Seriousness is the Standard of both Itself and the Fatuous

Editoriale inglese (tradotto da Silvia Benso)

Abstract

The intuition from which we start is that the conceptual crisis affecting seriousness is one of the major features that characterize our time. In this context, by “conceptual crisis” one should understand a condition of extreme vagueness affecting a concept whose task should be instead that of accurately educating individuals to the kind of respect due to reality in all its specific manifestations.

One could say of seriousness what Spinoza thought of truth, namely, that seriousness is the standard of both itself and the fatuous. What seriousness discloses in its rare epiphanies is its a posteriori unequivocality. Combining this element with its irrelevance in everyday affairs creates a philosophical problem and several social issues.