I filosofi moderni scrivono di sé

The Modern Philosophers Write about Themselves. Biographies and autobiographies are suspect--all the more philosophical autobiographies, given the perpetually ambiguous status of philosophy. This paper considers above all early modern philosophical autobiography, focusing not on factual reliability but on the function(s) of these writings. This involves asking yourself whether there is a philosopher's own way, or a possible philosophical purpose, in writing an autobiography. Philosophical autobiographisms are tracked starting with the 14th-15th century, with particular attention to autobiography as a philosophical display of life (Montaigne, Rousseau), as well as to the replacement of prefatory biographies with autobiography as a means to legitimization of philosophical works and doctrines (Campanella, Descartes), and to the supra-philosophical and genuinely epochal function attributed to philosophical autobiography, from Descartes to Nietzsche, as the ultimate secret of modern philosophical autobiography.