Close-ups

Tell us about yourself: what you teach at Ca' Foscari, did you always think that this was your career, what are your research areas?
I am Isabella Adinolfi and I teach Philosophy of History, Anthropology, History of Ethical-Religious Thought and History of Moral Philosophy at Ca' Foscari.
As a child, I always admired all that is beautiful, which at first I only confusedly perceived as good and true. Whether it was a story or a painting, the precision and grace I felt in the arrangement of colours or words, in the precision of a drawing or in the accuracy of a thought or in the ingenuity of a plot, caught my attention, arousing in me the desire to understand and make that beauty my own.
As an adult, I have tried to substantiate and shape this passion through study, writing and teaching, focusing on authors who emphasise the relation between aesthetic, ethical and religious experience, whose works lie on the boundary between philosophy and literature.

What has given you the greatest satisfaction in your career?
In my professional career there are three accomplishments that I remember with most joy.
When Umberto Galimberti retired in 2012, he suggested that I take over teaching Philosophy of History, which he had taught for so many years. I have always felt this legacy as a responsibility but also as an honour, a token of appreciation from an intellectual, a teacher, whom I have greatly respected.
Another great accomplishment was editing the official journal of the Italian Society for Kierkegaardian Studies.
The latest and most recent gratification I have experienced is reading the judgments by which I was awarded a full professorship, which acknowledge my interpretive subtlety, clearness, accuracy and creativity in writing and the outstanding quality of my achievements.

What is the aspect of your job you are most passionate about?
I am very passionate about writing and teaching.
Every passion is, however, a source of joy and torment at the same time. Torment, because it is not as easy to achieve as one would like to believe. Often, when I reread what I have written with a ‘cool head’ or listen to a recorded lesson, I feel deeply disappointed.
Joy, on the other hand, whenever I realise that I have succeeded in rendering with exact words in a speech or a well-structured page that shred of truth which inspired them, so that they may provide, as Simone Weil observed, a guide or support to every student who, following classes or reading essays, is eager to find it.
When this 'translation' succeeds, I feel that, despite all my shortcomings, I am fulfilled in the job I have chosen for passion.

What do teaching and researching mean to you?
For me, teaching means not only informing, but also existentially engaging students who listen to my lectures, that is, addressing not only their intellectual dimension, but also their imagination and emotional intelligence. Whoever aims at educating takes on a responsibility, because through their teaching they can affect the way another reads their experiences, change their relationship with the world and thus their life.
After all, teaching the authors I have chosen - Kierkegaard, Pascal, Weil, Hillesum, Tosltoj, Dostoevsky - in a different way would mean betraying them.