Me
I’m an Italian researcher born in Sardinia, leading my research between Germany, Spain, and Italy.
From the city of German Idealism and early Romanticism, Jena, I have moved to Barcelona and Milan, during one of the liveliest decades of my life.
Our only lifeline is learning and teaching to the next generations how to be humans. From the books of past authors – keeping their thought, teachings, and spirit – to real life experiences, we never stop learning the game of “humanity”. Philosophy and history of philosophy may perfectly serve to this purpose.
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As a child, I used to spend my time in reading, drawing, playing piano and clarinet, and dreaming to become a good teacher. I have two wonderful children, aged 7 and 3 and born in Germany. Now that I read, draw, play, and dream together with them, I am more and more convinced that education is one of the greatest resources of humankind.
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Research
My research concerns the history of philosophy and science in the modern age, with special focus on German authors and the work of Emanuel Swedenborg but including connections to ancient philosophy and contemporary philosophical discussions. I have investigated with special attention the relationship between imagination and rational thinking; the role of analogies and metaphors in philosophical thought; the reception of the Platonic traditions; the notion of “life” and balance in the (pre)ecological debate; the concepts of sleep, death, and the mind-body relationship; the study of material and ideal libraries as a tool for the historical-philosophical research.
During a two-year period at the FSU Jena, I have focused my research on Johann Gottfried Herder’s mature work “Adrastea” (1801-1803) and investigated the notion of “thinking in images” as a fundamental concept in Herder’s philosophical conception. This research was founded by a European Marie-Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship.
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I achieved my PhD in 2014 at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (Germany) with a thesis on Emanuel Swedenborg’s reception in late eighteenth century Germany. The controversial role of Emanuel Swedenborg in the history of modern thought is investigated with particular focus on the notions of “origins” (of the world, of life, of knowledge) and the attempt to provide a new world view integrating mechanical dualism and monistic organicism. Swedenborg’s doctrine of series and degrees is analysed in comparison to Johann Gottfried Herder’s and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling’s natural philosophies.
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In Barcelona, I surveyed the reception of Plato’s Timaeus in Schelling’s thought, as well as the philosophical, cosmological, and astronomical debated between the second half of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century in Germany. During this period, I translated into Italian Schelling’s early manuscript on Timaeus (1794).
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Together with Silvia De Bianchi, Maria Laura Duarte and Laura Marongiu I created the digital archive Timaeus and Its Legacy to study the reception of Plato’s dialogue Timaeus in the history of philosophy, literature, and science from Ancient Greek up to contemporary age. We started digitising and commenting fundamental texts to understand the impact of this Platonic dialogue both in philosophical and scientific thought.
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