The Use of the Future Tense in Contemporary Italian as a Tense of the Indicative Mood: A Problematic Classification

The future tense in Italian is a classic example of “modal tense”, since its temporal value is strictly linked to modal values (i.e., epistemic). The temporal use is still preserved, but it is threatened by the replacement with the present tense, at least with events that are determined and specified by temporal adverbs or expressions (i.e., domani [tomorrow]). This article discusses the problematic status of the future as a tense category and its classification under the indicative mood. A redefinition of this verbal tense and of its range of use is needed, given the frequency with which the present tense is replacing it. This paper aims at answering the following questions: What is the general tendency of the use of the future tense in Italian? When does it have a temporal function? Does it indicate events that have a determinate or indeterminate time reference? My work describes the future particularly as the tense of uncertainty and justifies this function with a cognitive perspective. According to the data, the selection of future would in fact conceptualise the uncertainty that speakers have towards events that are not chronologically determined. By giving quantitative references in my work, I monitor this aspect of the verbal system and eventually contribute to the definition of the future tense.

In the context of futurism: Friedrich Nietzsche’s time and “Historical Sickness” and their outcome in Giovanni Papini

Within Futurism, a critical concept is formed of the past, of history in general, and of the way in which history is lived in the present, along with its harmful consequences, as it becomes an excuse to avoid progress by constantly looking back at the past. this is an idea that is exemplified well by Giovanni Papini in his Discorso di Roma. Contro Roma e contro Benedetto Croce. However, the past and history as “sickness” had already been analysed by Friedrich Nietzsche in On the Use and Abuse of History for Life. In the early years of the 20th century, the German philosopher established his presence within Italian culture thanks to the authors of the literary journal Leonardo, and Papini in particular. these intellectuals not only wrote about Nietzsche in their magazine, but they also tried to make use of Nietzche’s thought. From a Futurist perspective, the connection between the two authors has to do primarily with the criticism of history and the past. However, the Röcken-born philosopher focuses on both the abuse and use of the historical past, while Papini carries this idea to extremes by stressing only the abuse that comes from it, therefore condemning it tout court. By doing this, the tuscan intellectual, shortly after adhering to Futurism, follows the guidelines imposed by the avant-garde movement and expresses the fiery magnitude of his thought, aimed at the destruction of the past in all its forms to make way for the long-denied future.

Opening education – intercultural and pro-environmental education for the future?

This article is aimed at presenting the main assumptions of the opening education in the context of the need to develop regional, intercultural and pro-environmental education. The reflections and diagnoses presented in the text draw on both the author’s research and teaching experience, as well as on a critical view of educational policy developed in Poland. The author asks if opening education can be used as a tool for the democratizing and ecologisation of knowledge, shaping an open society and social imagination. In the context of late capitalism, the dominant neoliberal rationality, the multiculturalism of the world, the climate and environmental crisis, an important aspect of the discussion is the diagnosis of the need to practice opening education to the future.