«La legge di struttura di ciò che è umano». Enzo Paci e la speleologia della storia

Abstract

This contribution focuses on a problem partly overlooked by scholarship: Enzo Paci’s “speleological” interest in defining the rules governing the development of human history. The first part analyzes the works in which Paci examines the regressive movements of contemporary history. The second part considers the theoretical motives underlying his attention to the problem of history. The aim of the essay is to propose a framework for the concept of the “dialectic of the arcane”, through which Paci appears to establish a problematic parallel between the process of the humanization of history and the process of the decline of civilization.