Science and philosophy in the thirties (Q1315145)

The author discusses in the present study the development and achievement of both science and philosophy in the 3rd decade of our century, in Italy, mention being made of the main scientific and cultural manifestations organized in that period. Thus, mathematics is discussed versus its development in those years, brilliantly represented by Volterra, Levi-Civita, Scorza, Fermi and others. Also, the great names of Peano, Vailati, Enriques and Severi are mentioned. In the thirties, the cultural situation was new and different -- the continuous progress of science was felt enthusiastically by all those who were contributing to its advance, to the discovery and illumination of the rationality of science. One of the most important ideas of those times was the proclamation of a ``natural history'' of science, in an attempt of reconstructing the way in which Italy was formed, as based on continuity in all domains of activity. In this respect, in 1924, a school of the History of Science was founded, transformed, two years later, in The National Institute for the History of Science; also, in 1929, The First National Exhibition on the History of Science is opened in Florence. An important concern was to restore the spirit and the method to be applied.