Gustavo Bontadini, "Contributo alla Metafisica dell'Esperienza", Dissertazione di Laurea presentata all’amplissima Facoltà Filosofica dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Relatore il Chiarissimo Professore Mons. Amato Masnovo, Milano MCMXXV, [a cura di Lorenzo Fossati]

Gustavo Bontadini’s 1925 dissertation is a «seminal» text in more than one sense: not only was it his first real work, which he would later take from by publishing parts of it, but more important, it constitutes the first version of his only – at least tentatively – systematic book, «Saggio di un metafisica dell’esperienza published in 1938». Dealing with the problem of the Absolute and Transcendence, in his dissertation he argues for a «transcendental fideism» based on the «Postulate of the Rationality of the Real», i.e., a position opposite to the later one of the Saggio and his entire speculative path. The publication of Bontadini’s dissertation – hitherto unpublished – is thus crucial for tracing the evolution of his thought, both from a theoretical and historiographical point of view.