Realtà e povertà

(Reality and Poverty)

Abstract

The essay examines the myth of Prometheus and Epimetheus narrated by Plato in the Protagoras and investigates what in it remains insufficient (sophistic) when considered from Plato’s point of view. The answer is that in the myth, being is without remedy and technique provides a remedy for it. Plato seems instead to suggest the hypothesis that being itself is a kind of technique. There is no being without an addition (a prosthesis) of goodness. The remedy is thus not simply an external addition suggested by the pressing practical needs of humans; rather, it is a characteristic of being itself, and simply for this—in the form of culture—it is also an anthropological feature.