With his Lectio Magistralis titled "The Freedoms of the Improbable," philologist and literary critic Carlo Maria Ossola will deliver the opening ceremony for the 2018–19 Academic Year at the University of the Republic of San Marino. Ahead of the event, scheduled for 15:30 PM on Tuesday, November 27, at the Kursaal Congress Center, the professor of Modern Neo-Latin European Literatures at the Collège de France in Paris offers a brief preview of his contribution.
Professor Ossola, what will you discuss in your Lectio Magistralis?
The probable is increasingly calculable. The order of parameters that condition our actions is increasingly regulated. The question that arises for each individual and citizen is primarily: where does the "unconstrained," incalculable portion of my actions reside? The lesson explores the essential features of the historical characteristics of the improbable, to draw some hypotheses about the present of social life.
How did you welcome the University's invitation?
Rector Corrado Petrocelli's proposal deeply honors and engages me; the inaugural lecture is, literally, a "preparatory exercise" for the academic year. Therefore, to remain faithful to its purpose, it must truly prepare for the start of the courses. The intent, and the challenge, of the presentation is that the chosen topic and the presentation that follows are truly preparatory: not just a praeparatio sophistica, but a exercitium probitatis.
