Abstract

This article aims to show the ethical reflection wich is present in L.B. Alberti’s Momus. The essay also tries to identify its main characters. The model of the simulator, embodied by Momo, doesn’t respond to the ethical model theorized by Alberti. In the simulator some critics recognized the true meaning of the work. Howewer, this ethic model is expressly denied by Alberti. In a world always subjugated by fate, infact, a general ethical theory is simply ineffective. Now, analyzing the trends of the human soul, Leon Battista Alberti stressed that the impulse to the industriousness is always counterbalanced by the aspiration to escape from commitments. Then applying this dialectic to the figure of the prince, it’s possible read organically Alberti’s work. Momo’s ethic is a finite ethic, if one considers that just in the particularity and specificity of the situation the moral iniziative finds space. The virtuos man is capable of understanding the particularity of the situation. There are virtues of use and virtues of action: the first concern the goods of fortune, while the second primarily concern the man.