The intellectual sources of Nicola Zammit's 'Pensieri d'un Retrogrado'

Abstract

The philosophical contribution of Nicola Zammit has barely been considered in local philosophical circles. Still, it deserves some recognition. Even though it may lack the acumen and depth of other British and Continental philosophers of his time, he is nevertheless interesting being the work of a major Maltese intellectual of his time. His work is a significant intellectual, social and historical document, besides containing interesting original features. It is interesting to note that though being a staunch supporter of the Catholic establishment of his time, Zammit was not a Thomist, even though Thomas Aquinas had almost been made the Church's official philosopher with the publication of Leo XIII's Aeterni Patris in 1879. In the following I will concentrate on the use Zammit made of different intellectual sources in his Pensieri D'un Retrogrado. His sources reflect both the perspectives, limits and vision of his contemporary Maltese and his particular philosophical approach. After giving an introduction featuring Zarnmit's life, context and intellectual contributions, the trajectory I will follow starts off in Chapter One with Zammit's fruitful use of the philosophers he was mostly sympathetic to, namely Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and Augustine, who turn out to be Zarnmit's major source. Subsequently, in Chapter 2 I will look at the thinkers whom Zammit confuted, that is Descartes, the British empiricists, the Enlightenment philosophers and Modem Socialism. This shall be followed with a discussion in, Chapter 3, of Zarnmit' s greatest foe, Charles Darwin. I shall end off by discussing the philosopher who is mostly conspicuous by his absence in Zammit' s work, namely Immanuel Kant.