Riprendersi la vita. Per un'etica del reincanto

ALBERTO MESCHIARI, Riprendersi la vita. Per un’etica del reincanto [Taking back our lives. For an ethics of re-enchantment], Tassinari, Florence 2010, pp. 428. The volume consists of an Introduction: Georg Gray syndrome, and four chapters: 1. What use is philosophy in our lives? 2. Is life something that happens to us or is it something we can choose? 3. On dialogue and its distinctive characteristics compared to other forms of verbal interaction 4. Boredom, enthusiasm, responsibility. The four chapters trace out a kind of guideline to the practice of philosophy in our lives. In an increasingly complex and aggressive world in which we find ourselves constantly bombarded by “blinding insubstantiality”, it is ever more urgent to devote attention to a dimension in which critical thought, dialogue, listening and responsibility are key elements. The author develops this line of analysis, referring constantly to philosophical, literary and other texts to guide the reader towards the too often postponed need for self-construction. What are the margins within which it is still possible for individuals to achieve a state of re-enchantment and hence relative autonomy from social conditioning? Because it is impossible to take back our lives without elements of re-enchantment: a totally disenchanted world is a soulless world where human beings are reduced to pawns, to automatons. Degradation of the environment, of morality and of human relationships within a context of rampant conformism is symptomatic of a state of severe disenchantment. But mankind cannot live without beauty. The pleasure of beauty touches every aspect of existence, it is the core of all spiritual experience. Without beauty, the soul withers. Throughout our lives, we remain strangers to ourselves. We express this alienation in the form of existential malaise, dissatisfaction, aggression. From a secular perspective, the meaning of life has no existence prior to or independently of our capacity to create it. Meaning is not something that is conferred from outside or from above on a life that is not lived. On the contrary, it is by living life that we give it meaning. And we fail to live our lives if we never come face to face with ourselves, if we lose our way against the blurred background of noise and massified behaviour.