In what was originally a lecture, the well-known German fundamental theologian Heinrich Fries looks at similarities between the general theological characteristics of Karl Rahner (a friend of Fries) and John Henry Newman (the object of Fries’s early books and lasting research). He offers first some contrasts but then notes similarities: theology as an investigation rather than a system, being a theologian concerned with the most basic aspects of faith, faith as a dynamic of subectivity rather than as a collection (...) of beliefs, a primacy of praxis over theory, theological efforts done at the time of an Ecumenical Council. To conclude there are questions addressed to Fries and Rahner (who was present at the original lecture). (shrink)

This paper argues for a dialectical reading of Wittgenstein ’ s grammatical reminders concerning the uses of the first person pronoun in The Blue Book. Against a widespread, ‘ non-referential ’ view which takes those reminders as direct attempts at blocking some substantial metaphysical results, the reading here proposed emphasizes their topic and therapeutic role as parts of an attempt to unveil the sources of some philosophical temptations, among them particularly that of solipsism, ultimately aiming to loosen its grip, as (...) opposed to repress or sublimate it. (shrink)