Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

REVIEWS / RECENSIONES 287Concludendo, possiamo, senza dubbio affermare che il testoesaminato ci offre un excursus complessivo delle virtù cristiane.Esso, scritto in maniera abbastanza scorrevole, può offrire un validoaiuto sia agli esperti di teologia, sia a coloro che, si avvicinavanoallo studio di queste problematiche. In quest’ultimo caso, risultaindispensabile una certa mediazione e chiarificazione dei contenutida parte degli “addetti ai lavori”. Apprezzabile può essere consideratala parte iniziale di ogni capitolo, nella quale sono stabilite gliobiettivi da conseguire. Questo permette al lettore di avere un certoapproccio schematico, suffragato anche dalla presenza di grafici pergli argomenti più importanti.ALFONSO AMARANTE, C.SS.RHart, Kevin, Postmodernism. A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford.Oneworld, 2004. x + 178 p.If students of philosophy and theology want to begin to understandwhat “postmodernism” means, they could not do better thanstart with this book. Those who have been reading on the topic forsome years, without ever being confident that they know what it isall about, will find Kevin Hart’s work most helpful. They will findhere an account of the work of the most important contributors, inthe fields of literature and philosophy and an historical and intellectualinterpretation of this complex phenomenon.Hart removes some misconceptions. One was that JacquesDerrida, a philosopher who was a key figure in the story of postmodernism,supported “free interpretation.” However, as the authorshows, this was not what Derrida proposed. What he meant wasthat all interpretation is constrained by having to negotiate betweenfoundation or ground and non-foundation or non-ground. It is not aquestion of “free” in the sense of arbitrary, interpretations, but of anopenness to rival interpretations.Hart finds below the surface, three theories which are postulatedby postmodernism: anti-essentialism, anti-realism, and anti-foundationalism.The first means that there is no universal humanessence: everything is historically formed and culturally conditioned.The second implies, in the field of ethics, that there are nonormative rules as to how we should live; the third, that there is nosecure “ground” beneath our knowledge.