Struttura e genesi del pensiero di Richard Avenarius

Abstract

The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is composed by four chapters and reconstructs the philosophical system build by Avenarius in his main works – Die Kritik der reinen Erfahrung and Der Menschliche Weltbegriff – focusing on the topic of language and its role. Moving on from the “naive” perspective, consisting in the mere look around, Avenarius describes the relationships among the main contents of each experience: me, surroundings and other men. A further analysis of these relationships leads to Avenarius' theory of psychophysical connection, seen as the dependence of other men's assertions on their brain. Once stated how the psychic contents depend on the cerebral activity, Avenarius can move his attention to two related problems: the development of knowledge in general and the development of that knowledge whose object is the totality of the existence, the world. This path leads Avenarius to reconstruct the evolution of human thought and the history of philosophy, identifying their basis with the psychophysical mechanisms of brain adaptation to environment. The second part of the thesis traces Avenarius' philosophy back to its origin. I analyse his early works, as well as his unpublished manuscripts held in his Nachlass, with the aim to show both the influence of Heymann Steinthal on Avenarius' early conceptions and the evolution of these conceptions during the years.