Chapter Riccardo Del Punta: un illuminista radicale

Abstract

The essay starts from some of Riccardo Del Punta's writings to show how , in its author's view, he was a "radical Enlightenment thinker,” torn between passion and doubt. The passion that nourished all of Del Punta's work was his humanistic passion for a classically radical liberalism, one that places at its center values that embody modern citizenship and egalitarianism: individual freedom, secularism, democratic politics, freedoms of thought and the press. These values are continuously crossed by doubt, which is cultivated as a choice of method, in an anti-ideological function. But they are also to be unyieldingly defended when under attack, as good ideals in themselves, not bound to a particular era (modernity) or cultural identity (the Western one). In that lies the “inflexible meekness” of our unforgettable friend and colleague.