| Philosopher, b. at Tropea, in Calabria, 2 April, 1770; d. at Naples, 13 Dec., 1846, where from 1831 he was a professor in the university. His principal works are "Saggio filosofico sulla critica della conoscenza umana", 4 vols; "Lettere sulle vicende della filosofia da Cartesio a Kant"; "Elementi di Filosofica"; "Lezioni di Logica e Metafisica"; "Filosofia della volontà"; "Considerazioni filosofiche sull' idealismo trascendentale". Of his "Storia della Filisofia" he completed only the first volume. His philosophy is a mixture of assent to and dissent from Descartes, the French and English sensists, Kant, and the Scottish school of Reid. Cartesianism tempered by the modifications introduced into it by Leibniz, Wolf, and Genovesi, was the system in which Galluppi's mind was trained. The problem of human knowledge was his chief preoccupation. He maintained the objective reality of our knowledge, which he based on the testimony of consciousness, making us aware not only of our internal experience, but also of the external causes to which it is due. This theory was aimed at Kant, though Galluppi agreed with him that space and time are a priori forms in the mind. Against the sensists, he denied that the mind was merely passive or receptive, and held that like a builder it arranged and ordered the materials supplied it, deducing therefrom new truths which sensation alone could never reach. He threw no light, however, on the difference between sensory and intellectual knowledge. This was the great weakness of his argument against the Scottish school, that the soul perceives not only its own affections or the qualities of bodies, but also its own substance and that of things outside itself. It was also natural that Galluppi should be foremost in attacking the theories of Rosemini concerning the idea of God as the first object of our knowledge: and it was this polemic (quiet enough in itself) which drew public attention to the Roveretan philosopher. |