CELESIA, PAOLO. - Biologist and thinker, b. in Genoa on 3 April 1876, d. in Rome on 12 June 1916. Having graduated in natural sciences, he founded and directed for five years (1899-1903) the Rivista di scienze biologiche, with a positivist orientation. A spiritual crisis led him back in 1902 to the faith in which he had been educated, whose rational foundation he wished to know through an in-depth study of St. Thomas and of the best-known exponents of Catholic thought.
C. was a convinced finalist, and since the strongest opponent of final causes in the architecture of the universe was Kant, his greatest concern was to refute his conclusions, after having thoroughly examined his doctrine. In 1913 he translated E. Kant's work of 1763, Der einzig mögliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseins Gottes, the first Italian translation, which remained unpublished until 1923; while, from 1910 to 1914, in various observations and notes on the Kantian critique of theological judgment, he combated whatever in Kantianism is contrary to the fundamental positions of Christian spiritualism.
And since the true difficulty of the theological proof consists, not in the credibility of the supernatural ends that justify the objective reality of natural ends, but in demonstrating their correctness case by case, especially in the face of the existence of imperfection and evil, C. confronts the problem and resolves it by affirming the subordination of the lower element to the higher, of the non-living to the living, of the plant to the animal, of the animal to man, of the carnal man to the spiritual man, who alone in eternal beatitude fully attain their end. This argument is treated by C. in the volume Dalla natura a Dio, attraverso il sacrificio, resulting from various notes composed between 1906 and 1916. For him sacrifice is the general norm of cosmic life, and nature appears as a chaos if the law of sacrifice does not irradiate it.
The last volume of philosophical subject matter is directed at demonstrating God as the source of the moral law and therefore as the supreme dispenser of rewards and punishments to men, according to their moral conduct, imputable to them insofar as they are endowed with free will. None of the best-known and most effective objections against free will is neglected: God's foreknowledge, the various cases of psychic inhibition, scientific determinism, supernatural Grace.
C. left thousands of unpublished pages. This material, entrusted for coordination and publication to Prof. F. Raffaele for the philosophical series and to N. Turchi for the scientific series, was published in Rome. To the scientific series belong: Studi biologici (1923), already published by C. himself in scientific journals; Appunti di cosmografia e astronomia (1927), edited by F. Porro; Nuovi studi biologici (2 vols., 1932-33). To the philosophical series belong: La teologia, concetto e valore (1923); Biologia e finalismo (1924); Saggi di filosofia finalistica (2 vols., 1925-27); Dalla natura a Dio, attraverso il sacrificio (1927); Studi bautiani (1923), the fifth of the series but the first by date of publication; Appunti per una storia delle cause finali nella filosofia moderna (1926); Libertà e determinismo (1930).
Bibliography3 works
Nicola Turchi