Il corpo delle emozioni. Una prospettiva antica sull’intreccio tra menti, corpi e parole

Abstract

In this paper we propose a reflection on the intertwining of mind, body, and words in ancient Greek thought, with specific reference to Gorgias and Aristotle. In particular, we believe that it was the reflection developed within rhetoric – though not the only one – that played a central role in the first articulation of the conceptual framework where the relationship between soul and body, in a very peculiar and specific way, takes place. There are at least two salient features of this rhetorical perspective, which will be investigated here with specific reference, as mentioned, to Gorgias and Aristotle: the insistence on the close interrelationship between body and soul, an interrelationship highlighted starting from the emotional sphere in which it shows itself in the most explicit manner and never resolved in terms of a pure and simple subordination of one to the other; the role that logos, by virtue of its nature and characteristics, plays as point of intersection of somatic and psychic dimension of human experience.