Remo the Fox
Abstract
The hedgehog and the fox are the well-known characters, dear to Ceserani, with which Berlin designates two different modes of pursuing the paths of knowledge: the first, the one of the hedgehog, is straight and guided by a universal principle, while the other one is exploratory. The fox’s curiosity and instinct drive her off the beaten track. In the present article, Berlin’s two creatures serve the purpose to illustrate the cognitive and structural rethinking that has set in within the European higher education system during the past decades, and which finds the most appropriate impact on the redefinition of the delicate interdisciplinary relationship between science and the humanities. While tracing Ceserani’s scholarly activity as a Visiting Professor at the ETH Zurich–and relating to the latest development of the chair once held by De Sanctis–the article discusses the emblematic history of an institutional transition towards interdisciplinarity, taking one of the most prestigious universities in the world as its case study. Based on Ceserani’s recent studies about the connection between scientific knowledge and narration, the analysis of the modes that disentangle from traditional disciplinarity are eventually integrated into a broader discourse about the reciprocal interaction among disciplines.
Downloads
References
Bauman, Zygmunt, Modernità liquida, trad. it. di Sergio Minucci, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 8a. ed., 2006.
Beccaria, Gian Luigi, (ed.), Tre più due uguale zero, Milano, Garzanti, 2004.
Berlin, Isaiah, Il riccio e la volpe (1953), Milano, Adelphi, 2a. ed, 1998.
Bertoni, Federico, "La letteratura al crocevia dei saperi: conversazione con Remo Ceserani", Transpostcross – Letterature culture, giugno, (2011).
Ceserani, Remo, Treni di carta: l'immaginario in ferrovia: l'irruzione del treno nella letteratura moderna, Genova, Marietti, 1993.
Ceserani, Remo, Raccontare il postmoderno, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1997.
Ceserani, Remo, Convergenze: gli strumenti letterari e le altre discipline, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2010.
Ceserani, Remo, L'occhio della Medusa: fotografia e letteratura, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2011.
De Sanctis, Francesco, La scienza e la vita, in Opere complete: Saggi critici, Ed. Nino Cortese, Napoli, Alberto Morano Editore, 1932: 272-275, X-3, 12 voll.
Fish, Stanley Eugene, Doing what comes naturally: change, rhetoric, and the practice of theory in literary and legal studies, Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1989.
Galilei, Galileo, Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico e copernicano, Eds. Ottavio Besomi e Mario Helbing, Padova, Editrice Antenore, 1998, 2 voll.
Galilei, Galileo, Il saggiatore, Eds. Ottavio Besomi, Mario Helbing, Roma, Editrice Antenore, 2005.
Galilei, Galileo, Lettera a Cristina di Lorena, Eds. Ottavio Besomi, Daniele Besomi; versione latina di Elia Diodati a cura di, Roma, Editrice Antenore 2012.
Galilei, Galileo e Guiducci, Mario, Discorso delle comete, Eds. Ottavio Besomi, Mario Helbing, Roma-Padova, Editrice Antenore, 2002.
Geertz, Clifford, "An inconstant profession: The Anthropological Life in Interesting Times", Annual Review of Anthropology, n. 41, (2002): 1-19.
Pika, Philip, Intervista a Ottavio Besomi, in occasione dei 175 anni dell'Università di Zurigo, 2008.
Said, Edward W., "Traveling Theory", The World, the Text, and the Critic, Cambridge, Harvard U.P., 1983: 226-247.
Seligardi, Beatrice, Remo Ceserani: "Convergenze. Gli strumenti letterari e le altre discipline", Between, I.1 (2011): 1-4.
Snider, Saverio, "Addio bella Cattedra", Corriere del Ticino, vol. CXIII, num. 274, 26 novembre, (2004): 1.
Woolf, Virginia, How Should One Read a Book?, in The Common Reader (1925), 2nd. Ser., London, The Hogart Press, 1984: 258-270.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
