RISULTATI RICERCA

The ipothesis upon which Allodi’s proposal is based is the importance of suffering and pain in the understanding of the phenomenological concept of Person. Like other human experiences – for instance friendship and freedom – pain can help us to understand our human nature, as Gadamer put it. After a tight set of reflections, Allodi states that the tension of the person toward trascendality is the way by which also pain can be seen in its real meaning.

Body to Body with the Pain. A Short Reflexion on Pain and Global Society (By Riccardo Prandini) Apparently, our society is marker by a paradox. On one side, through technical systems we are transforming nature in order to prevent risks, dangers and therefore pain – Artificialization of Nature. Pain, according to our philosophical tradition is something that is unfair and must be avoided. On the other side, many scientifical efforts tries to transform “metanatural” phenomena in natural ones – for instance the “biologization” of cognitions, emotions and of the “social”. On these basis, Prandini develop a set of reflections that concern the opportunity of avoiding the pain if this imply to erase the “human” that is the premise of the pain.

This is the first paper published in Italy on the sociology of the body of David le Breton. This French author criticizes the devaluation of the body carried out by the (gnostic and cartesian) dualism and by those who consider the body like a sketch to be corrected or even erased in its whole because of its imperfection. In particular, the essay focuses on the relationship between identity and pain. Pain is a “self-tear” breaking the obviousness of the relationship to the world. It lies at the intersection of body, society, culture and involves moral suffering. If a plurality of sufferings does exist, it is first because of the plurality of pains: self pain, inflicted pain, pain as a boundary of identity, pain as a boundary of senses, pain as a sustain of ecstasy.

The rational and free perception of the pain passes through the of acknowledgment the Other. It deals with the overcoming of a naturalistic vision, for a complex “liberality” offered by the Aristotelian alter ipse. This view opens, in this way, a space of freedom granted by the identification of a common ground and a sphere of solidarity. Morever, a set of reflections on euthanasia are proposed. According to Sabuy, euthanasia can be seen as an act of egoism of theOther (the relative, for instance) because it can be viewed as a way of avoiding the pain of the relatives, and not only the pain of the sick person.

One of the most controversial facets of the present individualized society has to do with self identity construction. The present flexibility that concerns professional roles and the multiplicity of social belongings make its stabilization very problematic. Social actors can create a sort of imaginative sociability in a particular way of communication with their bodies, devoting to them most of their cares. Their bodies become the actual factor of individuation because these are the loci of actors’ realm on an ever fluctuant social world. Contemporary society has in itself a controversial perception of corporeity too, whenever virtual reality and its rules demand the performing skill of multiple identities devoid of actors’ bodies. This ambivalence puts the focus of attention on the old dicothomy between mind and body especially concerning virtual realities.

The critical analysis of Norbert Elias’ theory on death in modern societies is developed on two levels by Lorenza Gattamorta. In the first instance, Gattamorta places Elias’ essay within its historical and cultural context: she sheds light on the influences that other studies on death have had on it (with particular reference to Ariès’ work) and she proposes a comparison with other studies on death that appeared some years before Elias’ book even though not quoted in it (with particular reference to Gorer, Foucault and Parsons). In the second instance, she identifies the peculiar role that The Loneliness of the Dying plays in Elias’ more general theory of civilization and individualization.

Caring of death and pain can be rather embarrassing but, on the other hand, today nothing else than this relationship speaks so much about our existence. We need to consider the death and the illness as part of life and contemporarily to experiment a sense of solidarity for the one whom suffers and who dies. Probably, as Viktor Emil Frankl put it, the ability of suffering and of knowing oneself through suffering is a natural attitude of the human being and therefore the expression homo patiens is linked to human nature as much as homo sapiens and homo faber are, or even more.