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Mese: Marzo 2026

VENERE IN CORNICE – Un “cric” del braccio dentro la piscina d’un ventaglio / A “jack” of the arm inside the pool of a fan

Leggiamo un haiku di Yamaguchi Seishi: < La pistola, sulla dura superficie della piscina, risuona >. C’è la connessione fra la sicura ed il tappo. Ovviamente lo sparo si percepisce inquietante perché non attutisce, come la superficie d’acqua. Brana ha posato per uno scatto al bianconero. Precisamente, lei si trova sul bordo d’una piscina. Il corpo sdraiato dal fianco sinistro s’alza, grazie al “cric” del braccio. Sembra una posa che aggiunge plasticità marmorea alla piscina: ci basta menzionare la scultura al neoclassicismo Paolina Borghese, di Antonio Canova. Più in generale, Brana si mimetizzerebbe fra l’art nouveau della balaustra o del patio. Sullo sfondo, c’è tanta vegetazione. Qualcuno immaginerà che gli arti di Brana si dispongano “a pistola”. Allora, lo “sparo” avrebbe colpito una colonna quadrata, da una balaustra: c’è un cerchio nero.

We read a haiku of Yamaguchi Seishi: < The gun, on the hard surface of the pool, resounds >. There is the connection between the safety lock and the plug. Of course the gunshot is perceived disquieting because it does not cushion, like a water surface. Brana posed for a shot in black and white. Precisely, she is at the poolside. The body lying down from the left side is raised, through a “jack” of the arm. It seems a pose which adds marmoreal plasticity to the pool: it’s enough for us to mention the sculpture of the neoclassicism Paolina Borghese, by Antonio Canova. More in general, Brana would camouflage herself between the art nouveau of the balustrade or of the patio. On the background, there is many vegetation. Somebody will imagine that the Brana’s limbs are arranged “as a gun”. So, the “gunshot” would have hit a square column, from a balustrade: there is a black circle.

Il dit ‘Du Chevalier Tort’: una risistemazione della bibliografia e nuove prospettive d’indagine

Introduzione

La letteratura francese medievale presenta ancora oggi testi, in particolare esperimenti poetici brevi e dalla cifra stilistica tutt’altro che sublime, che hanno visto attenzione critica minima applicatagli, o che addirittura ancora difettano di una sistemazione critica e di un’edizione. Consapevole di questa realtà filologica, nel novembre 2024 presentai, a conclusione del percorso di laurea triennale in Lettere all’Università degli Studi di Milano, una tesi dal titolo Il dit Du Chevalier Tort: saggio di edizione critica. Il testo in questione, tràdito da quattro manoscritti e diviso in due redazioni, è un esperimento poetico in alessandrini monorimati, di una lunghezza che va dai quaranta ai sessanta versi, a seconda della redazione.

I quattro manoscritti testimoni sono:

  • Manoscritto Parigi, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 19152, ff. 70vc-71rb (siglato D);[1]
  • Manoscritto Parigi, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 2168, ff. 213vb-214rb (siglato H);
  • Manoscritto Parigi, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 25545, ff. 4va-vb (siglato I);
  • Manoscritto Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 86, ff. 190r-191r (siglato Z);

Paradoxes of Skepticism

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sextus_Empiricus

Skepticism – Between a Malevolent Use of Language and Positive Philosophical Attitude

Introduction

Skepticism is an ancient philosophical attitude. I have been skeptical about many forms of skepticism and I still am.[1] My argumentation against it was that skepticism is based on a malevolent use of language to prove something clearly paradoxical or contradictory. In a sense, all skeptical philosophy is impossible in the strongest sense of the word ‘impossible’. The grounding of this conclusion is very simple. The skeptics are unable to prove what they want, and they construct arguments whose nature is self-defeating in a very fundamental sense.

However, at the same time, skepticism is an unreplaceable component of all philosophical edifices and, beyond them, all human thinking. Among the best philosophers were deemed skeptical at one point and the accusation was almost invariably right. They were skeptical about something specific, and their arguments were to disprove a portion of the assumed shared beliefs to replace them with something different, being it a reformist or creative endeavor. Here I try to show why both tenets are true: radical skepticism is pointless and yet we need some form of it. Understanding how this is not a contradiction is the topic of this essay.

 

Skepticism and Its Philosophical Relevance

Skepticism is a philosophical attitude, not a philosophy. As an attitude, it is necessary and it consists in the unwillingness to accept anything as true or given or presumed beforehand. At the same time, this is not the primary objective of classic skepticism, whose goal was aligned with Stoicism and Epicureanism: peace of mind (ataraxia) from the ‘evils’ of the world.[2] We must start from the extreme form of it; that is, skepticism as a philosophy and not just as an attitude: “Sextus presents scepticism as a kind of philosophy, distinguished from others not by the content of its doctrines (there are none), but apparently by its attitude to philosophical problems and theses.”[3] According to this position, there is no solid foundation for any statement and proposition, no matter the origin, cause and formulation. The skeptical argument is the refuse of any possible argument at its extreme.