L’ inquieto incontro con l’altro. Pietro Verri “caffettista”: fra estetica e vita civile

Abstract

The article analyses the writings published by Pietro Verri on the issues of the Caffè, one of the most important periodicals of the Italian Enlightenment, founded in a cultural climate marked by optimism towards enlightened absolutism. The work is a contribution to the lively and open debate on the aesthetic and literary thought of Pietro Verri. In the first place, the work follows Verri's reflections on the problem of the Italian language. Secondly, the work explores Pietro's aesthetic-literary thought, with particular attention to the writings on theatre and comedy. Verri reflects organically on these problems and develops an analysis of the passions of the human being. The author explains the function perform by the sentiment in the psychological and physiological processes that constitute the consciousness. Finally, the article analyses the repercussions of this aesthetic-psychological thought in the dimension of morality and politics. The analysis of these literary and aesthetic writings can enrich the historiographical picture of Pietro Verri. Despite the aristocratic conception of culture and politics, the author elaborates the cultural presuppositions of an intersubjective conception, which prefigures the political contract between free and equal individuals. Pietro's reflections refer therefore to a set of unresolved issues, around which moderates and democrats will conflict in the years of the Revolution.