La «Revue philosophique et religieuse» di Charles Lemonnier e i dilemmi dell’europeismo ottocentesco (parte seconda)

Abstract

This is the second part of the essay first published with same title in the previous issue of this revue. It focuses on the contribution by Moses Hess (one of the best known friends-rivals of Marx and Engels, before becoming the first promoter of Zionism) to the «Revue philosophique et réligieuse». The «Revue» was published between 1855 and 1858 on the initiative of a group of intellectuals of saint-simonian culture, among them Charles Lemonnier and Léon Brothier. The essay offers a comparison (while ascertaining a strong similarity, not without dissention as to sentiment) between the philosophical-religious conceptions of the two French writers and those of Hess. The first two asserted a dogma on a scientific basis, sort of faith in the laws of human and social progress. The later was engaged in a deep reflection about human condition that was inspired by immanentistic-naturalistic principles, among which: the universal gravitation and the existence within the infinite universe of a triadic, progressive evolution through the cosmic, organic and social phases.