Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Rosmini's Life 1
Towards an Ontological Foundation of Personhood 8
The Present Study 12
First Part: Epistemological Foundations
Chapter 1: The Nature of Knowledge 27
The Problem of Knowledge 27
Fundamental Difference between Sensation and Idea 33
Activity and Passivity in Sense Perception 36
The Subjective and the Extrasubjective in the Sensation 41
Sensation and Idea Compared 49
Chapter 2: Analysis of the Idea of the Thing. The Intellective Perception 65
The Judgment contained in the Idea of the Thing 66
The Idea of Existence 76
Characteristics of this Idea 77
Innatism of the Idea of Existence 80
The Idea and Sensation are Primitive Elements 85
The Idea as a Necessary Means of Knowledge 90
Second Part: Ontological Significance of the Idea
Chapter 3: Ideas and Reality 101
The Idea of Being, Pure Mediator of Knowledge 101
The Knowledge of Existing Reality through the Idea 108
Kant's a priori Synthesis and Rosmini's Primitive Synthesis 113
Kant, Innatism and the lumen intellectuale 119
The Idea is One Form of Being 125
Ideal Being is the Knowability of Real Being 129
Ideal Being is the Possibility of Things 131
Note on the Possibility and Necessity of Ideas 134
Chapter 4: The Idea and the Mind 145
The Book about the Idea in the Teosofia 145
Essere per sè manifesto. Manifestato and manifestante 147
Objective Mode (or Form) of Being: Absolute and Relative Existence 151
Absolute and Relative Existence of Ideas and Ideal Being 153
Intelligibility is an Attribute of Being itself 160
The Intimate Bond between the Idea and the Intelligence 166
Note I: Objective Being and Plato's Parmenides 173
Note II: Self-contradictory objects 175
Chapter 5: The Idea and the Dignity of the Person 187
Initial Being and the Place of Intelligences in the Whole of Being 187
Initial being and the lumen intellectuale 192
The Divine in Nature 194
Individuality and Immortality 200
The Intelligent Will 202
Objective Being and Ethics 203
The Ultimate Root of Personal Dignity 211
Conclusion 223
Appendix: Rosmini's own Account of the Problem of Knowledge 227
The Importance of the Criticism of Reid 233
Bibliography 243