«Ricuperare il perduto» : lo specchio leopardiano dell’educazione

The article is focused on some educational suggestions of Leopardi’s thought. Starting from the living tension between subject and reality, a tension which arises in the poem L’Infinito, we try to analyse the European heritage used by Leopardi for structuring a ‘disseminated’ educational proposal. Our path crosses the Zibaldone, the Pensieri and the Crestomazia italiana della prosa, highlighting a strong and at the same time disquieted idea of education, torn as it is by the awareness of the impossible reconciliation between ethics, reason and social efficacy. Deploying a rich conversation among authors entrenched in different traditions, Leopardi structured a fascinating image of an education, considering carefully the lesson of the past, but only for testing it with the difficulties of the world: that framework opens up a complex horizon where each human being is challenged to find his own approach to life, in society as well as in his intimacy.