STILE PERSONALE E FILOSOFIA POLITICA

Danilo Di Matteo

Philosophy is characterized by a plurality of literary genres: the construction of systems and their deconstruction, for example. And today there is a more personal, if not private, philosophy and a more public, political one. A multiplicity of styles, one for each author, can result from the meeting of the two genres. Sexual difference also contributes to broadening the range of expressive forms, and their content, if indeed there are two universals: the masculine and the feminine. Psychoanalysis, then, shows us how thought arises from sensations, emotions, feelings; from the body, then, and from each person’s interpersonal relationships. It, therefore, presents itself from the outset with a particular personal colouring, which cannot but find expression in style. Even philosophical discourse, on the other hand, while characterized by arguments, refutations and the rigor of logical connections, sometimes proceeds by consonance, assonance or, often, by metaphor, rather like poetry, dreams and myth. And this further contributes to personalize one’s writing.

The encounter of philosophical thought with other expressive registers — such as painting, sculpture, poetry itself and, more generally, art — also enriches the range of stylistic possibilities and, with that, the ability to communicate content. The formal level, in fact, is intimately linked to that of the message to be shared; it is its vehicle and, at the same time, contains it, limits it and gives it form. The whole is already within the birth of philosophy, with its three aspects: wonder, understood as astonishment, politicalness, and love of knowledge.