norberto bobbio (1909–2004) short guide to great work_ bovero

8/12/2019 Norberto Bobbio (19092004) short guide to great work_ Bovero

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Ratio Juris. Vol. 18 No. 2 June 2005 (27184)

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden 02148, USA. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden 02148, USA.

Norberto Bobbio (19092004).

A Short Guide to a Great Work

MICHELANGELO BOVERO*

Bobbio was always alien to rhetoric, and always shunned it. Most of all,he considered talk about himself in any rhetoric manner to be disagreeable.I would not want to do him wrong. For this reason, I have chosen anapproach that seemed to me less celebrative than others: My aim here is notto propose a reflection on Bobbios thought but rather a brief guide to theexploration of his work, even though I realize that such an attempt is at least

hasty.

1.

The two most complete volumes on Bobbio are both in Spanish, and eachof them focuses only on one of the two realms of knowledge that Bobbiomost frequently dealt with. Together, the two booksthe one by AlfonsoRuiz Miguel (1983) on legal thought and the other by Andrea Greppi (1998)on political thoughtamount to more than 800 pages. However, no space

was allocated in either book for many aspects of Bobbios work, if not ashints and marginal references. There is no wonder why.

The oeuvre of Bobbio is difficult to grasp in terms of quantity or quality.There are 4,466 titles listed in the online bibliography of his writings(www.erasmo.it/bobbio), edited by the Piero Gobetti Research Centre in Turinand updated at the end of 2004.1 The same website also hosts a section ofsecondary bibliography that is equally impressive and in continuousgrowth.

In order to grasp the vast range of Bobbios work, the qualitative aspect

is nonetheless important. I refer to the extraordinary variety of scientific

* Trans. P. Mindus1 The site also offers comprehensive bibliographical data concerning all translations made untiltoday. Besides the website, see also the most recent paper edition (Violi 1995).


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realms of knowledge that Bobbio addressed, and in some cases introduced.In 1984, in the preface to the first edition of his bibliography (Bobbio 1984a,134; 1996a, 8193), he wrote with typical understatement:

anyone who glances at the succession of titles [. . .] is at a loss and wonders whereand if there is a thread running through it. I immediately warn the reader that thereis probably no such file rouge. I, myself, have never intentionally searched for one.These writings are pieces of several outlines that cannot be recomposed into a schemewith a single outline, and each of them is unfinished. (Bobbio 1996a, 85)

Some years later, in 1997, in his answer to Luigi Ferrajoli who notified himof the decision of Camerino University to award him a laurea honoris causa(altogether he was awarded nine of them), he admonished his colleagues

from Camerino for exaggerating a bit in the motivation in which he wasdescribed as the most illustrious and influential Italian intellectual in thesecond half of the twentieth century and he shielded himself by saying: Idid enter a lot of paths but I never followed one up.2 A lot of paths thatcross each other at several points forming a maze in which, indeed, it is easyto be at a loss.

Bobbio recurrently used the metaphor of a labyrinth to illustrate his con-ception of the world and history, but, as we have seen, he also suggestedthe image of a labyrinth as far as his own work was concerned. Using one

of his characteristic variations on the theme in an autobiographical note(Bobbio 1996a, 163; also in Bobbio 2001), he compared his bibliography injest to a bazaar in which everything can be found, in disarray. Bobbiosreaders know that his thoughtI mean his way of reasoning and analysingany issueis, on the contrary, rigorously ordered. Even a labyrinth, nomatter how complicated it might be, is consciously designed and set out. Inorder to see the design of the bazaar and therefore imagine the shape of thelabyrinth and the method guiding Bobbios thought, I would suggest asystem of intertwined bifurcations, in which every rectilinear segment ends

up in a new split, which in turn is the appendage of a previous dilemma.The result would be a tree structure with ramifications forming a densenetwork of dichotomies.

Bobbios thought is primarily based on dichotomies. It develops accord-ing to a binary logic, just like the thought of Hobbes, the classical philoso-pher from whom Bobbio drew his main inspiration as far as method or, ifone prefers, philosophical style is concerned. The dichotomies to be foundin the works of Bobbio are boundless. Just to make some examples amongthe most well known: society and state, politics and morals, public and

private, liberty and equality, democracy and autocracy, reform andrevolution, peace and war, and so on. These are some of the most com-prehensive conceptual pairs, useful to guide the reader in the overall struc-

272 Michelangelo Bovero

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.

2 These passages from Bobbios letter were quoted by Luigi Ferrajoli (1999a, 5) in the laudatio.


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ture of that objective labyrinth which corresponds, according to Bobbio, to thereality of human beings or, in other words, to the world of practical expe-rience as he also used to call it. Among the most important pairs, there is

onelaw and powerparticularly suitable for an initial outline ofBobbios work, i.e., the subjective labyrinth, which is a reflection of the objec-tive one. Among several considerations made by Bobbio, I choose one from19993:

I always considered the sphere of law and the sphere of politics like the two sidesof a coin, just to use a metaphor familiar to me. The world of rules and the world ofpower. Power creates the rules, and the rules transforms factual power into legalpower.

The expression is severely reductive, but it suggests the idea of two adjacentuniverses. They are apparently so as they are really interconnected or over-lapping. Yet they remain distinct and analytically distinguishable, just likethe head and tail of a coin. These two universes were the object of the twomain subjectsphilosophy of law and political philosophythat Bobbiotaught for almost 50 years.4 And Bobbio forged his thought almost exclu-sively in academic teaching.

2.

Bobbio always used the word philosophy carefully, at least from the endof the 1940s, at the time when he returned to the place where he was bornand where he had graduated, Turin (he began teaching in Camerino, andlater moved to Siena and Padua). His opposition between the philosophersphilosophy of law and legal scholars philosophy of law, as an ironic cri-tique of the latter, is well known (Bobbio 1965a, 43ff.). Less renowned isperhaps his distancing from a certain interpretation of political philosophy,dominant in the last decades, that has it to be a Rawlsian normative phi-

losophy of justice (Bobbio 1998a, 10). What is certain though is that he pre-ferred his teachings not to go by the name of philosophy but rather theory,and more specifically general theory.

Since he considered law and politics as the two sides of a coin, he alsoconceived philosophy of law and political philosophyboth understood asgeneral theoriesto be related and contiguous fields of study (I repeat, notseparated, but rather linked like the sides of a coin). In 1998, Bobbio summedup his thought from a retrospective viewpoint:

Norberto Bobbio (19092004) 273


3 I extract this passage from the unpublished letter from Bobbio to the dean and the colleaguesat the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Turin, written on 17 October 1999.4 Bobbio taught Philosophy of Law from the beginning of his career in 1935 until 1972; from1972 until 1979 he went over to Political Philosophy. But it should not be forgotten that, for adecade, he also held a chair in Political Science. The most well-known indication for hisinterest in this subject is Bobbio 1996b.


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what the two theories have in common in my writings [. . .] is not only the aim (exclu-sively cognitive, and not prescriptive), but also the way to proceed towards it. Toproceed [by] reconstruction, through linguistic analysis never separated from his-torical references to classical authors and fundamental categories, makes it possible

to delimit the legal and political fields of study, to order them inside and to estab-lish their interconnections. (Bobbio 1998a, 9)

Needless to say these short statements are, once again, reductive.First of all, the expression general theory has a general (my apologies

for the repetition) and a specific meaning in Bobbios writings. Strictlyspeaking, general theory of law (or formal theory of law, or more simplytheory of law) designates only one of the four ways of studying and teach-ing philosophy of law, that Bobbio classified in different writings with slight

changes. His general theory of law consisted of elaborating and determin-ing the concept of law and all the general notions related to it. He thusdivided the theory of law into: a) theory of justice, that is, the considerationof what values should or do underpin the legal system; b) legal sociology,that is, the study of law as a historical and social phenomenon and there-fore the study of problems regarding the relation between law and society;c) methodology or theory of legal science, which includes studies on thelogic of normative propositions and legal argumentation.

Similarly, for Bobbio the general theory of politics specifically meant

one of the four ways of understanding the nature and tasks of political phi-losophy: the way that aims to determine the concept of politics and funda-mental concepts thereby implied. Hence he divided the general theory ofpolitics into: a) the normative theory of the best state, like the one elaboratedby utopians; b) studies on the foundation of power and on the issues relatedto legitimacy and political obligation; and c) studies on the method of politi-cal science and those concerning the analysis of political language. Some-times, the expression general theory of politics occurs in a wider sense,indicating a comprehensive idea of the political universe and its problems

that embraces the other fields of study outlined as well as by classifying theprimary and more or less traditional kinds of political philosophy. In thelatter sense, for instance, Bobbio labels as general theories of politicsthe work of great classical authors, where political problems are confrontedin such a way that their complexity and interrelation are emphasisedthrough the elaboration of broad conceptual models.

The understanding of the role of political philosophy that Bobbio prefersand holds to be the most useful (1999b, 38), as he often repeated, is theanalysis of Grundbegriffe, which is characteristic of the general theory of

politics in its specific meaning. In Bobbios writings, this analysis appearsto be not so much a limited field of study alongside others, but rather anopen perspective in which all the great problems of the political world aretaken into account and dealt with in a particular way (Bovero 1999, xx-iii).For example, suffice it to mention the way Bobbio took part, as an intellectuel




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engag, in the (roughly speaking) ideological debate that in the 1950sengaged communist thinkers on the problem of freedom. By means of con-ceptual elucidation aiming mainly at theoretical knowledge, he also pursued

practical recommendations by breaking down prejudices, resolving misun-derstandings, and overcoming strong opposition.At least as a heuristic expedient, I suggest considering the general theory

of law as the key perspective from which Bobbio faced the major problemsof the legal universe. Besides, I do not think it is particularly difficultto include his metatheoretical and methodological studies in the largermeaning of the general theory of law, as well as his work on the relationbetween law and society. Likewise, the same style of conceptual analysis dis-tinguishes his studies on the theory of justice.

I should like to make another remark on the way Bobbio intended andpractised the profession of theorist. It is hard to distinguish betweenthe writings of Bobbio on theory and those on history (especially) ofpolitical and legal thought (but also of political and legal institutions). Onthe one hand, the purpose he states that he is to pursue in the writings con-cerned with the history of thought is to elaborate and systematise concep-tual models. The preface to his first collection of essays on classical authorsstates:

In studying the authors of the past I have never been particularly attracted by themirage of the so-called historical framework [. . .]: I have instead taken great inter-est in the explanation of fundamental issues, the clarification of concepts, the analy-sis of arguments, and the recomposing of systems. (Bobbio 1965b, 67)

On the other hand, in his theoretical work on fundamental concepts there isno lack of references to the history of philosophy. In some instances his workmay even have been constructed upon them. Suffice it to mention the bookLanalogia nella logica del diritto (1938), or Il positivismo giuridico (1979a), theessay collection Let dei diritti (1997a), or the volume La teoria delle forme digoverno (1976a). Finally, I add the fact that it makes little sense to try to dis-tinguish legal and political writings in Bobbios work when it comes to thethought of classical authors. Here, in fact, the coin is turned over and overcontinually. To say it with another metaphor, the two-sided world of prac-tical experience is viewed from both sides: power and norms.

3.

Bobbio never tried to project any real order on the myriad of his (morespecifically) legal writings, apart from some well-known essay collections Iwill mention later. Nor has anyone else really tried to reorder the bazaar,except in part Alfonso Ruiz Miguel (1990) and Riccardo Guastini (1995). Inmy initial, brief, and selective experiment (a hesitant one too, since I am not




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a legal scholar5), I will indicate three main directions or guidelines of explo-ration of the (subjective) labyrinth of Bobbios legal writings. These guide-lines are to be considered simply as topographical indicators and are

composed of a manifold of adjacent and often intersecting paths.The first direction concerns above all his studies in metatheory andtheory of legal science. We may certainly take the starting point to be theessay Scienza del diritto e analisi del linguaggio (1950a) that many consider tobe the foundation of the analytical theory of law in Italy. Subsequent tothis text, we find the lectures entitled Teoria della scienza giuridica (1950b);then, some other contributions on the same topic, including the essay Esseree dover essere nella scienza giuridica (1967; 1970b). The writings, collected inthe volume Giusnaturalismo e positivismo giuridico (1965), are mostly of a

metatheoretical as well as a historical character. In this direction, eventhough as a well defined and distinct tangent, I would list the studies ondeontic logic: the essay La logica giuridica di Eduardo Garcia Maynez (1954) inwhich Bobbio distinguishes between norms and propositions on norms, andbetween logic of law and of jurisprudence, partially anticipating Kelsen,Alchourrn, and von Wright; and the essay Diritto e logica (1962). A parallelroute includes the studies on legal reasoning and argumentation, startingwith the 1938 book, already mentioned, on analogy. Last but not least, Ishould recall the propaedeutical studies, among which I would mention the

lectures from the 1940s: Lezioni di filosofia del diritto (1941; 1945) and theIntro-duzione alla filosofia del diritto (1948).

The second direction explores, strictly speaking, the general theory oflaw or formal theory of law as Bobbio preferred to call it. Here, we face animpressive number of essays, articles, and encyclopedia entries. Most of themhave been published in different collections: Studi sulla teoria generale del diritto(1955); Studi per una teoria generale del diritto (1970a); Dalla struttura alla fun-zione. Nuovi studi di teoria del diritto (1977a), and the aforementioned Contributiad un dizionario giuridico (Guastini 1995). These studies address almost all the

topics and issues of contemporary legal thought, starting with the determi-nation of the concept of law: the notion of norms, their typology, general prin-ciples of law, customary law, validity, antinomies and breaches in law, sanc-tion, and obviously the concept of legal system. Bobbios work entitled Teoriagenerale del diritto (1993) collects the two series of academic lectures Teoria dellanorma giuridica (1958) and Teoria dellordinamento giuridico (1960). On variousoccasions Bobbio acknowledged his debt towards Kelsens theory of law.However, experts have stressed that the identifying features of Bobbios the-oretical schemenotably the norm theory and the problem of antinomies and

breaches in law, that regard the nature of the legal systemdo not originatefrom the Kelsenian system, but also represent a radical critique of it.



5 I am indebted to L. Ferrajoli (1999b), as well as to numerous Bobbian studies by RiccardoGuastini (e.g., 1996).


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The third and more remote guideline that I invite readers to consider con-cerns the theory of justice, viewed once again from the perspective (thatBobbio preferred) of conceptual analysis. Chiefly, I point to the article Sulla

nozione di giustizia (1952); the lectures Teoria della giustizia (1953); the prefaceto the Italian translation of Cham Perelmans De la justice (Bobbio 1959);and, finally, the essay entitled in the same way as the first one, Sulla nozionedi giustizia, which appeared in the first issue of the journal Teoria politica(1985a). Finally, another fact ought to be recalled. Almost all of Bobbioswritings on the political problem of equality, first and foremost the homony-mous entry in Enciclopedia del Novecento (1977b) include detailed analyses ofthe specifically legal dimensions of the concept of justice. At this point itseems compelling to turn to political theory.

4.

Guastini holds that Bobbio never felt like giving a systematic shape to hiscontributions on the general theory of law. On the contrary, many explicitmentions to the project of composing a General Theory of Politics can be foundin the last 30 years of Bobbios work. Such a General Theory would be a broadsystematic study based on what Bobbio called the recurrent topics in the

history of political thought from ancient Greece to nowadays. The workwould have been an ordered treatise of fundamental political concepts, ableto provide a general representation of the universe of politics, almost amap, even though obviously entangled, and at the same time a compassfor orientation in the complexity of the real labyrinth, the world of practicalexperience. Not only did Bobbio never finish this project but he did not,properly speaking, even start it (except for two or three sketches, composedas contributions to collections with various authors). Towards the end of1996, I asked him to let me try to implement this project, by gathering and

reorganising in a systematic order about 40 essays, mostly chosen amongthe least well known (but these are not at all minor writings). Hence, theTeoria generale della politica (1999a) took shape and was published by Einaudion Bobbios ninetieth birthday, 18 October 1999.

The guidelines I suggest concerning the political side of the Bobbianlabyrinth (which I have reconstructed so as to be able to offer a more preciseaccount of the comprehensive framework) amount to six, correspondingto the six parts of the volume Teoria generale della politica (from now onTGP). But each of these guidelines is twofold, structured along paths

that meet at various points. In order to illustrate the directions (whichare still simple topographical indicators, nothing more than an invitationto read, or read in an orderly fashion), I will refer not only and not evenprevalently to the essays in TGP, but to some of Bobbios best knownbooks.




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The first guideline, entitled political philosophy and lessons of classicalauthors in TGP does not directly concern politics. Rather it examines thedifferent possible ways to consider politics, on the one hand, and on the

other, the characteristic way Bobbio analyses politics through the study andcomparison of classical authors. On the one hand, I refer to four short essaysabout metatheory that were almost entirely recomposed in TGP. On theother, we are dealing with the ingens silva of studies in the history of politi-cal thought, or rather in the history of political and legal thought, as it wouldbe pointless to separate these domains. Among these studies, I would espe-cially like to recall the essay collection Thomas Hobbes (1989a; 1993c) since itfocuses on the political thinker that Bobbio most admired. But the philoso-phers Bobbio holds to be classics are quite a few, not only the 10 mentioned

in the preface to the first edition of his bibliography.6

I would claim theyinclude most of the great and less famous political thinkers in Western civil-isation. Among the least well known essays included in TGP, I would liketo refer to the 1981 essay Max Weber, il potere e i classici (1999c) and to the1983 essay entitledMarx, lo stato e i classici (1999d; 1987c).

The second guideline, entitled politics, morals, law, is directly con-cerned with the problems, on the one hand, of determining the concept ofpolitics and on the other, the dimensions of the world of practical experi-ence. As far as the first problem is concerned, the lengthy entry on the state

stands out. It was written for the Enciclopedia Einaudi and conceived byBobbio as a sketch for a general theory of politics, then republished togetherwith other entries from the same encyclopedia (Bobbio 1980). Apart fromthese, emphasis should be laid on the essays concerning the model ofnatural law, especially the longer essay included (with an essay by M.Bovero) in Societ e stato nella filosofia politica moderna (Bobbio and Bovero1979). And among the essays that the TGP contains attention should also begiven to the 1987 essay, La politica, since it is a sort of general theory innuce too (1999e). As far as the second problem is concerned, another bifur-

cation emerges. On the one hand, we recall the studies on the relationbetween ethics and politics, including the essay with the same title in TGPand furthermore, the writings on similar issues in the sublime pamphletentitled Elogio della mitezza (1998b; 2000b). On the other hand, we find thestudies on the relation between politics and law. Among these, the essay Dalpotere al diritto e viceversa (included in the TGP) stands out (1999f), eventhough Bobbio first wrote it in 1981 when he was awarded the Prix Europende lEssaiby the Charles Veillon Foundation. In this essay, the metaphor of thetwo sides of the coin first appears.



6 The 10 classical authors listed by Bobbio are: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel,Cattaneo, Croce, Pareto, Weber e Kelsen. Bobbio focused on each of them in numerous essays.At least the systematical essays on Locke (Bobbio 1963) and Kant (Bobbio 1969) ought to bementioned along with the essay collections on Hegel (Bobbio 1981) and Kelsen (Bobbio 1992).


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The third guideline deals with the topic of values and ideologies. Itaddresses the three highest principles of liberty, equality, and justice, withtheir ambiguity and different interpretations. At the same time, it focuses on

the idealistic movements and currents that set forth and supported theseprinciples. As far as the first aspect is concerned, I would mention the bookEguaglianza e libert (1995a) that includes two lengthy encyclopedia entrieswritten some years before. However, I would also like to refer to the famousessay La libert dei moderni comparata a quella dei posteri, written in 1954 as acontribution to the discussion with communist intellectuals, and subse-quently included in Politica e cultura (2005). As far as the second aspect isconcerned, I would like to indicate the well received little book entitledQuale socialismo? (1976b; 1987a) and the essay Liberalismo e democrazia, ini-

tially conceived as a part in a collection with various authors, but finallypublished on its own (1985b; 1990b). In this connection, I cannot neglect thenumerous essays on liberal socialism. The last one in this sequence, pub-lished in 1994, is to be found in TGP. The theoretical (and not only histori-cal) essays on fascism and on the ideology of the Resistenzamost of themare collected in Dal fascismo alla democrazia (1997b)belongs to this set ofbooks as well.

The fourth guideline concerns the theory of governmental forms, anissue that Bobbio lectured on over a two-year period. With minor changes

the lectures were published, as we have already mentioned, in 1976.Together with these lectures, we might also list the theory of democracy,as if it was not the same issue but more of a deviation, or a kind of furrow.More than any other, this is indeed the topic to which the fame of Bobbioswork is connected. The specific topic of democracy is considered from atwofold viewpoint: the technical and the principled perspective. It would betoo obvious here to mention the essay collection entitled Il futuro dellademocrazia (1995b; 1987b). But it should not be forgotten that Bobbio wroteextensively on democracy, its principles, and procedures. TGP includes two

previously unpublished essays, written respectively in 1986 and 1987, aboutBobbios definition of democracy as public government in public and theconnection between democratic ideology and the procedural universals,i.e., the rules of the game.

The fifth guideline examines the issues peace and human rights. ForBobbio, these intersecting issues form the triad of his ideals, along withdemocracy. On the one hand, the best known contributions are collected inthe volume Let dei diritti (1997a; 1996c). But I would also like to recall anessay published in 1963, included in TGP, which analyses the Universal Dec-

laration of Human Rights. However, the major emphasis should be laid on thebook entitledIl problema della guerra e le vie della pace (1979b), republished invarious editions with slight changes. In this book, the labyrinth metaphorappears for the first time. No less significant is the essay collection Il terzoassente (1989b).




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The sixth guideline brings to an end the overall exploration. It focuses onthe issue political changes and philosophy of history, considering also theantithesis between reform and revolution that was the focal point of

Bobbios lectures, still unpublished, of his last academic year, as well as acertain number of essays, some collected in TGP, as, for example, Cattaneo ele riforme from 1974 (1999g). This guideline also includes the pondering uponthe sense of human action, the problem of evil, the tragedy of communism,revisionism in history, the gap between moral and scientific progress. Theseconsiderations are to be found in a large number of writings, some of themincluded in TGP.

I find it tempting to add a seventh guideline that I did not account for inthe TGP plan, concerning history, cultural critique and the relations between

culture and politics. This guideline is twofold as well. On the one hand, Iwould list the theoretical essays on the problem of intellectuals and theirrelation to power. Almost all of these were put together in the volume Ildubbio e la scelta (1993b), but some are included in the aforementioned Politi-ca e cultura. On the other hand, I would mention the four collections of in-tellectual portraits, besides the several times republished (with slightvariations) Profilo ideologico del Novecento (1990a; 1995c). The four collectionsare: Italia civile (1986a), Maestri e compagni (1984b), Italia fedele, il mondo diGobetti (1986b), and finally La mia Italia (2000a). Along with these writings I

would also list the autobiographical pieces collected in De senectute (1996a;2001), and obviouslyAutobiografia (1997c, 2002), even though, as an extremeparadox, Bobbio did not write it.

5.

To explore a labyrinth so complex as the one emerging from Bobbios workeasily provokes dismay. It may lead to bewilderment. Yet all Bobbiosreaders know that his way of analysing and dealing with problems usually

produces the opposite effect: a sense of confident orientation in a neat anddefinite horizon. I would claim that Bobbios work consisted, metaphori-cally, in crafting crystal-clear lenses through which to observe a world ofcomplexity, and take action in it, the first aim being to dissipate misunder-standings and dispel confusion. Bobbio was a tireless builder of conceptualmodels for the analysis, comprehension, and evaluation of human life. Hisanalysis is always free from prejudice and often disenchanted, and his judg-ments are mostly severe. His realism, or rather, his pessimism has becomealmost proverbial. Perhaps too much so, because the stereotyped image of

Bobbios pessimism tends to obscure, or to leave at a secondary level, thenormative and projecting dimension of his thought, the ideal thrust of hiswork. In an attempt to give an outline description, I would claim that Bobbiois certainly a realist. Yet, without inconsistency, he is an idealist too, obvi-




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ously not in a metaphysical sense, but rather in the meaning of a builder ofnormative guidelines, with an ideal orientation towards a more civilisedand human world (in his words). But as he believes that aspiration towards

a better world should necessarily ground itself in the rational and objectiveanalysis of harsh reality, Bobbio is surely, first and foremost, a realist, thatis, a disillusioned observer of human action. However, he stops at thepessimistic diagnosis and the impropitious prognosis of the evils afflictingthe world. He continuously advocates a reflection on the possible therapiesof the constant ills of political life, a reflection guided by a triad of ideals,similar to three polar stars: peace, democracy, and human rights.

Human rights, democracy, and peace are the three essential componentsof the same historic movement, as he wrote in October 1990 in the intro-

duction to The Age of Rights (1996c, vii). The nature of this necessary relation trois was illustrated by him on several occasions with a dense web of argu-ments. I will try to sum them up in an essential scheme: Without funda-mental rights that are universally recognised and protected, democracyturns into a void illusion and peace into a deceitful disguise of the rule ofthe strongest, which is always exposed to the perhaps even violent rebellionof those who are not treated as persons. Without democracy, the minimumconditions for peaceful resolution of political and social conflicts crumbleand fundamental rights remain at the mercy of arbitrary powers. Without

peace, in conditions of actual or potential war, fundamental rights may besuspended, abolished, or easily violated, and democracy stiffened or falsi-fied by demagogical thrust.

During the Balkan War, on 15 May 1999, Bobbio sent a message to theteam, at the Fiera del libro in Turin, who were designing the website abouthis work. Among other things this message states:

As an inveterate intellectual, I have always been more an observer than a man ofaction. Even in these days in which our tragic century is coming to a tragic end, I donot have the illusion that the next century will be happier. In spite of preachingagainst war and violence, man has so far not found any cure for violence other thanviolence. We are now seeing a war justified by the protection of human rights, butthese rights are defended by systematic infringement of the most elementary rightsof the people that the war intends to save.

The life and work of Bobbio coincided almost exactly with the course of thetragic twentieth century. When his correspondence, which amounts to about30,000 letters, is published, an impressive quantity of images of this tragiccentury will emerge from it. I would saylowering my voice even though

he no longer hears methat the significance and value of Bobbios workgoes well beyond the century which he lived almost entirely and quite inten-sively, just like the work of those classic authors he never stopped recom-mending us to study.




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University of TurinFaculty of Political Science

Department of Political Studies

Via Giolitti, 33TorinoItaly

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Bobbio, Norberto. 1948.Introduzione alla filosofia del diritto. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1950a. Scienza del diritto e analisi del linguaggio. Rivista trime-

strale di diritto e procedura civile 4: 34267.Bobbio, Norberto. 1950b. Teoria della scienza giuridica. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1952. Sulla nozione di giustizia.Archivio giuridico 142: 1633.Bobbio, Norberto. 1953. Teoria della giustizia. Turin: Arti grafiche P. Castello.Bobbio, Norberto. 1954. La logica giuridica di Eduardo Garcia Maynez. Rivista inter-

nazionale di filosofia del diritto 31: 64469.Bobbio, Norberto. 1955. Studi sulla teoria generale del diritto. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1958. Teoria della norma giuridica. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1959. Prefazione. In Cham Perelman, La giustizia. Turin:

Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1960. Teoria dellordinamento giuridico. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1962. Diritto e logica. Rivista internazionale di filosofia del diritto 39:

1144.Bobbio, Norberto. 1963. Locke e il diritto naturale. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1965a. Giusnaturalismo e positivismo giuridico. Milan: Comunit.Bobbio, Norberto. 1965b. Da Hobbes a Marx. Naples: Morano.Bobbio, Norberto. 1967. Essere e dover essere nella scienza giuridica. Rivista di filosofia

58: 23562.Bobbio, Norberto. 1969. Diritto e Stato nel pensiero di Emanuele Kant. Turin:

Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1970a. Studi per una teoria generale del diritto. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1970b. Sein and Sollen in Legal Science. Archiv fr Rechts- und

Sozialphilosophie 56: 729.Bobbio, Norberto. 1976a. La teoria delle forme di governo. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1976b. Quale socialismo? Turin: Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1977a. Dalla struttura alla funzione. Nuovi studi di teoria del diritto.

Milan: Comunit.Bobbio, Norberto. 1977b. Eguaglianza. In Enciclopedia del Novecento. Vol. 2, 35564.

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Bobbio, Norberto. 1979b.Il problema della guerra e le vie della pace. Bologna: Il Mulino.Bobbio, Norberto. 1980. Stato, governo, societ. Turin: Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1981. Studi hegeliani. Turin: Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1984a. Prefazione. In Norberto Bobbio: 50 anni di studi. Bibliografia

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Bobbio, Norberto. 1987a. Which Socialism? Marxism, Socialism, and Democracy. Trans.R. Bellamy and R. Griffin. Cambridge: Polity.

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Bobbio, Norberto. 1989a. Thomas Hobbes. Turin: Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1989b.Il terzo assente. Turin: Sonda.Bobbio, Norberto. 1990a. Profilo ideologico del Novecento. Milan: Garzanti.Bobbio, Norberto. 1990b. Liberalism and Democracy. Trans. M. Ryle and K. Soper.

London: Verso.Bobbio, Norberto. 1992. Diritto e potere. Saggi su Kelsen. Naples: ESI.Bobbio, Norberto. 1993a. Teoria generale del diritto. Turin: Giappichelli.Bobbio, Norberto. 1993b.Il dubbio e la scelta. Rome: La Nuova Italia Scientifica.Bobbio, Norberto. 1993c. Thomas Hobbes and the Natural Law Tradition. Trans. D.

Gobetti. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Bobbio, Norberto. 1995a. Eguaglianza e libert. Turin: Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1995b.Il futuro della democrazia. Turin: Einaudi. (1st ed. 1984.)Bobbio, Norberto. 1995c. Ideological Profile of the Twentieth-Century Italy. Trans. L. G.

Cochrane. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Bobbio, Norberto. 1996a. De senectute. Turin: Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1996b. Saggi sulla scienza politica in Italia. Revised ed. Rome:

Laterza. (1st ed. 1969.)Bobbio, Norberto. 1996c. The Age of Rights. Trans. A. Cameron. Cambridge: Polity.Bobbio, Norberto. 1997a. Let dei diritti. Rev. ed. Turin: Einaudi. (1st ed. 1990.)Bobbio, Norberto. 1997b. Dal fascismo alla democrazia. Milan: Baldini & Castoldi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1997c.Autobiografia. Rome: Laterza.Bobbio, Norberto. 1998a. Prologo. In Andrea Greppi, Teoria e ideologia en el pensamiento

politico de Norberto Bobbio. Madrid: Marcial Pons.Bobbio, Norberto. 1998b. Elogio della mitezza. Milan: Nuova Pratiche. (1st ed. 1993.)Bobbio, Norberto. 1999a. Teoria generale della politica. Ed. Michelangelo Bovero. Turin:

Einaudi.Bobbio, Norberto. 1999b. Ragioni della filosofia politica. In Norberto Bobbio, Teoriagenerale della politica. Ed. M. Bovero. Turin: Einaudi. (1st ed. 1990.)

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Laterza.



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