POULET The metamorphoses of the circle (1)
[Poulet about Pascal]
1.1 But the circle is the man. The man appears to himself as a giant and as a world, this world contains infinite, but it contains no understand it. Not have been as understanding of the world for who was not reaching the center circle, so there can be no understanding of the world for those places without ever reaching the circumference to the center. Ignorance of the minimum is equal to the maximum. In both cases there is a lack of relationship. The whole unit is equivalent to the unit without all without. The disproportion , absolute, is always the same.
When there is at the center, the circle disappears, and when there arises the circumference, there is no longer the center. The two ways of thinking lead to the same volatilization, the same disappearance. The only dall'antinomia chance to get out would be to come within simultaneously in the center and circumference, but the man is not capable. So in any position you place it, in whatever way you think, the world escapes the height or depth. Alternatively, the circumference and the center of things not found anywhere. Finally the man is in a world devoid of all possible relationships, in a place somewhere in the middle of a sphere, the circumference and the center, "fleeing to escape eternal," are never found in no time or in any place. In all directions there is always the same ignorance. The disaster seems so full. The movement transitive with the thought that he wanted to reach the truth ends eccentrically and concentrically only to throw the thinker "in the midst of the extreme," at an infinite distance from the center and circumference, on the same uncertain shore where he started. "That's where we conduct the natural knowledge" (2). (3) 1.2
For men of the eighteenth century, indeed the soul is like a spider in the center of his canvas, and from here it maintains an infinite number of relationships with the surrounding world. A Montesquieu, a Pope, a Diderot thus represent what is for them the essential human: building a fence as wide as possible, a canvas that puts the center in communication with the entire universe.
For Rousseau there is rather more dangerous folly of this development eccentric: "I do not imagine that you're extending your right also extends your forces, finite on the contrary to diminish, if your pride is extended over them. We measure the radius of our sphere, and we remain at the center as the insect in the middle of its web ; always enough to ourselves ... (4).
While Montesquieu or Diderot is the spider at the center because from that point can more easily enter into communication with the periphery, Rousseau's intention is that his spider remains in the center as it remains at the bottom of its burrow, how to pick the place more solitary, the most distant from all points on the periphery. Here, the web loses its right receptive, all power diffusion. Instead of wanting to expand its web, the insect does not disillusioned hopes to receive even more prey. Hopes to acquire only by self-sustenance, any extension or waiver of import. It 's a spider that goes back on the wires, a center that collects the rays: begin by regaining ourselves, with the focus on us, with our soul circumscribe the same limits that nature has given to our being in a word where we start collecting, so looking to know, you may call simultaneously in front of us all that we are composed (5). (6)
1.3 The center, a mirror of the circle, it reveals its perfection, so that the circle, reflecting the center, returns an image of him infinitely amplified. Reflected in the circle, the center finds its depth and, consequently, the possibility of turning it into a. Certainly in this sense we must understand the formula of Novalis: "We carry within us a unique tendency to expand in all directions from a center infinitely deep (7).
Sometimes, as in Hegel, this new conception of the circle contains a theory of knowledge. The center is the consciousness that surrounds the circle of his ideas. But as for Hegel
consciousness coincides with the idea, and this same idea, surpassing itself, is transformed into a more extensive, Hegelian thought can be conceived, ed'altronde is often described by its author, in the form of circles that fit into each other. "Those whose infinity is the" I "Hegel writes," are also infinite self-reflections on themselves, not just circles, but circles that have their source in other circles and circles are the circles of those (8 ). "
In such a conception of the circle, the circle remains puro oggetto di conoscenza. Non è dunque essa, in quanto tale, che importa, ma piuttosto il movimento con cui il pensiero si porta verso di essa e le proietta sopra una luce che emana dalla sua sorgente. Si ha dunque una centralità in certo senso radiante del pensiero. Tutto il Romanticismo, non soltanto tedesco, ma europeo, ne prende coscienza e ne fa menzione. «Il genio dell’uomo» scrive Chateaubriand, «non circola affatto dentro un cerchio da cui non può uscire. Anzi ... traccia dei cerchi concentrici che si vanno allargando e la cui circonferenza si accrescerà incessantemente in uno spazio infinito (9).» Analogamente, la poesia di Lamartine si presenta essenzialmente come una illimitata espansione del pensiero e della parola nello spazio. «L’uomo è soltanto un punto», dice, ma questo punto
de l’Infini par la pensée est maître
Et, reculant sans fin les bornes de son être,
S’étend dans tout l’espace et vit dans tous les temps (10).
L’uomo è dunque simultaneamente centro e cerchio: centro per il principio attivo del suo pensiero, cerchio per il contenuto infinito di questo. E’ appunto quello che dice Shelley in diversi punti dei suoi scritti teorici: «Ognuno è contemporaneamente il centro e la circonferenza, il punto a cui si riferiscono tutte le cose, e la linea all’interno della quale tutte le cose stanno racchiuse (11). And beyond, in a brighter and more condensed formula: "Poetry is both the center and circumference of knowledge (12). Otherwise expresses Keats 'E' up an old mine, and it is obviously well known: every point of thought is the intellectual center of the universe (13). No more than Wordsworth has such a keen awareness of the benefits that are derived from laying down their thoughts for ever in a central location from which the world is found in the depth as the surface, similar to a sphere that encompasses the truth
... Hither and how to find a lodge
To Which thou may'st for resort holier peace, thou
From Whose calm center, through height or depth,
May'st penetrate, wherever Truth Shall Lead (14). (15)
1.4 The center has the task of projecting its rays into the rim, not to send them there. In every sense of the word, Goethe is one who is content to live within your circle. This is evident from the correspondence: "Now I do not care nearly more than what is outside of my circle (16). "For myself, I'm happy. Business, science, a couple of friends, this is the whole circle in which I live and within which I wisely entrenched (17).
Being in a circle it means to be happy. The circle or sphere is the very picture of happiness:
It has a habit of defining happiness as a round ball, due to its high mobility, and this expression is twice as accurate, for this comparison is true in a direction. When it is motionless, the ball appears to the eye of the beholder in the guise of being a happy, perfect, wrapped himself in (18). The existence
happy, perfect, then, is that it is presented in the form of a circle or a sphere, or rather is one that becomes conscious of itself, occupying space, beings and objects which is associated with, and finally the continuity of time with you in solidarity, in the form of the same all round. If you feel such a perfect match between the self and the world of Goethe's which is the center, the fact is that self and world that are part of a system which recognizes the unit immediately. "To be happy, perfect, enclosed in himself" just want to say this. Skip immediately eyes the admirable consistency of all the elements that make up life, the universe, the work of Goethe.
But because this consistency is realized that it is absolutely necessary to overcome the opposition subject-object, the center-circle. We which can be seen through the triumph of the principle of subjective then the objective world is centralized subjectivity. This is certainly not the solution of Goethe. Will probably decide otherwise, which implies that the victory of objectivity? For a moment you might think, if you do not think that there is now and never ceases to be a consciousness of Goethe, Goethe on the central principle that not only survives the pressure of objectivity, but in the consciousness of this pressure is the its essential characteristic. In other words, here the consciousness never exists in and of itself, but can be understood only as objects of consciousness.
The center thinks the circle . It can not be described more briefly or more precisely the attitude of Goethe. The location of the center circle is neither the center nor the circle can be conceived independently of each other. So you may define this attitude as a successful conciliation or reconciliation of two opposing components. However, it remains an important problem to be solved: Goethe in the center can never think of herself? The consciousness of Goethe, it is absorbed in its peripheral location, is doomed to be alone consciousness of its object and not to be ever aware of the subject?
It is tempting to say yes. Yes, Goethe is intended to non arrivare mai alla pura coscienza di sé. Mai lo vediamo collocarsi per così dire nell’interiorità del centro. (19)
1.5 [brano di Amiel]
C’e una facoltà che pochissimi uomini conoscono e che quasi nessuno esercita; la chiamerò la facoltà di reimplicazione. Potersi semplificare gradualmente e illimitatamente; poter rivivere realmente le forme dissolte della coscienza e dell’esistenza; per esempio, spogliarsi della propria epoca e ripercorrere a ritroso la propria stirpe fino a diventare l’antenato di se stesso; più ancora, svincolarsi dalla propria individualità fino a sentirsi positivamente un altro; meglio ancora, disfarsi della propria attuale organizzazione dimenticando e spegnendo a poco a poco i propri diversi sensi e rientrando simpaticamente, per mezzo di una specie di meraviglioso riassorbimento nello stato psichico anteriore alla vista e all’udito; più ancora, ridiscendere in questa involuzione fino allo stato elementare di animale e addirittura di pianta; e più profondamente ancora, mediante una crescente semplificazione, ridursi allo stato di germe, di punto, di esistenza latente; cioè liberarsi dallo spazio, dal tempo, dal corpo e dalla vita, rituffandosi, di cerchio in cerchio, fino alle tenebre del proprio essere primitivo, riprovando, attraverso infinite metamorfosi, l’emozione della propria genesi e ritirandosi e condensandosi in sé fino alla virtualità del limbo: facoltà preziosa e troppo rara, supremo privilegio dell’intelligenza, giovinezza spirituale a volontà (20). (21)
1.6 [brano di Flaubert]
Ho ritrovato delle vecchie incisioni che avevo colorato a sette o otto anni e che dopo non avevo più rivisto. Ci sono delle rocce dipinte di blu e degli alberi verdi. Davanti ad alcune di esse (tra le altre un’aratura in mezzo al ghiaccio) ho riprovato dei terrori che avevo avuto da piccolo...I miei viaggi, i miei ricordi infantili, ogni cosa prende colore dalle altre, si mette testa a testa, danza con prodigiosi scintillii, e sale a spirale (22). (23)
1.7 In realtà sembra very likely that the symbol of the spiral that goes to infinity, Flaubert wanted to express once again that human quell'allargamento circular horizons had described all the other parties. If we have one more proof we have only to refer to Correspondance . On March 21, 1852 Flaubert wrote to Louise Colet: "The heart in his affections, as well as humanity in its ideas, extends continuously in circles wider (24). And March 27, 1853: "Do you understand that this is not love, but something higher, I think, because this desire for her soul is almost a need to live, to expand , to be bigger. Every feeling is a expansion (25). But of all the sentences of Correspondance there is none better to lighten the 'extension' Flaubertian than this: "My life as a sleepy swamp, and so quiet that the slightest incident produced here gives to countless circles ... (26). That's exactly the theme of Madame Bovary , as we have seen it defined. (27)
1.8 The limitation imposed by the circle is indeed simple, but double. In a circle there is only an outer rim, drawn from the circumference, but inside there is a limit point which is the center. It 's true that some spirits as Plotinus, Nicholas of Cusa, Boehme, Amiel or Blanchot, the center is not a limit. It 'a kind of inner infinity, a kind of abyss. For James the other hand, center, is a staging point, the place where they meet and stop the convergences. As we have seen, the limitation may be formed by the circumferential external objects on which in turn rests gaze emanating from the center. However, since there are two limits, and is easily reversible by reversing the perspective, to ensure that the object becomes the culmination of a movement of prospecting and exploration (bisognerebbe poter dire di inspezione e di implorazione ) proveniente dalla periferia. (28)
1.9 Perciò da Tête d’or a tutta l’opera successiva il passaggio di Claudel non è caratterizzato soltanto dalla conversione a Dio (mistico lo era già, naturalmente allo stato selvatico), ma anche dalla conversione al limite o alla misura. Raggiungendo Dio Claudel raggiunge al tempo stesso i confini della sua espansione; tocca il fondo, si riconosce al di qua dell’infinito. Da quel punto in poi lo spazio in cui si dilatava circolarmente cambia carattere. E’ uno spazio finito circondato, come nel Medioevo, da uno spazio infinito, Dio o l’Empireo: "The real image is the circle of infinity, zero ... But the circle is both the perfect picture of the finished creation made (29). Within this finite space is all over, starting with myself. I am a wave that spreads, eccentric and centrifugal force, but are also a force that will stop at the limit, that refuses to go farther. I have characterized not only by my power but also the expansion of obstinacy. The objects discovered around me as penetrable and assimilated, they become the external forces which come into contact and fighting. They resist me and I resist them, they form a circle and pressure around me and I make hoop against them. I am their limit, and they are my limit. I will exclude them and exclude me. I income information and knowledge from this mutual incompatibility. On this side of the circle extending concentrically around the world to me the scope of its multiple pressures, I am a ball on the surface of which they produce the indentation. By this means I know the outside world, as well as through my resistance I know the procedure. Claudel is made of his being an image not unlike that of a mass of bruised arms. "The experience circumscribes the man (30). But also the indents:
If we represent schematically the field of vibration animal such as a circle whose circumference is the last wave, we can represent every impression, every sensation as coming from outside, through an indentation which affects not only the external form, but also the whole extension of circumscribing. Each wave that starts from the center is to flex against this obstacle (31).
I am therefore limited both inside and outside of my power of resistance and the resistance of things. The closure is from both sides. But this closure does not mean only that it is impossible for me to continue my eccentric expansion, but also the chance to know me know my limits. Therefore, the refusal Claudel who opposes many people have no thoughts or because of ignorance, l’arroganza, la mancanza di curiosità o di carità. E’ solo che lui resiste; e, resistendo, si comprende. Il teatro claudeliano ha per oggetto principale la scoperta che i personaggi fanno di loro stessi opponendosi agli altri. Se la connaissance è una conaissance , avviene come in politica con la scoperta delle pressioni reciproche che le sfere di influenza esercitano le une sulle altre. Una forza prende coscienza di sé quando prende forma; e prende forma quando si inarca dentro i suoi limiti: « Ogni essere vivente è un cerchio più o meno modificato, ma sempre limitato da un contorno (32)». «Ogni cosa definisce ed è definita (33)».
La forza expansion has thus become a force for training. Starting from a point, being Claudel has expanded in space and time in successive waves up to a definite limit, "Every year a circle around a circle is to count for something, a record amount of time, transform the homogeneous flow numerica34 units. For this reason, the time dell0uomo tree or not to be confused with the Newtonian flow, any more than human space can be confused with infinite extension. As in the Aristotelian become, the time is to develop and refine a shape gradually. But each form is a variation of the circle. The human being is an act which is continuous with form and close an energy wave that goes from center to circumference.
Schematically we can define a wave which moves from the center, reaches all the points of an area circumscribed by the boundary trace in the end. It determines all points a total shift, which is followed by a reaction, or a tendency to take place early ... (35) (36)
Georges Poulet
1. G. Poulet, Les Métamorphoses du cercle , Librairie Plon, Paris 1961 [trad. com.: The metamorphosis of the circle , Rizzoli, Milano 1971]
2. B. Pascal, Pensées et Opuscules , a cura di Brunschvicg, Hachette, p. 567
third Poulet G., op.cit ., P. 88
4th JJ Rousseau, Emile , Garnier , p. 60
5th Rousseau Lettres morales , lettera 6, Correspondance, t. III, p. 369
6th Poulet G., op.cit ., P. 131
7th Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) writings, I, p. 17, Apprentices of Sais: There is a mysterious train to all sides within us, from an infinitely deep center is spreading around . Su e il tema del Novalis punto si devono leggere le osservazioni eccellenti Tues Maurice Besset, nel suo libro Novalis et la pensée mystique , Aubier, 1947, pp. 97-102.
8th GWF Hegel , Jena logic, a cura di From Lasson, p. 161: Those whose infinity is the ego, are themselves infinite reflections in itself, not merely public but which even to their moments have circles and the circles of these circles.
9th FR Chateaubriand, Essai sur les Révolutions anciennes et modern in oeuvres, a cura di Dufour, vol. II, p. 102
10th AMLP Lamartine, L'Humanité in Harmonies, Hachette, p. 160: "... it is with the thought of the Infinite Lord / E, removing forever the boundaries of his being / It extends throughout the area and lives in all times."
11. PB Shelley, Prose, edited by DL Clark, University of Mexico Pr, 1954, p. 173, Essai on Life: Each is at once the center and the circumference, the point to Which All Things are Referred, and the line in Which all things are contained.
12. PB Shelley, op. cit., p. 293, A Defense of Poetry: Poetry ... is at once the center and circumference of knowledge.
13. J. Keats, To B. Bailey, 13 March 1818: It is an old maxim of mine That Every point of thought is the center of an intellectual world.
14. W. Wordsworth, Excursion , Lib. III, vv. 106-109: "... Come here to find an asylum / Where you can enjoy a holier peace / And from the center clear, both in height and depth, you can enter wherever you bring the truth."
15. G. Poulet, op.cit., P. 159
16. JW Goethe, Sämtliche Werke , A Lavater, February 19, 1777: ... bother me except my circle now nothing.
17th JW Goethe, op cit , A gag , 16 febbraio 1784. Personally, I'm happy. The business, the sciences, a few friends, this is the whole circle of my life in which I've holed wisely.
18th JW Goethe, op cit , vol 38, p. 58. It is customary to happiness, because of its mobility to name a ball around, and that double with law, for it is this comparison in a other senses. Quiet mind standing, indicates the ball is to the viewer as a satisfied, volkommnes, self-contained system.
19th Poulet G., op.cit ., P. 172
20th HF Amiel, Grains de mil , p. 138
21st Poulet G., op.cit ., P. 311
22nd G. Flaubert, Correspondance , Conard, T. II, p. 41
23rd Poulet G., op.cit ., P. 358
24th G. Flaubert, Correspondance , t. II, p. 373
25th Id, t. III, p. 139
26th Id, t. III, p. 289
27. Poulet G., op.cit., p. 359
28. Id., p. 427
29. Claudel P., Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière , Plon, 1926, p. 61
30. Art Poetique , Mercure de France, 1907, p. 130
31. Id., p. 100
32. Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière , p. 61
33. Art Poetique , p. 81
34. Paul Claudel interroge l’Apocalypse , Gallimard, 1952, p. 267
35. Art Poetique , cit., p. 95
36. Poulet G., op.cit., P. 442
MANDALA A MOSAICO 1/1994 
