FOREWORD
I really like the philosophical concept of Socrates that for me, was one of the greatest philosopher, I find that his maxim: "I know you do not know," is the base that opens all the doors of ... your knowledge.
To me this phrase taught a lot of good things, maybe because when I was at school (it was the teaching method once) the teacher, rather than stimulate my study stimulating me with interesting topic, was calling me ignorant, incompetent, and so on (I consoled myself because I was not the only one to be treated in this way).
I read at least fifty times the pages that I had to take the question because, if I was not prepared (even that it was the custom at the time) were sound slaps. I once tried to talk to my mother and I almost took it in "other" (barrel mean), because she told me: You want the teacher does not give you more slaps? then ....studies!! ....
In fact, I studied only to avoid the blows, not even for the vote, only that in this particularly tense atmosphere, or to study for not taking barrel. It would be too much to expect that the student (ie me) would operate also links so serene, intelligent and autonomous, that is passionate about what he was reading, which did further research on its own initiative, to integrate what we already knew and so on.
When I learned the pages by art for the query, I had avoided slaps, I even managed to hitch a ... what I wanted more out of life? ... an Amaro Lucano perhaps [as the Advert says]?
It’s clear, however, that once I had passed the test, I took my six, I had avoided the beatings, the next day, not even a shadow of what I learnt was left... It's also clear that this is not culture, especially in the classroom there were those who, for some reason, was treated with a thousand respects, always taken as a model to inspire others.
Once the teacher, noting that in one writing of one of those students, a dot was missing, she left the classroom, in order to get a magnifying glass from one drawer of the staff room. Once back in the class, reviewed the paper with this lens , and suddenly exclaim, almost triumphantly, "Yes ... the is the dot, is here! ... it was only written in a very light way." Well ... that student, was one that was never wrong .... I do not know why, but still, I remember his name ......
However, I become a professor too, but of music, this is why music was my bigger passion, doesn’t matter what. I was very reluctant to study for the reasons mentioned, I did not remember anything after the tests (and sometimes, even of what I had been asked) , as there was always someone better than me, this was a huge burden for me. Both my parents and my teachers were giving me this impression, in order to “stimulate me”. That’s why I grew up as an enemy of the study and culture.
That is an huge imbalances anyway .... nowadays if the kid does not want to study, you must still give him a good grade ... say it is better, otherwise you should make a separate report to write the restoration work that you have done to help him and so many other little things ..... well ... if the boy is an ass, it's your fault ... A great video of Antonio Albanese, it gives the idea of what a teacher faces every day, mainly with a certain kind of students.
What I'm saying now, even if it is only as an introduction and preface, is not just a complaint. I think it can be normal, with time, slight variations that occur in human thought (in this case, the teaching methodology), but that within a couple of generations, everything has to be turned, tilted and unfortunately in a bad way and in some cases, I think it's worrying.
This shows that the human being, despite having achieved a considerable progress in the field of knowledge, still is not at a stable level and our knowledge sometimes are quite wrong.
The human knowledge, despite the fact that experts are seen at the very top of the society, with great speeches, targeted more to show up their knowledge, to highlight their learning, their competence and professionalism than anything else... even do not so accurate... the proof is, for example, in the school environment as these constant changes of methodological, education and teaching strategies..
I do not think we have to be super geniuses, able to show up our knowledge, competence and great oratorical skills, endless and super boring meetings and seminars, to understand that it was wrong before and still it is... two extreme systems, it is clear that the right thing is the middle way.
A certain severity, aimed most of all to put the kids in front of their responsibilities should be used, but without going back to too severe methods. I've always noticed that right ideas, if exaggerated, becomes misunderstood and wrong.
To return to the core of my writing, I will say that I grew up with the frustration of having a bad conscience and a bad relationship with the culture (I felt guilty because I did not study, that was happening because I didn’t like to do so), consequently, I was considering myself to be ignorant, a bit because I was told so at school attributing the cause to my laziness, and because without studying, I could not find such great results, after several ideological and cultural adventures, until the moment in which I discovered Socrates considered, at least to me, the father of Western thought .....
I learned from Socrates, once fully understood its concept, practically, as you study, you will be always an ignorant (Fantastic.... I was not the only one ... really great). In fact, let’s consider how big is the universe and how small is the earth compared to it (and how big is the earth to us), how many things are still undiscovered, even what they suppose to know it could be wrong as there are many dissenting opinions.
Even talking about the wisest person in the world, imagine to weigh all the things he knows and on the other hand, all the things he doesn’t know, that will determine his ignorance. We will see as the scale would shift from the ignorance side (the universe is also called ... Infinity, maybe this is the reason why).
At this point I can’t think of the Apostle Paul who said that the end will be marked by a humanity that believe to be wise, it will actually be crazy. The reason claims to have right about God or, to know more than him (and this is just pure madness...), as well as other follies that brought the human beings to ruin our planet
SOCRATES
The thought of Socrates, brought many positive changes in my person, showing me many open doors that before I were closed. The main door, of course, is that one of Jesus, but to truly understand His teachings, we should be able to extrapolate his image, out of the religion by which we are accustomed to see him. This is absolutely necessary, because he was not a religious, neither an ignorant.
Let us not forget that those who put him on the cross, were the most religious people of the time... (it would be interesting to reflect on what happened during the Middle Ages, during the Inquisition, but for the moment, I do not want to enter into these subjects ....) To return to Socrates (and to all the free thinkers), I do not think it's a bad idea to examine the focal point of how they tried to give meaning to life, and they tried... and the found out something for sure (as he told the Master of all masters : "Seek and you shall find" ...), especially if their research was conducted in an honest and sincere way, both with themselves and with others.
Meanwhile, if we look at the classic theme of Socrates: I know that I do not know , we are obliged, it’s a game force, to become more humble, which is always a good thing, and this reassures us, it takes away the spirit of competition and makes us understand the word ignorant, not as an insult, but as a simple matter of fact, if we consider the immensity of the things that surround us, as they said in the past, other major (but without making it a basic concept I think) as G. Pascoli that said "peace men, too great is the mystery that surrounds us"... the mystery is not knowledge then... ignorance.
Even Shakespeare said: Between Heaven and Earth, there are things that our human pettiness, can’t even imagine ".... Also in this case “even imagine” clearly means ignorance. One thing is certain, that if you internalize these concepts, you won’t only become more humble, because you would be aware of your ignorance, but if one day we could create the conditions to become a less ignorant, it could born in us, just desire to know, to research, without resting on the few assumption that we know (sometimes also incorrectly) moving toward a more active way of being, growing which means .... experiencing and living.
PLATO
Another interesting character that I get to know as a result of knowledge my first studies with Socrates, Plato, who was the pupil of Socrates. The good thing is that I have been able pick up some very interesting knowledge with this new character. For myself, to make ends meet, I used to teach music in middle school, a place that seems (in fact ... is), the less suitable for learning such a refined art, elegant and pleasant, which improves the quality of life that transmits positive emotions, and that, because of the environment down to earth that often exists in compulsory schools environment (especially in public schools in northern Italy), perhaps a little bit less in the private ones... I might even be wrong, I do not know..
When I was offered the opportunity to teach in school, I wondered what meaning could certainly have my activity in the human society ... what interested me, it was just work. What I soon realized once I started my career as a teacher, was argued that it was ill-treated the subject (Music), in an environment where vulgarity and bad manners ... was indirectly and sometimes directly, exalted.
I judged it as the result of a subculture all Italian, the so-called underground culture, when a young boy (perhaps driven by someone else ... maybe the same parents) asked me what it was for the music, I had some difficulty answering even if this matter had become a compulsory subject, as early as 1978-79.
With the discovery of Plato (following Socrates), I learned, bearing in his thinking, that the education of the young is achieved by the education ethos... or the cult of beauty, especially music, because the child (as he called it) getting used to the beauty of music, it can no longer withstand action in bad taste, even though that, the music has nothing to do. The musical education, as rightly it was called until a few years ago, virtually integrates the law because certain actions which may regret that embarrasses and that are still evil, and that sometimes, do not constitute an offense, will be avoided in a spontaneous way by the man who, as a boy, studied music so in his instinctive level, rejects anything that is distasteful, offensive, or that creates embarrassment is just evil, regardless the law itself.
Practically, educating the young, with the music, you can get... where the law cannot (and should not) get, since it must be democratic footprint (trouble is not already), where the law rightly , will have to have limits .... really a refined mind that Plato, who helped me to become aware of the importance of my work, almost as if it were a real mission. It is certain that if I had colleagues and principals more up to the task, apart from a few isolated cases, in my small way, I could do much more to society.
ARISTOTLE
It 's inevitable that, having made the acquaintance with these two characters, I did not do well acquainted with Aristotle, Socrates teaching his grandson, nephew because he was the pupil of Plato. To tell the truth, I must say that the thought of Aristotle carrier do not know yet, but I know for example (here's another very fine brain), which, according to him, mathematics is by no means an exact science, despite the famous saying: The math does not lie, but a science as well as rough as in nature, there is not a thing, or element, completely identical to another, let alone if they consider them identical elements endless ....
I remember a dear colleague, who goes all my sympathy, perhaps because the usual tired of teaching numbers, with the usual expected outcomes, wanted to teach something more in addition to the course, so he began to say in his classes, which in Actually, two and two do not make four, but a number that more or less looks like him (because there is no element completely equal to another).
This professor though, in my opinion, is to be reckoned as his arguments were not following established only traces of conventional culture, but had the typical process of a search that things, however, committed a big mistake not to take into account the greatest lesson of all: Jesus one, which (it is he who said it verbatim): "Do not give pearls to pigs..." or, in other words less harsh: "We need to understand when others do not understand and act accordingly. "
In fact, this small mistake cost him not just as judged him to be not so good (just one who teaches mathematics is to say these things?). We were for this, great disputes within the school, and the boys, believing they were doing great things, perhaps feeling the protagonists of an event almost historic, they gave him a hard time not just with meetings, meetings, delegations, spokesperson etc. . (It was a school of high school) things that a normal teacher would have avoided with great care ...
But I do think however, that this teacher has really lived it, as well as teach according to the preset program, also has something of his own, thus proving to be alive (as would the professor played by Antonio Albanian) ... Maybe this professor, in his future, before speaking to the class in a certain way, will better who will face and if it is worth it.
I think that would be a good thing, even better to open the minds of learners, already established in the planning of mathematics, that the elements are not all equal, and therefore, in the calculations between high numbers, the differences will increase greatly, so much so that dephase results entirely if you were to proceed accordingly, but for our convenience, we will pretend that all elements are identical, and this indefinitely, so you can easily do our operations ... I think that a teaching program in mathematics with premise, is the best thing in respect of culture, democracy and the learner himself that, given a chance to consider the space and the limits to carry out its work and its considerations, but without complacency or no boost for the area.
POST Aristotelian
In ancient Greece, the culture which Rome had so much love to stay in turn, which she won after her, at first, conquered militarily, worked many philosophers, some of which, in my opinion, very interesting ... one of them is certainly Epicurus who, he, too, from some tips that may be susceptible to many developments very, very interesting.
Since I risk going off topic, I will mention him, just a few things that absolutely, I think they should be kept into account. For him, for example, happiness is obtained not so much with the things that we have and that we had so desired, but with the state of mind that we can realize that, with the appreciation of the little or much that have or who you are. Unfortunately, the human mind is actually ungrateful, which he regards as matter of course that then, unable to appreciate it. Here then, that its maximum falls bean when he says that happiness is nothing but break the pain, do not have anything more, but that the pain ceases. In this way, the individual making the comparison of how he felt when he suffered, can be better when you do not suffer any more ... when the pain makes its pause.
Personally I have experienced, because once I had suffered so much from a toothache, pain inexpressible feeling then, suddenly, I do not know why, the pain has ceased, not gradually, but suddenly... none could believe it ... I do not seem real .... The happiness that I felt at that time, was much larger than all those times I did not suffer a toothache
Coming back to the main thing to note is that it seems to me really curious ... Aristotle was the school of thought of Socrates, who said that the wise man knows he does not know; mechanism for the mind which opens the doors of knowledge as those who are conscious, just try to know. Behold, now is a great paradox that, if you consider it carefully, turns out to be I would say, very amazing but at the same time, a wealth of information.
As mentioned Aristotle is part of the school of thought of Socrates, then what comes from him, should, at least in broad outline, form the basis of this fundamental concept. Instead, as we shall see, the considerations made in the future (which for us has already passed), will become exactly the opposite of what he was saying and I do not think Socrates, Aristotle's fault but rather the fault of those who believe already know and therefore, sees no need to try and find out more.
It loses the spirit of research, the prerogative only of those who are aware of being ignorant, this beautiful lazy want to look and see if everything matches etc.. Basically this type of person delegation (to a false account of respect, but in reality is mental laziness) and others, considered best, to do that thing that differentiates man from animal, ie think and reflect. Ipse Dixit becomes the watchword to clarify points and questions that the normal person sometimes arises .... The only guarantee of being right is just, because he said it .... Aristotle.
Now it is true that Aristotle was not a mind recently, but it is also true that each of us has the mental capacity to read, consider, make its assumptions, etc.. ie, has the right and the ability to think (faculties that distinguishes man from beast) as a result even if Aristotle thinks in a certain way, is not bad check, with all due respect to him, of course, if what he says is right and, more importantly, why it is or why it is not.
If you think that because of this, in the Middle Ages many people came under torture, is there really to be shocked and amazed (there are no words that can express such nonsense). Even if Galileo has gotten a bad rap, but he got away because he said at last, that he was wrong and why the clergy (of which, one of its strongholds was just the thought of Aristotle obviously deformed and suited to their needs) .... However, as we know, Galileo after swearing, unable to stop himself from muttering to himself: “And yet it moves”... referring to the moon.
How many unnecessary worries, which will remain as a monument of shame and stupidity eternal in the future of humanity. Think it is so simple: Aristotle sees it, I see everything .... and let everyone think as they see fit ... if there is a health ..... Meanwhile, things remain as they are, however, not change just because we are managed to convince our interlocutor or tried to do so ... this is really a great stupidity.
The focal point of what I mean is that if one is not exercised in a small way to think, as a result of his reflections logic, and not thinking about how absolutely want the official line of thought or who absolutely wants most, his life remains a kind of limited.
In the past I hated by Nietzsche's theory of super man (of which Hitler made it his stronghold), but I feel indebted to a Preside with whom I had established a good working relationship education (The only Preside in all my career) that made me learn more about the character, according to which, it is super man that person who imitates others in dress, speech, and little things like that, not to be inconvenient and not create embarrassment, but inside, in his way of being and thinking, may be in agreement with others (or disagree) only occasionally, because, as a human being, has its own personality and its own way of being that they do think for themselves, and when some people with this mentality can be found, for them it's almost like a party because they can complement each other in their considerations ... something really interesting.
The big mistake that was made in the Middle Ages, has been to almost deify Aristotle. It was a great, but others may think about their business without necessarily delegate him... Finally, the size of Aristotle reveals himself as the enemy of culture itself because he, being so good, he could think of for all (first mistake ). Also, if you "knew" what he said, it was considered wise otherwise not (another big mistake). The beautiful thought of Socrates goes like this, to hell... these errors will influence the collective thought of an entire continent, and for a whole time.
Here, however, the horizon is another philosopher of whom we have already spoken, in fact he was a scientist, but of his knowledge, he had a philosophy, which inaugurates the famous experimental method: Galileo Galilei. I personally believe that over the millennia, there has always been, somewhere, a wizards, a brainiac who invented amazing things such as, to fly, there are isolated evidence in this respect, but with Galileo is different because, inaugurating the experimental method, creates the conditions and results, a trend irreversible inventions which will form a basis for further considerations, further experiments and further...inventions, all targeted to accumulate, in a systematic way, ignorance to knowledge by always a reference to the previous inventions, comes the culture of the experimental method which later give rise to the power of enlightenment which will release factual and mentality, the man from the Middle Ages.
I noticed that if the back of anything, there is a significant and profound thought, beyond being wrong or right (if right is better), this no matter what, it will take more consistency. As reflected in the great civilizations that were at the organizational level is very advanced, but possessed a concept of thought rather elementary, finally, have practically disappeared from history.
The philosophical concept of Galileo, as expressed through his scientific research, it is as if the answer to that of Socrates, that of Galileo it is as if he said: "It is true, I'm an ignorant, in fact I'm trying to proceed with this experiment, because they still do not know and really want to know how things are. " Once you have finished the experiment, it is as if he continued in his response, saying again: "It 's true that there are still ignorant, I do not know why things are almost endless... but one thing I know is, that I learned now, thanks to a discovery made as a result of my experiment "and all that, the utmost respect for Aristotle ... in the end it is not his fault that posterity has emphasized almost like a God, and they used him to support the 'error and dissuade people from thinking... just what distinguishes us from animals.
I feel indebted to Prof Antonino Zichichi who, in a series of television programs, in which he appears regularly spoke with a clear language, accessible and affordable for all, saying very interesting things that I have enriched me a lot .
Giulio...
