Tra etica ed estetica: il potere generativo dei classici

Abstract

The present paper examines the concept of classic at the intersection between ethics, aesthetics and biology. To be a classic means here to be productive and generative; so, a classic is what engenders new ideas, sharpens one’s own aesthetic sensibility, spurs the ethical reflection, and so on. In this sense, the productive and generative aspect of the classics holds strong relationships with various biological concepts, from autopoiesis to genesis, or from reproduction to regeneration. So, at the crossroads between aesthetics, ethics and biology, a classic is what produces and reproduces (with reference to poetry), generates and regenerates (geniality), augments and increases (authority) and bears fruit (fruition); to approach the classics, the classics of all times, disciplines and peoples, implies the cultivation and culture of all that.