics, has been able to propose an original reflection. A reflection that after fascism and World War II not only contributed to modernizing the cultural debate of a country that was still largely backward but also laid the foundations for its civil and political rebirth. The thesis that speaks of a long season of Marxist cultural hegemony is considered wrong and instrumental, both when this thesis takes on a nostalgic tone of regret, and when it presents itself as the sigh of relief of those who believe they have freed themselves from a creeping ideological dictatorship. However, it is true that, by taking Gramsci's reflection on the position of culture in society, the role of intellectuals, and the importance of the dimension of consensus in politics seriously, Italian Marxism had exerted a very profound influence, capable of confronting on equal terms with other and different traditions – from Croceanism to Actionism, from Existentialism to Catholic Personalism – which made the national philosophical landscape rich and varied. And it had managed to project itself to the forefront of the European debate, making the humanistic, historicist, and universalistic – and therefore profoundly democratic – spirit of its inspiration known and appreciated in all countries. Today the situation appears very different and a cultural heritage of great importance seems to have been completely dispersed. With the old generations of scholars having left the field, historical materialism has almost no more citizenship in academia as a tradition of study. And while a certain "archaeological" respect for it still persists when looking at the past, its scientific dignity is no longer recognized when it comes to addressing the great issues of the present. This is a consequence of the immense historical, political, but also cultural transformations that have occurred since the end of the Cold War, obviously. But these circumstances are not sufficient to explain a phenomenon that also has further and more immediate reasons of a national order. It is enough to broaden our view to other countries – or other continents – to see a proliferation of studies, conferences, and initiatives that explicitly continue to refer to Marxism without this obliging them to cultural self-segregation or academic apartheid. Journals such as "Rethinking Marxism" in the United States, "Historical Materials" in Great Britain, "Critica Marxista" in Brazil, the more recent "International Critical Thought" published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences with Routledge, and many others – and the dozens of conferences that arise each year around these journals, which have now become true cultural institutions – are just some of the examples we could suggest, to highlight by contrast how desolate the national landscape is. A contrast that becomes even more desolate if we look at the cultural leadership role that intellectuals such as Badiou, Rancière, Balibar, Zizek, Jameson, Harvey, and others play in their national contexts and throughout Europe, both academically and in the broader public debate. Apart from individual personalities, historical materialism, or the peculiar version of Italian Marxism, is excluded in Italy from major conferences and national research projects. At the same time, the journals that refer to this tradition and whose profile is recognized academically and scientifically have almost all disappeared: among the journals recognized by Anvur, only "Quaderni Materialisti" published by colleagues at Bicocca in Milan are found. This is not to say that there are no other publications that evoke Marx's thought in some way. However, in these cases, it is not possible to speak of historical materialism in the strict sense, as a clear inspiration prevails that systematically refers to post-structuralist authors such as Foucault and Deleuze, and which, together with them, explicitly proposes a polemical deconstruction of the Hegelian tradition. The journal we intend to publish – and for which we request authorization from the Department Council – aims to fill this gap, offering a point of reference for an orientation that is still present in the country's universities and seeking, as far as possible, to restore a minimum of dignity to it. This is a goal we strongly pursue, especially by recalling the notable contribution that the University of Urbino has made in the past to the tradition of Italian historical materialism and, more generally, to Hegelian-oriented Marxism, following a line of thought that can refer to the names of Arturo Massolo, Pasquale Salvucci, Livio Sichirollo, and, more recently, Domenico Losurdo. It is no coincidence that the PhD program "Dialectics and the Human World", active before the recent reform at the Institute of Philosophical and Pedagogical Studies and then at the Department of Human Sciences which inherited its legacy, included the following curriculum: "Dialectics and methodology of knowledge in the tradition of German classical philosophy and historical materialism". A curriculum through which it was proposed to renew, by recruiting new researchers: "... The study of German classical philosophy and the line of thought that, originating from it, animates the 20th-century debate, has always been a privileged area of research for the Institute of Philosophical and Pedagogical Sciences of the University of Urbino and then for the Department of Human Sciences. This is work that in previous years has achieved original results widely recognized by the national and international scientific community. Work that has contributed to shedding light on relevant historical-philosophical and interpretive issues, overcoming old historiographical commonplaces and often leading to an innovative reading of the overall meaning of the work of philosophers included in the great period from Kant to Fichte, from Hegel to Marx. In a cultural climate in which – in the name of the postmodern dissolution of foundation, subject, and the idea of truth – the very legitimacy of dialectics and the philosophy of history is called into question, it appears necessary, on the one hand, not to disperse the tradition of studies that this work has accumulated and, on the other hand, to renew and expand it, starting from a rigorous methodological and scientific awareness that reaffirms its theoretical and ideal fruitfulness..." Precisely for the reasons stated above, the journal we intend to create will be unashamedly called "Materialismo Storico. Rivista di filosofia, storia e scienze umane". The journal will be published twice a year. Publication will be exclusively online using the Open Journal system (the new IT standard for academic publications, capable of managing the entire editorial process and automatically linked to Scopus and the Philosopher's Index) and will be hosted on the University of Urbino's servers. Once issue 0 is published, necessary to obtain the ISSN code, the journal will operate according to the procedure for international scientific journals, i.e., through the Calls for Papers method. The value of publications will be assessed through an anonymous review procedure carried out by two peer reviewers. The scientific dignity of the journal will be guaranteed by a Scientific Committee chaired by Prof. Domenico Losurdo †. The Committee includes: Philosophy. José Barata-Moura † (Universidade de Lisboa), Giuseppe Cacciatore (Univ. Federico II of Naples), Mario Cingoli (Univ. of Milan Bicocca), Roberto Finelli (Univ. Roma III), Francesco Fistetti (Univ. of Bari), Wolfgang Fritz Haug (Historisch - kritisches Wörterbuch des Marxismus HKWM), Giacomo Marramao (Univ. Roma III), Nicola Panichi (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Stefano Petrucciani (Univ. La Sapienza of Rome), João Quartim de Moraes (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP, Brazil), Jan Rehmann (Union Theological Seminary, New York), Tom Rockmore (Univ. of Beijing), Bernard Taureck (Universität Braunschweig), André Tosel (Univ. de Nice Sophia Antipolis), Claudio Tuozzolo (Univ. of Chieti-Pescara). History. Angelo d’Orsi (Univ. of Turin), Francesco Germinario (Fondazione “Luigi Micheletti” of Brescia), Marina Montesano (Univ. of Messina), Gianpasquale Santomassimo (Univ. of Siena), Anna Tonelli (Univ. of Urbino). Pedagogy. Massimo Baldacci (Univ. of Urbino). Economic disciplines. Riccardo Bellofiore (Univ. of Bergamo), Guglielmo Forges Davanzati (Univ. of Salento). Legal and historical-legal disciplines. Antonio Cantaro (Univ. of Urbino), Federico Martino (Univ. of Messina). The journal will have the patronage of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies. Furthermore, it will work in synergy with the Internationale Gesellschaft Hegel-Marx für dialektisches Denken, which has been active on the international scene since the mid-1980s, and with the International Gramsci Society, the most important global association for Gramscian studies. The managing editor of the journal will be Prof. Anna Tonelli. The scientific director will be Stefano G. Azzarà, while Fabio Frosini will be co-director and responsible for international contacts. The journal's immediate practical objective is to be included among the scientific journals recognized by Anvur and the main national philosophical associations (initially at least in sector MFIL06) and aims, after completing the necessary growth path, to achieve inclusion in category A. While working in this direction, its publication – evidently open to all collaboration proposals – aims to contribute to the enrichment of the cultural heritage and the scientific prestige of the University of Urbino and the Department of Human Sciences.

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