L’arte dell’essenziale. Un’escursione filosofica nelle terre alte
When you walk on the mountains, you may ask yourself what is so special about what you are doing, what is the source of the joy you feel up there, notwithstanding fatigue, sweat, cold winds or rainfalls. Paolo Costa’s book is an attempt to distill the authentic meaning of this ordinary experience from a few key words. Why do mountains make us feel more alive? What is it about them that makes us better persons? Why is the sense of emptiness as important as the sense of fullness among the peaks? And why is there nothing wrong with feeling helpless in the high lands? Drawing on his personal experience, the author leads us on a philosophical journey among the meadows, peaks, screes and forests of his mountains.
Paolo Costa (Milan 1966), philosopher and essayist, is a senior researcher at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento. He is the Italian translator of books by C. Darwin, H. Arendt, C. Taylor, M. Nussbaum, and the author, among others, of La ragione e i suoi eccessi (Milan 2014) and La città post-secolare (Paderborn 2022). He has been organizing events and publications that investigate the philosophical meanings of mountains.
