Napoleoni: economia, tecnica, politica e le prospettive della liberazione

Abstract

The paper reconstructs Claudio Napoleoni’s theoretical trajectory by focusing on the structural relationship between economics, technology, and politics, interpreted as the guiding thread running through his entire work. Starting from Napoleoni’s engagement with Piero Sraffa and the ensuing crisis of the scientific status of political economy, the article shows how this confrontation transforms an eminently theoretical issue into a political demand, centred on the task of liberation. The analysis focuses on Napoleoni’s historicisation of the scarcity paradigm, understood as the apparently naturalistic foundation of economic science, on the possibility of rethinking economics from the epistemic horizon of abundance, and on the emergence of the question of technology as a decisive horizon for understanding such a possibility. Within this framework, Napoleoni’s legacy is interpreted not as a closed body of thought, but as a methodological stimulus to be taken up by future research.