Robert Harrison, a professor of Italian literature at Stanford, explores how science and literature intertwine in Italian culture in today’s episode.
“Science and the imagination have always gone together in the Italian canon,” Harrison says.
He highlights figures like Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci as examples of this unique integration, which he believes is a lesson more important than ever in today’s world of new sciences.
In 2014, Harrison was given the title of Chevalier, or Knight, by the French government.
“The greatest blessing a society can confer on its young is to turn them into the heirs, rather than the orphans, of history,” he says.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the author of several books, including “Juvenescence,” which we discuss today. The book examines the paradox of a society that worships youth but often fails to nurture it.
Harrison finds today’s cultural contradictions both fascinating and troubling.
“You have CEOs at age 25 and 60-year-olds skateboarding in San Francisco,” he observes.
His work reminds us that cultural memory is essential for understanding both the past and the future. For more, watch today’s episode.
