L’antropologia filosofica di Remo Cantoni: umanismo critico, “connessione orizzontale” e partecipazione

The paper proposes a critical reflection on Remo Cantoni’s philosophical thought, with particular regards to his anthropological point of view that addresses concepts such as “critical humanism” and “horizontal connection”. The strict relationship between anthropology and participation are his main topics on which he has made outstanding remarks in the second decade of XXth century in the Italian cultural panorama. Since his early works, Cantoni points out the need to develop a different way of analysing the pluridimensionality of human beings and widely debates contemporary European cultural context after the end of World War II. The paper tries to put in evidence how Cantoni’s anthropological thought originally tends to a knowledgical intentionality dimension which should be taken into account for ethnographic investigation. In order to apply his point view, he suggests to consider an epistemological approach which could connect all the social-scientific sciences through a “horizontal connection”, whose aim is to gain a vital relationship of culture with the existing variety and alterity.