Abstract

During my first year of philosophy study at a German university I shared the prejudice of my colleagues that positivist texts are tedious if not boring, at least compared to Schopenhauer or Nietzsche, to Sartre or other French philosophers. Here is a book that shows the opposite and succeeds in keeping the esprit of an essay over 233 pages. Parrini’s use of the word ‘essay’ alludes to Hume’s Essays, more generally to the English tradition rather than to those contemporaries to whom philosophy is nothing but an essay. Unfortunately, Parrini pays an unnecessary high price for this form when the book’s only footnote informs us that “Reasons of expressive form after all have led me not to burden the text with the usual references to authors and works used. I apologize to the reader. ”1 The expert will easier accept this excuse and, perhaps, enjoy the unencumbered reading, although, as a matter of fact, some footnote-like hints to other authors or even Parrini’s own works are entirely useless without any reference. But, the omittance partly spoils one great merit of the book. As large parts of it are self-contained and Parrini succeeds in making most technical points quite transparent, the essay appears to me very readable for students. To him or her, hardly reading footnotes when going through it first, it becomes almost impossible to penetrate further into ‘positive philosophy’. It would have been much more profitable to the freshmen to supplement the book by a two-page bibliography containing the basic references. The English translation to appear soon will contain references and bibliography in the standard fashion. It is a pity, that unlike the Italian original only few students will be able to afford this fascinating book due to its high price