Books that are born from culture and to spread culture are a true act of love. This is, in fact, the reason that moved the publication of the new text "La Nottola di minerva" published by Gnasso Editore, by the writer and professor of history and philosophy, Pasquale Vitale. A volume, as the title itself indicates, of philosophy but not only, which was born from the idea of a former student of the author, Irene Gennaro, who listening and being impressed by Vitale's lessons, recommended writing a manual that could combine passion for the discipline, clarity and references to the humanities. With an introduction by the president of the "Serra Club", Maria Luisa Coppola and the journalist and historian of philosophy, Michele Lasala, the text includes a series of profiles. For each author, extensive forays into literature, art, theater, and music have been planned, some of which have been curated by other scholars (Nunzia Capasso, Marco Palladino, Gianluca Della Corte, Pasquale Latino, Angelo Romeo, Giuseppina Giuliano, Alessandro Pipitone, Natascia De Gennaro, Francesca Prisco, Giuliano Gaglione, Alessia Cesaro, Ferdinando Bortone, Martina Rota, Carla Caputo, and Anna Capriati). A separate section has been dedicated to the possibility of a philosophy in comics featuring Hannah Arendt and Heidegger in a discussion about the latter's political choice and the concept of the banality of evil. A third part of the text focuses on current issues related to bioethics, feminism, the phenomenon of the selfie, and some online expansions. The text will be presented between the end of September and the beginning of October at the Liceo Artistico in Aversa. In addition, seminar meetings are planned at the contemporary art gallery "Kouros". “The goal, however,” says Vitale, “is to organize a series of presentations in all the schools that will require a meeting with the students.” A book that leaves you surprised by the vastness of its themes, that opens the doors of knowledge and that above all launches a great challenge: that of injecting the beauty of philosophy into the kids. A text that does not give answers, but that makes us ask many questions, leaving us curious and amazed in front of the treatment of that phenomenon that belongs to the gods and the most extravagant and sensitive souls: madness.
Interview with the author:
– Why the theme of madness?
“The theme of madness is, in fact, a topic widely covered in the text through reference to the history of psychology and psychiatry, to authors such as Foucault, Guattari and Deleuze, to the narration of life stories of former inmates and prisoners who live the prison experience with anguish, but also through the literature of Irvin D. Yalom and Alda Merini and the texts of Simone Cristicchi. The reason is that psychoanalysis (and the related discovery of the unconscious) represented one of the greatest revolutions of the twentieth century, but in the manuals, apart from the treatment of Freud and Jung, in my opinion, very little space is dedicated to it. Instead, children must be able to travel the journey into the world of the psyche and of what we define as “madness” not only through rational and diagnostic tools, but feeling through the heart, as Pascal would say, the beauty of a way that we have decided to reject and exclude from our horizon of life.”
– A philosophy text, but one that felt the need to include its faithful “friends” literature and psychology. Why this choice?
"A forced choice, I would say, because philosophy must always be understood as a practice of life and therefore must be able to interface with those sciences that apply its methods to the experiences of everyday life. In fact, a knowledge that identifies itself with mere erudition and does not know how to incarnate itself in the living and pulsating rhythm of reality teaches nothing, because it leaves no mark. When, in fact, philosophy closes itself in the ivory tower of mere contemplation, losing sight of common sense, it can arrive with its very powerful means to justify, and it has happened, even the unspeakable."
– Aristotle said that philosophy was the noblest knowledge because it was free from any kind of servitude. How current is this statement? And how difficult is it today to teach students the true concept of freedom? In this sense is “La Nottola di Minerva” functional?
“Aristotle has an idea of philosophy that, rightly, is a product of his time but, in his statement there is something authentically true. Unlike other living species, we are able to develop a type of knowledge totally detached from any materialistic perspective, which has allowed us to make enormous strides forward in the long term. In this sense, philosophy teaches children to rise above a long-dominant perspective, according to which we are what we have. In truth, as Thomas teaches us, we are our actions, or rather we are above all our ability to be released, in part, from the constraints of reality in order to embrace the ideal. My text has the very function of inducing children to not conceive of philosophy as a simple discipline, but as an opportunity to come into contact with the reflections of those who have taught us how much beauty and greatness the human race can produce. In this perspective, much space has been dedicated to the living voice of the authors through analysis of the text, invitations to read and the sections Reading a classic”.
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