"Reading a classic means understanding yourself and understanding the present"

20/04/2015

Nuccio Ordine, professor in literature at the Università di Calabria, offered a conference entitled "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge" at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts on 14 April in an event organised by the teaching and coordination committee of the bachelor's degree in Humanities. Ordine, a profound expert in the Renaissance Era and the works of Giordano Bruno, is author o the book L'utilità dell'inutile. Manifesto, in which he defends the need of humanistic disciplines for the development of society, both at the economic level and for its democratic values. He sums it up in a quote by Eugène Ionesco: "in a society in which the importance of uselessness is no longer understood, only hate and resentment can be cultivated".

Where do we fall short in transmitting interest for "useless knowledge"?

I believe the most important channels through which to make young people understand the importance of useless knowledge are schools and universities. Today, unfortunately, society moves in a different direction: young people begin to study with the aim of earning a degree that will help them find work. But they should be enrolling in classes to better themselves. Later, those who become better people are the ones who occupy honourable places in society.

What about the values transmitted by the mass media?

These also follow a utilitarian logic. For example: when there is an exhibit we hear that it was "a great success". Why? Because it sold so and so many tickets. But the contents of the exhibit are not explained. How are citizens who have been to the exhibit able to understand the great values of humanity? These questions are no longer of interest.

Do democratic values deteriorate in this case?

In order to vote you must be informed. If I have no information, my election will not be democratic. The precondition for democracy is to make sure all people are capable of having a decent life. I can democratically choose if I am economically independent and can have access to different viewpoints in information.

The problem seems to be closely related to the lack of interest in reading and knowledge of the classics.

There is no doubt about that. The schools and universities should prepare our students to be above all critical thinkers, and this comes with knowledge: the more you know, the more independent you are. Some years ago, an Italian minister insulted culture by saying: "culture does not feed you; if I read a book when I am hungry, I will continue to be hungry". This is a completely mistaken vision. If the book can satisfy the demands of my soul I will be prepared to make much more valid contributions to society. The great scientific revolutions appeared thanks to young people who studied and were creative. And creativity does not appear thanks to a rigid formation, but rather after having fostered a person's curiosity. The more curiosity is stimulated, the more wonderful people we will have.

What role is the internet playing?

There is no problem with the channel, it's the way we use it. Internet is fabulous: when I was young and preparing my thesis in my town in the south of Italy, I had to travel to Paris to consult a book. Today, I can find it on the internet. But internet is useful for those who know things, not for those who do not. Many students tell me they want to study Giordano Bruno through the internet; I tell them that of the 100 websites on Bruno, ninety of them are full of mistakes. How can a student know which sites are valid and which are not? First, they must read a good book; then, when they are capable of judging, internet becomes an essential tool. Students must understand that tools can be put to good or to bad use.

The humanities have given answers to specific problems, as Joan Carbonell mentioned a few days ago in the debate organised by the Friends of the UAB Association?

The best way to understand the present is to understand the past. Students must be made to understand that reading a classic basically means understanding oneself and understanding the moment we live in. Here are two examples. In my book, I speak about a lovely text in which Democritus and Hippocrates are conversing. Democritus explains that humans are killing nature because they are digging up her veins. When I read that sentence to young people in a town near Naples, where the Camorra buries toxic waste underground, there was no need to explain that this sentence talks about the present. And the other day, in Italy, a young homosexual male was violently attacked. In my weekly column in the newspaper Corriere della Sera I quoted a passage by Montaigne: "careful when someone says that something is anti-natural, because many times we consider natural to be what we do".

What difficulties are there at university level to transmit this usefulness of what is useless?

We are destroying the university because we are bureaucratising it. What is a professor's task? Two things: study to prepare the lessons and teach. Today, that is the last thing they can do. They are expected to fill in stupid reports which are an insult to human intelligence... What are they used for? To justify the bureaucracy. And for what is bureaucracy useful? To justify a system which is killing the best parts of our society.

It seems to me that the discrediting of "useless knowledge" runs parallel to a capitalism which only contemplates research as being of maximum benefit.

Unfortunately, this is how it is. But there have been moments in which capitalism wasn't like that. In Italy, there was a wonderful entrepreneur named Adriano Olivetti, inventor of the world's first computer. What was his philosophy? That an industry cannot make only the owner rich, but also its workers. He created libraries, cinemas, asylums, comfortable housing, etc. Olivetti's employees produced three times as much as the workers of other factories. That is what capitalism should be: a prosperous factory in which workers are well paid and things that benefit the community are produced. In the system we have today the only thing that stands out is the worst type of selfishness.