Lucrezio e il pipistrello dagli occhi azzurri. L’universo spiegato con l’alfabeto

A blue-eyed bat – a unique specimen – flies through the pages of Lucretius and takes us on a journey that brings together philosophy, physics and linguistics. Andrea Moro, in his reinterpretation of De rerum natura, explains how human language provides us with a key to understanding the universe: just as we create different words by combining a handful of letters of the alphabet, so too can we create all the objects and elements that surround us from just a few atoms. But language is not merely a tool; it is also a phenomenon to be explained: who was the first to speak? Which came first, thoughts or languages? What is the difference between human language and that of all other animals? How do things and words emerge from chaos? Are there such things as impossible languages? On this journey, we encounter not only Democritus, Plato and Aristotle, but also Dante and Descartes, before delving into the challenges of neuroscience, artificial intelligence and contemporary linguistics. Literature and science thus guide an exploration of the universe, which unfolds like a grammatical enigma, culminating in the ultimate provocation that shakes the very foundations of the scientific method: is reason enough to stop being afraid?