Lo spazio infinito come apertura al mondo. Unità della persona umana e metafisica in Rosmini

This article is aimed to deepen the crucial role of the infinite and pure space in Rosmini’s philosophical anthropology and metaphysics. After a brief sketch of some early modern eeflections on space, such as those of Newton, Locke, Leibniz, and Kant, the article analyses Rosmini’s thought in this regard. Rosmini is influenced by the early modern debates about the nature of space, but intends to go beyond empiricist and rationalist accounts. On the one hand, Rosmini accepts from Kant the idea of the necessity of space to fully understand human nature but, on the other, considers the infinite space as an Aristotelian form, not as a Kantian function of knowing. He establishes several similarities between properties characterising the “idea of being” and those of the “infinite and pure space”. First of all, both are infinite and have a peculiar ontological status. Second, as the former allows to make intellectually present (i.e. gives an ideal being to) every different being, so the infinite and pure space gives an extended nature to every real physical being. Furthermore, the idea of being is the term of the intellectual principle, while the infinite space is the term of the sentient principle, but these two principles constitute a synthetic unity, that is the rational principle (i.e. the human soul). The difference between the ideal being and pure space is crucial for Rosmini’s philosophical anthropology and is based on the metaphysical distinction between the ideal being and the real being. As a matter of fact, according to Rosmini, human being is a manifestation of the order of being, whereas ideal being, real being and moral being make an imperfect, but perfectible synthesis. In particular, the infinite space is the condition which allows to open every human being to the physical reality, while the ideal being allows to know the eternal truth and God.