The idea of a living spirit

In this book, Paul Colilli brings a unifying perspective to the time-worn debate between rationalists and empiricists by demonstrating that ratio-logical thinking is based on, not separate from, poetico-logical thinking.

Colilli sets out his theory of poetic logic through an analysis of works by a range of thinkers and writers that include Paolo Valesio, Franco Rella, Giorgio Agamben, Martin Heidegger, Carl Jung, Giambattista Vico, and Giordano Bruno. Their writings offer a strong counter-argument to the mechanistic and materialistic perspectives of postmodern science and philosophy.

Through his expansive interpretive approach, Colilli is able to re-establish a unity that once existed between poetry and philosophy, and between the lyric and the rational.