Table of Contents
Introduction	1
Rosmini's Life	1
Towards an Ontological Foundation of Personhood	8
The Present Study	12
First Part: Epistemological Foundations
Chapter 1: The Nature of Knowledge	27
The Problem of Knowledge	27
Fundamental Difference between Sensation and Idea	33
Activity and Passivity in Sense Perception	36
The Subjective and the Extrasubjective in the Sensation	41
Sensation and Idea Compared	49
Chapter 2: Analysis of the Idea of the Thing. The Intellective Perception	65
The Judgment contained in the Idea of the Thing	66
The Idea of Existence	76
Characteristics of this Idea	77
Innatism of the Idea of Existence	80
The Idea and Sensation are Primitive Elements	85
The Idea as a Necessary Means of Knowledge	90
Second Part: Ontological Significance of the Idea
Chapter 3: Ideas and Reality	101
The Idea of Being, Pure Mediator of Knowledge	101
The Knowledge of Existing Reality through the Idea	108
Kant's a priori Synthesis and Rosmini's Primitive Synthesis	113
Kant, Innatism and the lumen intellectuale	119
The Idea is One Form of Being	125
Ideal Being is the Knowability of Real Being	129
Ideal Being is the Possibility of Things	131
Note on the Possibility and Necessity of Ideas	134
Chapter 4: The Idea and the Mind	145
The Book about the Idea in the Teosofia	145
Essere per sè manifesto. Manifestato and manifestante	147
Objective Mode (or Form) of Being: Absolute and Relative Existence	151
Absolute and Relative Existence of Ideas and Ideal Being	153
Intelligibility is an Attribute of Being itself	160
The Intimate Bond between the Idea and the Intelligence	166
Note I: Objective Being and Plato's Parmenides	173
Note II: Self-contradictory objects	175
Chapter 5: The Idea and the Dignity of the Person	187
Initial Being and the Place of Intelligences in the Whole of Being	187
Initial being and the lumen intellectuale	192
The Divine in Nature	194
Individuality and Immortality	200
The Intelligent Will	202
Objective Being and Ethics	203
The Ultimate Root of Personal Dignity	211
Conclusion	223
Appendix: Rosmini's own Account of the Problem of Knowledge	227
The Importance of the Criticism of Reid	233
Bibliography	243