The term ‘gesture’ is often used for an action capable of conveying a meaning and, in this sense, it is related to the question of the origin of language. In this paper I rather focus on a concept of ‘gesture’ intended as the «supplement of an act», produced by an historical and cultural process and representative of a «pure mediality». Such a different notion of gesture should not to be confused with a form of expression considered as an end in (...) itself. In this perspective, I will try to think the artistic gesture not as bearer of meaning but as what is ‘beared’, i.e., as the non-communicative rest of previous acts of communication. (shrink)

A long tradition, whose echo is still perceptible in some contemporary reflections, combines philosophy and melancholy, often indentifying melancholy as the beginning of philosophy. But rereading the Freud’s _Mourning and Melancholia_, the «circular insanity» shows two sides, depressive and maniac. Once the double nature of the «circular insanity» has been taken into consideration, it can be reiterated that melancholy is connected to philosophy not only with regard of its beginning but also to its (temporary) end, approached through Wittgenstein's reflection on (...) the miracle and the mystical as the extinction of the philosophical question. In this perspective, the whole cycle of philosophy, from its depressive beginning to its maniacal outcome, undergoes an aesthetic consideration, in which what is more important is the _how_ of experience rather than its _what_. Finally, the aesthetic point of view on the connection between melancholy and philosophy makes it possible to reconsider the very status of that research that presents itself as 'love of knowledge'. (shrink)

The relationship between music and language is one of the main axes of Western philosophy of music. In particular, the link between music and literature has fostered an intense debate that resulted in a plurality of different solutions. The present issue of "Itinera” aims at analyzing some of the fundamental questions that emerge from Azio Corghi's use of literary sources in composition. The complexity of the themes that characterize Corghi's work, across musicology, aesthetics and literature, leads the reader to deal (...) with fundamental categories such as postmodernity and avant-garde, in music and beyond. (shrink)

L’obiettivo di questo articolo è quello di esaminare le riflessioni dedicate da Wittgenstein al tema del giudizio di valore, al fine di rintracciare una linea di continuità tra le ricerche riguardanti i criteri per determinare la sensatezza degli enunciati – principale impegno del “primo” Wittgenstein – e la successiva filosofia dei giochi linguistici, presentata nelle Ricerche filosofiche. Secondo la teoria raffigurativa del linguaggio, così come viene formulata nel Tractatus logico-philosophicus, i giudizi di valore non rappresentano fatti del mondo e pertanto (...) sono senza senso. In questa prospettiva, il tentativo di esprimere esperienze di “valore assoluto”, come dice Wittgenstein nella Conferenza sull’etica (1929), è condannato al nonsenso, sebbene esso dia testimonianza di una tendenza tipicamente umana ad avventarsi contro i limiti del linguaggio. Circa dieci anni dopo, nelle Lezioni di estetica (1938) Wittgenstein analizza l’uso degli aggettivi estetici nei giudizi di valore e sottolinea la prossimità di queste espressioni al gesto, inteso come un modo di trasmettere il sentimento del parlante in reazione a una specifica esperienza. Nell’espressività del nonsenso è possibile intravedere in anticipo l’importanza della nozione di uso, centrale nella “seconda” filosofia di Wittgenstein; nell’analisi degli aggettivi estetici, usati in maniera simile a gesti, rimane un collegamento con le precedenti ricerche intorno ai limiti del linguaggio. Attraverso la riflessione su nonsenso e gesto Wittgenstein sviluppa un’idea non-comunicativa ed espressiva del linguaggio che possiamo rintracciare lungo l’intero sviluppo del suo lavoro. (shrink)

L’obiettivo di questo articolo è di proporre una considerazione del fenomeno musicale non come oggetto ma come evento. La musica si allontana dall’ambito degli oggetti a partire dall’immissione del suono nel contesto musicale, in cui l’origine fisica delle vibrazioni perde rilevanza (Roger Scruton). La musica si presenta infatti come una concatenazione di eventi sonori retti da una logica autonoma; i nessi causali in base a cui i suoni trovano il proprio ordine costituiscono un mondo ideale, distinto dal mondo fisico, in (...) cui trovano spazio processi dinamici privi di qualunque polo oggettuale (Francis Wolff). A partire da un’idea di suono autonomo rispetto all’oggetto d’origine e dalla concezione dell’ambito musicale come un mondo di puri eventi sonori, si prende in esame la concezione del processo musicale come insieme di qualità sonore prive di sostrato, vale a dire di qualia senza sostanza (Antonia Soulez). In questa prospettiva è possibile proporre una desostanzializzazione dell’oggetto musicale che non implichi una posizione di scetticismo nei confronti della realtà del processo sonoro. L’evento musicale nasce piuttosto dalla complessa interazione tra materiale sonoro e forze provenienti dal mondo esterno (Pascale Criton). Considerato come evento e non come oggetto, il fenomeno musicale si sottrae all’indagine intorno al suo significato, pur mantenendo un profilo enigmatico dovuto alla duplice provenienza, umana e “mondana”, del suono. (shrink)

Although Eco was deeply interested in music, his bibliography does not include a work entirely and exclusively dedicated to this theme. However, references to the problems of musical production, listening, interpretation and transmission are scattered in numerous essays, and are often implicitly or explicitly linked to the theoretical and compositional work of his friend and composer Luciano Berio, who in turn dialogued with the developments of Eco’s thought. This article reconstructs the intellectual relationship and friendship between Eco and Berio, originated (...) in the fifties at the Rai studios in Milan; then it examines the passages in Eco’s work dedicated to music, from The Open Work (1962) to Kant and the Platypus (1997). Finally, the article focuses on the controversies raised by the concept of open work, conceived by Eco starting from some musical works including Berio’s Sequenza I for solo flute (1958). With respect to the freedom left to the performer in the 1958 score, Berio’s rewriting in traditional notation in the Nineties seems to undermine at its roots the idea of openness which, according to Eco, distinguishes contemporary poetics. This circumstance provoked some musicological, philological and philosophical controversies, which allowed Eco (2012) to return to reflect on the concept of open work, specifying and clarifying the aesthetic conception underlying it. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to propose a comparison between the mystical feeling, as it is defined by Ludwig Wittgenstein in the Tractatus logico-philosophicus, and the psycho-pathological state of melancholy, posed in relation with mourning by Sigmund Freud. The comparison will depart from the radical dissatisfaction that seems to be a distinctive characteristic of both phenomena. According to Wittgenstein in fact the drive to mystical feeling rises from the deep dissatisfaction regarding the explanations given by science, which is incapable (...) of producing any answer to the «problem of life». In a similar way, Slavoj Žižek underlines that melancholy is a form of «disappointment at all positive, observable objects, none of which can satisfy our desire». In this perspective, I will check the similarities and differences between mystical feeling and melancholy and I will put in relation the double profile of this latter with the Wittgensteinian theme of aspect seeing. (shrink)