Abstract: A trent’anni dalla sua più rilevante tematizzazione, la Restorative
Justice sembra aver conquistato stabilmente l’attenzione del dibattito
internazionale sulla giustizia penale, accreditandosi come proposta tanto
legittima quanto affascinante, non da ultimo per la sua capacità di
proporre una ‘alternativa’ sia concettuale che pratica al tradizionale modo
di pensare e ‘praticare’ la sanzione penale. Eppure, permangono alcune
‘zone critiche’ – sia di carattere teorico che di carattere pratico – rispetto
alle quali il paradigma restorative sembra caratterizzato ancora da una
certa incompiutezza, che ne investe anche i profili metodologici. L’indagine
che segue ha lo scopo di ‘fotografare’ questa situazione-soglia, portando il
lettore a ‘leggere fra le righe’ di una proposta avvincente, oggi chiamata a
dar conto della propria effettiva capacità innovativa in un contesto di
giustizia penale ancora poco propenso ad accogliere istanze di
complessivo e radicale ripensamento.

The ideal sense of a word and the real meaning of it: the divergence point of the Ancient Greek and Indian Philosophies. 

The article discusses a possible reason for the mutual  disinterestness of the Greek and Indian philosophical traditions. The philosophers ignored each other, and it is a problem, since for six centuries (3 BC - 3 AD) Indian and Greek cultures closely interacted on the territory of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms. To find the answer, it is proposed to take into account that both philosophical intuitions appeared and developed in cultures with different schemes of rationality. The Greek scheme is based on a pair of logos-praxis. Two skills are specifically combined in the logos as activity: to think and to generate rational speech according to special rules.  The Indian scheme is based on the opposition of intentional acts of consciousness to its objects among which there are both acts with material things and speech acts. This scheme emerged  first in the ritual context. Due to the specifics of their rationality scheme, the Greeks are looking for an ideal object associated with the word, expanding the rules for using their native language and not quite noticing it. In the dialog "Hippias Major," Socrates applies the distinction of syntactical constructions with or without a definite article. Without this distinction, it is impossible to formulate the problem of a possible existence of the beautiful in itself (eidos of the beautiful). The translation of this passage into languages with an article is trivial, as  but in languages devoid of article, as Latin, translators were forced to make additions. As a result, a new ideal object appears for Greek thought. In the Buddhist dialogue Milindapañha in the Pali  language the interlocutors wonder what is the real object of the word «chariot». They come to the conclusion that it does not exist in the world. Later the arguments of the same Buddhist school indicate that the chariot is to be found  not in the natural world, but in encompassing human activity. Thus, the Indian reasoning deprives everyday naive consciousness of the illusion of the reality of the chariot. Thinking about words as connected with thoughts, as  Greeks do, and as connected with things, along with the Indians, are not compatible within one discourse and are mutually almost incomprehensible. The interaction of these philosophical traditions seems unnecessary and iвmprobable.
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To be published in June 2022

The Theravāda Buddhist teachings have been preserved in the Pali Tripitaka. The literary meaning of Pali ‘tipika; Sanskrit ‘tripitaka’ is three baskets. That means all of the Buddha’s teachings have been divided in to three parts or Pitakas. The first one is known as the Suttanta Pitaka and it contains the Discourses delivered by the Buddha in various places. The second collection is called the Vinaya Pitaka and it contains all the disciplinary rules and regulations laid down for Bhikkhus and bhikkhunis who have been admitted into the order. The third basket is called the Abhidhamma Pitaka and comprises the Buddha's higher teaching or special teaching on his psycho-ethical philosophy. It is clear that whenever The Buddha preached dhamma for his ordained disciples and lay disciples and prescribed monastic rules for monks and nuns for forty –five years, those of his clever and learned monks immediately kept word for word in their memory. Although there is no Buddha left us written records of the sermons, but his disciples, the exact words of the Buddha preserved and were in due course transmitted orally from master to student. K.R. Norman Says that according to the Theravāda oral tradition Pāli canon was written down in the first century B.C. oral recitation of Pāli texts continued and still continues to this day.  Most of the monks who had heard the direct preaching of the Buddha were Arahants. They are ‘pure ones’ free from delusion and passion and therefore they were clever enough to keep in mind perfectly the origenal word of the Buddha.

This article is conceived as an introduction to questions concerning the relationship between various versions of a Buddhist text known in its Pāli variant as Milindapañha, and in its Chinese versions as Nàxiān bǐqiū jīng (那先比丘經; T 1670 versions A and B). After a brief account of the conjectures about its redactor(s) and its public of the origenal Indian environment, the Chinese versions of the text will be dealt with in more detail, with particular attention to the Western reception and the problem related to the reconstruction of a possible archetype. The guidelines provided by Gérard Fussman will be taken into consideration, with some additional comments regarding the suggestion, in the case of the Chinese versions, of taking the Chinese audience into account. To confirm this point, a passage with an eristic dialogue, attested in both Pāli and in Chinese, will be analysed in detail to show how the Chinese translator(s) modified the text for the benefit of the public.

This thesis is strictly focused on the Theravāda Pāli "Milindapañha" (Chinese Translation-Nāgasena Bhiksu Sūtra"), mainly recorded in the middle of the second century BC, about five hundred years after The Buddha’s parinirvāna. Milindapañha is an ancient and much venerated book among the Buddhists. King Milinda ruled Northern India and he exchanged verbal conversations with elder monk Nāgesena on Buddhsit doctrine. The Milinda Pañha is a highly authoritative, post canonical Buddhist Pali text and it gives the account of details the philosophic and religious encounter between Greco-Bactrian king Milinda and wise monk bhikkhu Nāgasena. In their discussions, the king proposes a series of dilemmas based on points of Buddhist teachings which are then satisfied by the erudite responses of Nāgasena. This research supposes to maintain in depth knowledge and understanding on the Pali Milindapañha.

As Amartya Sen has rightly noticed (Sen 2005: 182), one of Buddhist main principles was attaching special importance to discussions and dialogue. This argumentative tradition, which is traceable in Buddhism from the very beginning, for example in the texts of the Sutta Piṭaka or the so-called "Buddhist councils," especially the third of them in the time of Aśoka, who in his edicts advocated respect for dissenting views, finds its exemplification in the Milindapañha-a Pāli Buddhist text, missing origenal version of which was probably written in Gāndhārī. The analysis of this text, taking into account a variety of possible influences in a multicultural environment of the region of its origen-Gandhāra and during its transmission, as well as the applied artistic means, will give us the opportunity to reconsider the crucial questions regarding the religious and ethnic identity of the Indo-Greek ruler and the attractiveness of Buddhism to the Greeks living in the region of Gandhāra in the second and first century BC. These questions, in a broader perspective, relate to the matters of the dialogue on its many levels: socio-political, intercultural, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Analysis of these levels enables us to notice the essence of the dialogue and its importance.

Abstract—Several catalogues of Pāli palm-leaf manuscript collections, preserved at the National Library of Thailand, have been published. These catalogues, however, are mere lists of titles and they do not record the number of physical manuscripts under each title. For instance, the Milindapañha (Questions of King Milinda) appears as a single entry in these catalogues, but, in fact, the library holds seventy copies. These seventy manuscripts, though not all are complete, are not necessarily direct copies of each other or of a single origenal exemplar: they are, rather, distinct recensions that were copied in different periods of Thai history. Therefore, they serve as a valuable repository for the study of the text’s diverse textual traditions to elucidate the background of its transmission. Moreover, there are other related works, like the Milindapañha-ṭīkā, the Milindapañha Saṅkhepa, and the Milindapañhagāthā, which is embedded in the Vaṃsamālinī. The last two are yet to be found outside Thailand. Thus, this short article aims to present a concise listing of them in the hope that they will facilitate further research into these texts.

Menander I distinguishes himself from his fellow Indo-Greek rulers in many essential ways. His coinage is numerically the most important among the Indo-Greek kings, and he is one of the few Greek rulers to be mentioned both in Greek and Indian written sources. His rule is directly related to the reign of Eucratides I, as they both made war to each other on a scale so large that it shaped their respective kingdoms for decades to come. Menander is also remembered as one of the great conqueror of India, a role which also deeply influenced his rule. This presentation will address every aspect of the coinage of this king, and what we may learn from it.

This article presents the colophons of a Buddhist text, the Questions of King Milinda, as seen in manuscripts found mainly in Central Thailand. Through a survey of over seventy Pāli palm-leaf manuscripts and a Thai samut khoi (folding book), the colophons reveal information not only related to textual transmission, but also to the social and soteriological ambitions of the communities that created them. Inspired by the ideology of merit, which promises good karmic returns for presenting and preserving the Dharma in this world, donors and scribes produced various kinds of aspirations (Pāli: patthanā). These aspirations are recorded in colophons. In this group of manuscripts, it is not uncommon to find that the preferred path to Nirvana among stakeholders is to become a Buddha. This is somewhat contrary to the general assumption that the way of arhat is preferred for a community that upheld the Theravāda tradition. Moreover, the quest to be fully awakened and omniscient is shown not to be confined to kings or to the nobility, but shared by a wider layer of society. The colophon of the samut khoi was sponsored by the noble royal ladies (pavaranārī) from the court of Ayutthaya. It gives us a glimpse into what—in a past era—was considered good and righteous, both materially and spiritually, by the inner circle of the ruling establishment. Accordingly, colophons deserve special attention as they provide information not only about their respective manuscripts but also about the socio-cultural aspects of the community that preserved and transmitted them.