Le parole dei moderni fra solitudine, memoria e sogno

Historians and philosophers are now aware that words do not passively mirror the reality they refer to, but actively cooperate to denoting human experience, both individual and collective. We would not be aware of these dynamics if we adhered univocally to certain interpretations of words, thereby excluding from our field of inquiry areas that might be more or less secondary but relevant from other perspectives. On the opposite side, this could also lead to the inclusion of terms of questionable significance. The act of definition is not an exact science, and although it is important to distinguish one concept from another, it can be misleading to consider them independently, because their history is largely symbiotic.