Il trionfo della misericordia

A POUND OF FLESH - EYE FOR AN EYE BY WILLIAM IAN MILLER

La trama de “Il mercante di Venezia”.

Venezia, XVI secolo. Bassanio, giovane gentiluomo veneziano, vorrebbe la mano di Porzia, ricca ereditiera di Belmonte. Per corteggiare degnamente Porzia, Bassanio chiede al suo carissimo amico Antonio 3.000 ducati in prestito. Antonio, pur amando Bassanio, non può prestargli il denaro, poiché lo ha interamente investito nei traffici marittimi. Tuttavia Antonio decide di garantire per lui presso Shylock, ricco usuraio ebreo. Shylock è disprezzato dai cristiani, e ricambia questo sentimento. Soprattutto non sopporta Antonio, il mercante di Venezia, che presta denaro gratuitamente, facendo abbassare il tasso d'interesse nella città, e che lo umilia pubblicamente con pesanti insulti.

Nonostante ciò, Shylock accorda il prestito a Bassanio, con Antonio come garante. L'ebreo stabilisce che in caso di mancato pagamento, Antonio debba pagare con una libbra di carne dal proprio corpo. Bassanio cerca di far desistere Antonio dall'accettare l'offerta, ma costui è sicuro di poter saldare il debito, dato che tre navi sono in viaggio per riportare a Venezia ricchezze nove volte più grandi di quanto abbia investito. Il tempo concesso per il saldo del prestito è di tre mesi, e le navi ne impiegheranno solo due. Bassanio si reca a Belmonte; secondo la volontà del defunto padre di Porzia, i suoi pretendenti sposi dovranno scegliere lo scrigno giusto tra tre differenti possibilità (oro, argento, piombo). Il principe del Marocco sceglie lo scrigno d'oro (che non è quello giusto), e il principe d'Aragona sceglie lo scrigno d'argento (e nemmeno questo è quello giusto), mentre Bassanio sceglie lo scrigno di piombo, il meno pregiato dei tre, e ottiene il diritto di sposare Porzia, già precedentemente innamorata di lui. L'amico di Bassanio, Graziano, sposa l'ancella di Porzia, Nerissa.

Intanto la sfortuna si accanisce su Shylock: sua figlia Jessica infatti, aiutata da Lancillotto, fugge di casa sposando un cristiano di nome Lorenzo, amico di Antonio e Bassanio. La ragazza è fuggita portando con sé 2.000 ducati e soprattutto uno scrigno contenente l'anello donato a Shylock dalla defunta moglie. L'unica consolazione di Shylock deriva dalla pari sfortuna di Antonio: infatti le sue tre navi sono disperse in mare, per cui egli non potrà più saldare il debito. Nel frattempo Porzia e Nerissa donano ai rispettivi mariti, Bassanio e Graziano, un anello, segno del loro amore. Stringono una promessa, che loro non dovranno mai separarsene finché l'amore li legherà alle loro consorti.

Shylock decide di portare Antonio di fronte al Doge e alla corte, chiedendo di far valere i suoi diritti. Porzia, che viene a sapere del processo in arrivo, si traveste da avvocato, all'insaputa di tutti, per salvare Antonio. Nerissa la segue vestendosi da scrivano.

Giunta in tribunale, Porzia, travestita, esibisce la lettera del Dottor Bellario, giurista e consulente del Doge, in cui si spiega che al processo sarebbe stato presente il suo sostituto, il giovane avvocato Baldassarre (cioè lei stessa). Al processo assistono anche Bassanio e Graziano.

Porzia/Baldassarre invita Shylock ad accettare i 6000 ducati offerti da Bassanio, ormai ricco per avere sposato Porzia, al fine di estinguere il debito dell'amico. L'odio di Shylock verso i cristiani, fomentato dall'abbandono della figlia, gli impedisce di accettare. Al contrario, chiede a gran voce che gli sia pagato il debito con la libbra di carne di Antonio, come da accordo. Nonostante la crudeltà della proposta, il Doge, dice Baldassarre, deve necessariamente applicare la legge e permettere a Shylock di prendersi la libbra di carne, perché in caso contrario si creerebbe un precedente dannoso per lo stato.

Baldassarre invita Shylock a procedere, ma gli comunica che, dato che il contratto parla solo di carne, se avesse versato anche una sola goccia di sangue, sarebbe stato considerato colpevole di aver attentato alla vita di un cittadino veneziano, e quindi i suoi beni sarebbero stati confiscati e divisi tra Antonio e lo stato, e lui condannato a morte. Il Doge gli concede in grazia la vita e Shylock rinuncia alla sua parte purché venga ceduta, alla sua morte, in eredità alla figlia Jessica. Inoltre si stabilisce che Shylock debba convertirsi al cristianesimo, pena assai più pesante per l'usuraio. In queste condizioni, Shylock, sconfitto, rinuncia ai suoi propositi.

Bassanio si complimenta con Baldassarre per aver salvato il suo amico e gli chiede come possa ringraziarlo. Il finto avvocato gli chiede solo il suo anello. Bassanio esita, a causa del valore affettivo dell'anello, ma spinto dall'onore e dalla gratitudine finisce per cederlo. Lo stesso è obbligato a fare Graziano per lo scrivano/Nerissa.

Quando tutti i cristiani giungono a Belmonte, Porzia e Nerissa chiedono ai mariti gli anelli, ma entrambi spiegano l'accaduto. Quindi le due donne fanno credere di aver trascorso una notte con i nuovi possessori dell'anello, Baldassarre e lo scrivano, per riottenere gli anelli, prima di rivelar loro la vera identità dell'avvocato e del suo assistente. Antonio fa di nuovo da garante per Bassanio che giura di non separarsi mai più dal suo anello. Successivamente Nerissa riferirà a Lorenzo che i beni di Shylock diventeranno suoi e di Jessica dopo la morte dell'usuraio.

Nel frattempo si scopre che le tre navi di Antonio sono tornate sane e salve in porto.

***MISERICORDIA FRAUDOLENTA***

There are body parts and human flesh acting as a money substance; we have scales, knives, justice, revenge; measuring and meting.

Note:NEL MERCANTE DI VENEZIA LA CARNE SI FA MONETA

After seeing Edmund Kean in 18 16 break with convention to play Shylock as more substantial than the usual one-dimensional stock Jew-villain, Harlitt wrote, "Certainly our sympathies are much oftener with him than with his enemies. He is honest in his vices; they are hypocrites in their virtues."'

Note:WILLIAM HAZLITT PRIMO DIFENSORE DI SHYLOCK: ONESTO NEI SUOI VIZI

Shylock's speeches on revenge and Christian hypocrisy are unnervingly forceful and nearly untraversable even for those inclined to favor the mercy party, who, it is to he noted, never do outargue or outreason Shylock but must resort to arguments ad hominem and force majeure to defeat him.

Note:LA GIUSTA VENDETTA DEL NON MISERICORDIOSO

We do know that Antonio lends at zero percent interest; no hypocrisy there. But we surely do not see him borrowing at the same low rate. That he must seek out Shylock indicates the market for zero-percent loans could hardly exist as anything more than a pipe dream. No Christians, it seems, are willing to lend to Antonio at the rate Antonio lends to Bassanio.

Note:L' UTOPIA DELL' INTERESSE ZERO

Even Antonio, the only person we actually see lending gratis, appears to he motivated in his lending practices more by hate, by the pleasure he takes in harassing Shylock on the Rialto, than by charity

Note:ANTONIO: PRESTA A ZERO PER DISPETTO

There is Portia, Lady Justice herself. No figurative blindfold prevents her from making out like a bandit, saving her own assets by having her husband's debts paid off with money expropriated from Shylock.

Note:PORZIA. SIMBOLO FRAUDOLENTO DELLA GIUSTIZIA MISERICORDIOSA

The transmutation of Jews into Christians will increase consumption of pigs and drive down the price of money in relation to pigs.

Note:I CRISTIANI SANNO DIVENTARE ABILI ECONOMISTI QUANDO CONVIENE

What happens when there are no Jews left to plunder?

Note:CHE SUCCEDEREBBE SENZA IL CATTIVONE SHYLOCK? LA VITA SAREBBE MIGLIORE? PENSATECI.

Hints of (human) flesh eating lurk about the play. Shylock hints at it by denying it: "A pound of man's flesh taken from a man, / Is not so estimable, profitable neither / As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats ..." (1-3.161-163)… Torah's word for usury - neshekh - which means "bite." Graziano views Shylock as a ravenous man-eating wolf.

   Note:LO SPECULATORE COME UN CANNIBALE

And hints of the easy exchangeability of edible and money-like sheep and goats with money-like (and edible) humans arise subtly and casually, as when Shylock alludes to the story of Jacob acquiring his birthright.

Note:DENARO PECORA (PECUNIA)... FINO ALLA CARNE DI ANTONIO

***PIETÀ L'È MORTA***

Antonio's flesh is the only specie that can satisfy the debt, a debt Antonio owes in Shylock's mind, not for the 3,000 ducats he advanced to fund Bassanio's heiress-hunt but for the debt Antonio raised by treating Shylock like a dog.

Note:LA CARNE DI ANTONIO È INESTIMABILE PE SHYLCK. NULLA LO FARÀ RECEDERE DAL SUO DIRITTO DI AVERLA

Shylock is not speaking figuratively when he enumerates Antonio's ways of treating him. Antonio berates him in public spaces while Shylock is doing business; he calls him a "misbeliever, cut-throat dog," spits on his "Jewish gabardine," and kicks him (1.3.101-1 zg).

Note:I MALTRATTAMENTI CHE ANTONIO HA RISERVATO A SHYLOCK

Antonio promises to repay Shylock's loan upon Shylock's body with spit, phlegm, and kicks even before Shylock has agreed to lend and well before Shylock has decided to waive interest in lieu of a fleshly forfeiture.

Note:LA PROMESSA DI ANTONIO. PERCHÈ NON DOVREBBE ESSERE VINCOLANTE?

the idea of equivalences among people, sheep, and money runs deep in the play's diction and melodies. Thus the repeated pun of "luwes," Shakespeare's spelling for Jews, "ewes," and "use" (the word for interest).'

Note:GIOCHI DI PAROLE SULLE EQUIVALENZE

Piously, we are to believe that the play reveals the triumph of mercy over justice, though justice hardly gets a fair shake in the play, and mercy, well, spare me such mercy.

Note:TRIONFO DELLA MISERICORDIA SULLA GIUSTIZIA. QUESTO IL MESSAGGIO PER MOLTI

The knife-wielding Jew, though, is more than a parody of Lady justice; he is the Christian nightmare image of the circumciser; he is The Flesh Exciser incarnate, so to speak. Christians never were quite sure what Jews actually did to their eight-day-old boys. They fantasized the whole kit and caboodle got snipped:

Note:SCHYLOCK: IL TIPICO GIUDEO PER I CRISTIANI

It has been pointed out, quite correctly, that Shylock is being nastily witty in choosing to take the flesh from "nearest his heart," for the heart is where St. Paul says a Christian is to he circumcised.

Note:LA CARNE CHE DESIDERA SHYLOCK

Shylock simply asks for the rights in his bond, which, as the givens of the play demand, is deemed by all to he enforceable. He is not engaging in any lawyerly tricks; he does not overinterpret or require counterintuitive readings of his bond.

Note:SHYLOCK: L'INSOPPORTABILE ANTILEGULEIO. TROPPA CHIAREZZA È INSOPPORTABILE

Christianity connives with a nearly timeless antilawyerly sentiment to make the Law an object of ridicule, as well as of fear and loathing. The Law, in parts of Paul and in one important strand of the Christian exegetical tradition, becomes a tainted word, a somewhat politer way of referring to the Jewish dispensation, the benighted world before Jesus came to fulfill, perfect, and transcend it.1

Note:IL CATTIVO RAPPORTO DEI CRISTIANI CON LA LEGGE

Some things have to be too small for the law to care about if it is not going to get hogged down with trivial harms. A rough rule, captured by the maxim de minimis non curat lex (the law does not regard little things), is necessary to provide the needed wiggle room in the normal administration of the law so that the law does not become an object of contempt.

Note:L'IMPERFEZIONE DELLA LEGGE. ECCO IL PARADISO DEI CAVILLOSI CRISTIANI MISERICORDIOSI

Now enter Portia, who determines the outcome of Shylock's case by abrogating the de minimis rule as a practical matter by setting its boundary at such a ridiculously small amount - one grain, or one hair's breadth.

Note:IL LETTERALISMO DELLA CAVILLOSA PORTIA COME SEME DI MISERICORDIA. I CHIARI DIRITTI DELLO SPORCO EBREO POSSONO ESSERE CONCULCATI

Yet, as we have seen, the hold biblical statement of the talion makes a powerful claim for evenness and equivalence and states it in a way that makes equivalence masquerade as identity. But we all know, and that includes the authors of the Covenant Code in Exodus, that my eye

Note:TALIONE: OCCHIO PER OCCHIO. MA NON LO STESSO STESSO OCCHIO! IL PERFETTISMO CHE PARALIZZA LA GIUSTIZIA

Consider in this light the ironies in Portia insisting on exactitude as a way of undoing the practical possibility of justice. She will have no play in the joints, or so little as not to allow the necessary flexibility for the system to work effectively.

Note:IL PERFEZIONISMO DEI NULLAFACENTI

Exactitude and evenness are all:nor cut thou less nor more But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak'st more Or less than a just pound, he it but so much As makes it light or heavy in the substance, Or the division of the twentieth part Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn But in the estimation of a hair, Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.

Note:L 'ARRINGA DI PORTIA: ESEMPIO PLASTICO DEL CAVILLARE GESUITICO

Portia plays with the word just, so that "just a pound," which should mean no more than a pound, is interpreted to mean no more and no less than, so that "just a pound" becomes "a just pound," meaning an exact pound.

Note:NON DI PIÙ NON DI MENO. L'ESATTEZZA IMPOSSIBILE

Her brand of mercy to Antonio is funded by a perfect requiting and plundering of Shylock; her mercy is but revenge in sheep's clothing, and she cannot disguise her delight in exacting from Shylock everything she could exact: property, faith, dignity, and manhood.

Note:LA MISERICORDIA FA SEMPRE VITTTIME. NON FA NULLA, PURCHE’ SIANO SACRIFICI SOCIALMENTE ACCETTABILI

We now, with the scales fallen from our eyes, can see what is wrong with mercy: it plays favorites. Mercy here comes at Shylock's expense. And even were it to function in good faith, if mercy has to play more than a rare role it is not a good sign for the state of the law or of the polity.

Note:LA MSERICORDIA FA FAVORITISMI

***L'UMANITÀ DELLA VENDETTA***

Shylock represents the Old Law, and the Old Law is made synonymous with merciless revenge on the one hand, and with an obsessive concern with ritual rather than spirit, form for form's sake, on the other: an eye for an eye rather than mercy,

Note:OCCHIO PER OCCHIO VS MSERICORDIA

In the Christian view, the Old Law is opposed to mercy

Note:L' OPPOSIZIONE

in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy ...

Note:LA SALVEZZA NON VIENE DALLA GIUSTIZIA (PAROLE DI PORZIA)

Mercy, though, did not come for free in the Christian tradition. It was funded by Christ's sacrifice. The Old Law still set the rules of the game, and by its demands for repayment the treasury of mercy was funded. One can see in Shylock's funding of the mercifully good times at Belmont a blasphemous parody of how the Jewish flesh of Jesus, the humiliation of the Jew Jesus, funds the entire Christian mercy system, good times for the elect.

Note:SHYLOCK COME CRISTO: IL SACRIFICATO IN NOME DELLA MISERICORDIA

Shylock: To bait fish withal, - if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge; he hath disgrac'd me, and hind'red me half a million,laugh'd at my losses, mock'ed my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, - and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? - if you prick us do we not bleed? if you tickle us do we not laugh? if you poison us do we not die? and if you wrong us shall we not revenge? - if we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? revenge! If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance he by Christian example? - why revenge! The villainy you teach me I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Note:MA A CHE SERVE QUEL PEZZO DI CARNE A SHYLOCK? A CHE SERVE LA GIUSTIZIA A UN UOMO? RISPONDE SHYLOCK IN PERSONA

Says Hazlitt of Shylock; "In all his answers and retorts upon his adversaries, he has the best not only of the argument but of the question, reasoning on their own principles and practice";

Note:LA RAGIONE È CON SHYLOCK, DIFFICILE NEGARE

Jew lose because their words don't count.

Note:NON  È ALLORA LA MANCANZA DI ARGOMENTI, E’ ALTRO  A RENDERLO PERDENTE...

We must assent, even against our better desires, should we have such desires, or against our conscience, should our conscience instruct us to forgo revenge. The Jew assents because he cheers Shylock on; the Christian assents because he has assent forced upon him by the facts. Christians are expert avengers, especially when it is a Jew who wrongs them.

Note:RINUNCIARE ALLA VENDETTA È RINUNCIARE ALL' UMANITÁ

Says Montaigne, "Christians excel at hating enemies. Our zeal works wonders when it strengthens our tendency towards hatred, enmity, ambition, avarice, evil-speaking.""

Note:DIETRO LA MSERICORDIA SPESSO SI CELA UNA VENDETTA IN FORMA IPOCRITA. I MIGLIORI NELL'AMORE SONO I MIGLIORI ANCHE NELL'ODIO

Le radici non cristiane dell'europa

THE TALION – EYE FOR AN EYE BY WILLIAM IAN MILLER

The image of the scales suggests it needn't be all that hard to figure out; the instrument will provide an answer. It is merely a mechanical operation. But what are we to weigh against what?

Note:LA GIUSTIZIA È UNA BILANCIA

*** ANDARE A PARI***

Consider our own use of what it means to get even: if you get even by bringing the pan on the left hack up to its neutral position, by one account you are back to where you started, hack to zero;

Note:ANDARE A ZERO

if the debt is of honor, the wrongdoer enjoyed a certain amount of time indulging in the pleasures of looking down on you and of gloating at your humiliation;

Note:MISURARE L' ONORE

Fair compensation requires this: you had me down, and now it is my turn to have you down, to witness and delight in your humiliation as you delighted in mine.

Note:IL GIUSTO COMPENSO

I should get not only my ox hack, but also the rental value of the ox for the time you had it.

Note:COMPENSARE CAPITALE E RENDITA

the notion of getting even is understood to embody a hostile intention to make the other feel your pain, to get him down, if not to obliterate him.

Note:PARIFICARE I DOLORI

It is merely squaring the account… Pieties as old, even older than Socrates' - along the lines of two wrongs do not make a right - beg the question, for the second "wrong" of recompense is not a wrong but merely what justice demands.

Note:L' ERRORE DI CHI DICE "DUE MALI NON FANNO UN BENE"

Edgar Allan Poe puts the idea nicely: "What can be more soothing, at once to a man's Pride and to his Conscience, than the conviction that, in taking vengeance on his enemies for injustice done him, he has simply to do them justice in return?"'

Note:LA VENDETTA RILASSA

And if the incident is but one round in a continuing hostile relationship, what then?

Note:IL PROBLEMA DELLA CATENA DI VENDETTE

Antitalionic arguments were available and regularly made. One did not have to wait for Christianity to appear on the scene to make them... all kinds of reasons why forgiveness and forgetfulness were good ideas.

Note:ARGOMENTI CONTRO IL TALIONE. PERDONO E MISERICORDIA

Thucydides records an instance, and the sagas are full of them.; They were also readily made by third parties pressing the interests of the wider community in peace.

Note:TEUCIDIDE E LE SAGHE

That said, it was still the case that in talionic cultures the demands of payback were the default position, the initial presumption, and the matter to be addressed.

Note:MA LA NOSTRA RESTA UNA CULTURA DEL TALIONE NON DELLA MISERICORDIA

The worry about how hard it is to come up with equivalences is at the core of primitive systems of justice, and it is hardly something we have adequately resolved today.

Note:L'EQUIVALENZA IMPOSSIBILE

dispute endlessly which measure of damages will best capture the real damage so as to make the victim "whole." Though we do not officially make criminal punition compensatory, we have not rid ourselves of the idea that it too is a payment, a discharge of something owed by the criminal,

Note:UN PROBLEMA ATTUALE. CONCEZIONE RETRIBUTIVA DELLA PENA

We thus worry about proportionality within a grid of punishments, which mostly comes down to assigning various numbers of years to different offenses depending on their badness, years thus providing the means and measure of payment, rather than eyes, teeth, lives, or money.4

LA PROPORZIONALITÀ AL CENTRO

Consider the law of the talion, the law of retaliation, of tit for tat, whose classic formulation is the biblical eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Note:IL TALIONE. VIENE DA LÌ IL NOSTRO SENSO DI GIUSTIZIA

We take the talion as a classic statement of irrational revenge, as an emblem of a society so blind to good sense as to prefer two one-eyed people to one.'

Note:EPPURE OGGI IL TALIONE È DISPREZZATO

The embarrassment of some people drives them to attempt to rescueGod's word from charges of cruelty and vulgarity by arguing that in its historical and cultural setting the talion was a limitation on revenge and bloodfeud... it also sets a bottom limit - no less than one eye or one life, either. No letting your cowardice, that is, incline you to he forgiving.

Note:SCOPO DEL TALIONE: LIMITARE LA VENDETTA

Others have argued that the biblical formulation of the talion was a rejection of the vicarious liability - hitting X for the wrongs that Y did - that accompanied the earliest formulation of the talion in the Mesopotamian laws, where, for instance, if one were to injure the son of man, it was the injurer's son who was the object of expiation.

Note:TALIONE PRELUDIO ALLA RESPONSABILITÀ PERSONALE

Leviticus and Deuteronomy are clear that this is the case, but Exodus is rather less so, for we still have God insisting in the chapter before the Exodus talion that He is "a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me" (Ex. zo.5).

Note:LEVITICO DEUTERONOMIO ESODO. CONCEZIONI DIFFERENTI DEL DEUTERONOMIO

talion can he read as a strong statement of treating people equally,

Note:TALIONE PRODROMO DELL'EGUAGLIANZA

The Israelite society reflected in the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 20-22-z3-33), however, lacked the different juridical classes of free men of Hammurahi, recognizing, like saga Iceland, only two distinctions: slave and free.

Note:SOLO DUE DISTINZIONI: SCHIAVI E LIBERI

Those who advocate the equality reading argue that the talionic legislation - an innovation in Hammurabi's code and later adopted by the ancient Israelite codes - was an attempt to have the polity criminalize what before were private matters, and thus to make sure the wealthy could no longer buy themselves out of suffering mutilation for the harms they had inflicted.'

Note:TALIONE: LA GIUSTIZIA NON SI COMPRA. MISSIONE MPOSSIBILE

Not having sheep to pay his debts he now has his body or body parts.

Note:QUANDO SI PAGA COL CORPO ANCHE I POVERI POSSONO PAGARE

You must be wondering, but what good does your eye do me?

Note:COSA ME NE VIENE DAL SACRIFICIO DEL TUO OCCHIO?

one of the goals of tort law is to make the victim whole (recall that the root of shalom also involves the concept of restoring wholeness), but, as we will see, we do it on the cheap. Talionic cultures were invariably honor cultures,

Note:L'ONORE RIPRISTINATO. RETRIBUZIONE E ONORE VIAGGIANO INSIEME

If I can rightly take your eye, you will be scared of me. That is worth something; it makes the compensatory regime of the talion one that cannot help but keep honor firmly in its sights,

Note:E PRODUCE ANCHE DETERRENZA

Honor has an extraordinary transformative power: it can make currency of no value, a worthless dead eye, into something of great value.

Note:L'AONORE EDIFICA LA CIVILTÀ

***COMPENSARE COMPENSARE COMPENSARE***

revenge was not just an ethic but an aesthetic, the aesthetic of proportion and balance.

Note:IL LATO ESTETICO DELLA GIUSTIZIA

A man who went postal and took excessive revenge was understood to be acting not only without right but also without taste.

Note:LA VENDETTA ECCESSIVA COME MANCANZA DI GUSTO

The Norse even had a proverb to that effect: "Short is the life of the immoderate.""

Note:MODERAZIONE

The politics of disputing focused on three main issues: one, what the precise medium was to be employed to repay the obligation and in what amount; two, a corollary of the preceding, whom to hit on the other side; and three, when to pay it over.

Note:I TRE CARDINI PER GIUDICARE UNA LITE

Taking blood was no less compensatory than taking money.

Note:SANGUE E MONETA

revenge systems gave way to compensation systems, which then paved the way for state-delivered justice, amidst general rejoicing at the progress. The fact is that revenge in blood invariably coexisted with means of paying off the avenger by transfers of property

Note:VENDETTA: CARDINE DELLA COMPENSAZIONE E DELLA CIVILTÀ

The problem for early talionic culture was not the conceptual one of being too primitive to understand notions of exchange, but the practical one of how to measure value

Note:IL PROBLEMA NN È IL TALIONE MA LA MISURAZIONE DEI VALORI

Remember that the classic formulation of the talion arose before coinage was general, before there was easy and ready money that was of a given weight and purity and whose value was clear...And even after coinage came into existence - first appearing in Lydia in the sixth century B.C. - it was often in short supply.

Note::IL TALIONE PRECEDE IL CONIO

There was a presumption that blood was the noblest form of specie, or at least the most poetic.

Note:POESIA DEL SANGUE

***ARMONIA DELLA VENDETTA***

why did the ancient Hebrew legislator not prescribe, as the seventh-to eleventh-century Germanic codes would do, an eye for 50 shillings, a tooth for 6, a middle finger for 4,

Note:MONETIZZARE LA CARNE. INVENZIONE GERMANICA

Was it that the biblical lawgiver liked the cadence and elegance of such a tough-minded statement of pure equivalence, of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?"

Note:LA MONETA INQUINA L'ELEGANZA DELLE PROPORZIONI. L'ELEGANZA POETICA DELLA LEGGE

The biblical formulations are not limited to eyes and teeth. It is as if the legislator and compiler got too excited to stop, especially in Exodus: "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

Note:SLANCIO POETICO

Daube has argued that Jesus knew that the talion as stated was not literally applied in his time.

Note:TALIONE DA SEMPRE DISAPPLICATO NELLA SUA LETTERA

Two centuries earlier the rabbis had already interpreted the talion to mean that money compensation was what the rule required.

Note:MONETIZZAZIONE GIÀ IN ATTO DA SUBITO

In Daube's view, Jesus is thus using the talionic formulation more generally to argue against merely suing for money damages for the insult of having one's face slapped. He is urging that one endure the shame with stoic passivity. Turn the other cheek; do not seek to collect damages in a lawsuit. He was rejecting the root idea of seeking any kind of compensation, whether blood or money, for injuries of humiliation and dishonor in this world."

Note:GESÙ CONTRO LA COMPENSAZIONE

if Daube is right, it means that Jesus used the abridged talionic formulation solely because of the terrible beauty with which it states the principle of compensation, of getting even. Jesus was thus drawn to the graphic statement of the talion in the same way we are, because it has a compelling ring to it, because it perfectly states a general principle of just recompense that he is arguing should be rejected even in the softened form to which the rabbis had reduced it.

LA TERRIBILE ELEGANZA CHE ATTERRÌ GESÙ

Chimica dell'anima SAGGIO

Mind drugs - Future Imperfect by David Friedman

***

UNA VITA MIGLIORE GRAZIE ALLA CHIMICA

At least since the discovery of alcohol, humans have used drugs to affect the mind.

Note: L' UOMO SI DROGA DA SEMPRE. È UNA TRADIZIONE VENERANDA Edit

In many ways this will be a good thing; already drugs provide substantial benefits to some sufferers from mental disorders.

Note: L"ASPETTO POSITIVO: MENO SOFFERENZA. MICA PAGLIA.

***

COSA DESIDERA? PIACERE O FELICITÀ ? QUI SI VENDE DI TUTTO.

In most contexts we consider happiness and pleasure good things. Jeremy Bentham, one of the most influential philosophers of the nineteenth century, offered a simple standard for judging everything - its effect on utility, happiness, the excess of pleasure over pain in human life.

Note: DI SOLITO IL PIACERE È BUONA COSA. PERCHÈ CONDANNARLO? EPPURE LO SI FA CONTINUAMENTE  Edit

Supporters of laws against recreational drugs base their support on a variety of factual claims, some true, some false. It is not true that smoking marijuana makes people go crazy and commit violent crimes, as claimed in "Reefer Madness," a movie that played an important role in inspiring the original anti-marijuana legislation. It is true that people on LSD are frequently incapable of performing ordinary tasks such as driving a car safely or conducting a coherent conversation.

Note: ARGOMENTI CONTRO LA DROGA. A VOLTE FONDATI ALTRE VOLTE  MENO Edit

Whether or not the negative claims are true of some or all current recreational drugs, they are unlikely to be true of all future recreational drugs. The more we know about how the human mind functions, the better we will become at creating drugs that give pleasure without serious negative side effects. Unless, of course, it is pleasure itself that is the problem.

Note: LA DROGA DEL FUTURO PROBABILMENTE ELUDERÀ QUESTE CRITICHE E POTREMO VENIRE AL PUNTO. LA DROGA DEL FUTURO ANNULLERÀ GLI EFFETTI COLLATERALI NEGATIVI.  BASTA PROBLEMI.... A MENO CHE IL PROBLEMA NON SIA IL PIACERE IN SÈ Edit

If we can create a chemical that gives us pleasure, and if pleasure is a good thing, why don't we come already equipped for pleasure on demand?

Note: UNA COSA CHE DÀ DA PENSARE: PERCHÈ L' EVOLUZIONE NON CI HA DOTATO DI UN PIACERE SENZA DANNI COLLATERALI? Edit

The obvious answer is that we are designed by evolution not for happiness but for reproductive success.

Note: UNA RISPOSTA OVVIA Edit

If pleasure drugs are too good, they might interfere not merely with reproductive success but with physical survival.

Note: IL PIACERE PUÒ INTERFERIRE Edit

one more minute of intense pleasure is worth more to them than food or drink. If we accept this argument, the implication is not that pleasure drugs are bad but only that they should be used in moderation.

Note: ESEMPIO Edit

Food, after all, is consumed largely to give us sensual pleasure. A minimum-cost, full-nutrition diet, based on flour, peanut butter, cabbage, and other high nutrition/low cost ingredients, comes to less than two dollars a day. j The rest of what we spend is for pleasure.

Note: FACCIAMO UN CASO DIVERSO DALLA DROGA: CIBO E PIACERE Edit

The current real-world problem of trading short-term pleasure for more important long-term goals is, arguably, not the starvation ofNiven's wirehead but its opposite: obesity.

Note: NELLA NOSTRA EPOCA IL PIACERE INTERFERISCE ATTRAVERSO L'OBESITÀ PIÙ CHE ATTRAVERSO LA MALNUTRIZIONE. DROGHE ALTERNATIVE AL CIBO FAREBBERO BENE A MOLTI OBESI CHE SI DISTRARREBBERO DA UN PIACERE PER LORO NOCIVO CON UN ALTRO PIACERE Edit

A more general argument against pleasure drugs is that simple pleasure is not all that matters, as suggested not merely by philosophers but by observed behavior. Few couples have sex as frequently as would be physically possible; few single individuals masturbate as often as would be physically possible. If we imagine someone spending most of his life in a drug-induced haze, we may suspect that, however intense his pleasure, he is not really happy. This suggests the least interesting response to the possibility of pleasure drugs - that they don't work,

Note: ALTRO ARGOMENTO CONTRO IL PIACERE: PER NOI NON CONTA SOLO IL PIACERE. LA CONTROPROVA È PRESTO FATTA Edit

***

SE IL PIACERE NON TI CONVINCE, CHE NE DICI DELLA FELICITÀ?

Since we are not limited to current technology, replace pleasure with happiness, the state of mind to which we think of pleasure as one input.

Note: RIMPIAZZATE IL PIACERE CON LA FELICITÀ QUANDO PENSATE ALLA DROGA DEL FUTURO Edit

Studies of happiness suggest that happy people stay happy even when circumstances change, at least once they have had time to adjust to the changes.

Note: LA FELICITÀ È SPESSO QUESTIONE DI CARATTERE. MA UN CARATTERE, DOMANI, POTRÀ ESSERE COSTRUITO IN LABORATORIO. COSA LO VIETA? Edit

So consider, not a pleasure drug, but a happiness drug,

Note: LA DROGA PERFETTA. OBIEZIONI? Edit

If you could, would you? Should you? One possible answer is that such happiness is unnatural. Again the argument is that we have been designed by evolution, and evolution is much better at neurochemistry than we are. If brain chemistry that made us happy was a good thing, we would all already have it.' The argument already offered for pleasure can be recycled for happiness.

Note: IL CONCETTO DI INNATURALE. QUANTO DETTO PER IL PIACERE IN FONDO VALE ANCHE PER LA FELICITÀ: SE LA COSA FA PER NOI PERCHÈ L'EVOLUZIONE NON CI HA PROCURATO NIENTE DELMGENERE?

While evolution may indeed be a very good biochemist, its objectives are not the same as ours. From the viewpoint of evolution, we are simply machinery by which genes make other genes. The design objective is reproductive success, the ability to increase the frequency of our genes in future generations. That is not my design objective for me;

Note: POSSIAMO DISSOCIARCI DALL'EVOLUZIONE NATURALE? Edit

Not only does evolution have the wrong objective, its designs are also out of date. Humans have long generations and so evolve slowly. Such evidence as we have suggests that we are adapted not to current circumstances but to the hunter-gatherer societies in which our species spent most of its existence.

Note: D'ALTRONDE, L'EVOLUZIONE FA PARECCHI ERRORI, QUESTO È ACCLARATO. BASTEREBBE UNA SCORSA AI BIAS COGNITIVI CHE CI AFFLIGGONO.

A second and more interesting objection is that utilitarianism is wrong, that happiness is not all that matters.

Note: ALTRA OBIEZIONE: NON CONTA SOLO LA FELICITÀ Edit

consider two alternative lives I might live. One is the life I have lived. It has been, on the whole, a happy one.... The other is the life I might have lived if provided with suitable drugs, sufficient to make me at every moment of that life at least as happy as in the life I led. It is true that in that life I would not have had the pleasures of children, books, and other accomplishments. But I would have been compensated for that lack by an artificial increase in whatever brain chemicals connect the cause of accomplishment to the effect of happiness. Which life is more worth living?

Note: ESPERIMENTO MENTALE DELLA DOPPIA VITA  Edit

Note: IL DILEMMA È REALE. DIFFICILE MINIMIZZARE.

happiness drugs do not prevent their beneficiaries from living active and productive lives.

Note: DROGA E VITA ATTIVA NON SONO POI COSÌ INCOMPATIBILI. LA SCELTA NON È OBBLIGATA, FORSE DOBBIAMO SMETTERE DI PENSARE IN QUESTI TERMINI Edit

***

DROGA E PRESTAZIONI

“I would prefer my child take anabolic steroids and growth hormone than play rugby. Growth hormone is safer than rugby. At least I don't know of any cases of quadriplegia caused by growth hormone”.

Note: SAVULESCU, IL DOPING E IL RUGBY Edit

Everyone seems to agree that it is a bad thing for athletes to use steroids, but it is not entirely bad a diet... Athletes have, after all, been using diet and exercise to improve their performance for thousands of years, as well as a variety of older drugs. Why does the process suddenly become sinful when they switch to steroids?

Note: PERCHÈ PER UN ATLETA È MALE PRENDERE UNO STEROIDE ED È BENE FARE DIETE O ALLENARSI? Edit

One answer is that since steroid use is currently prohibited, those who use steroids are getting an unfair advantage. But that does not explain why they are currently prohibited when other ways of getting an advantage are not.

Note: RISPOSTA ELUSIVA: LO STEROIDE È VIETATO E ASSUMERLO È SCORRETTO. MA CIÒ NON RISPONDE ALLA DOMANDA Edit

A second answer is that we are afraid young athletes, with inadequate concern for their own future, will do themselves serious damage in the process of trying to win. But while taking steroids may reduce life expectancy

Note: SECONDA RISPOSTA: FA MALE ALLA SALUTE Edit

so does driving a car around a racetrack at something over 200 miles an hour,

Note: E I PILOTI DI F1? IN QUESTO CASO IL SEMPLICE GAREGGIARE FA ANCORA PIÙ MALE ALLA SALUTE Edit

Why is our paternalism so selective?'

Note: UN CASO DI PATERNALISMO SELETTIVO? Edit

VENIAMO ALLORA ALLA RISPOSTA PIÙ INTERESSANTE

The most interesting answer… Arguably, most of what we care about is the relative, not absolute, ability of the athletes.

Note: PREMESSA: SIAMO INTERESSATI ALL' ABILITÀ RELATIVA DI UNO SPORTIVO, NON A QUELLA ASSOLUTA. VOGLIAMO INNANZITUTTO CHE LA NOSTRA SQUADRA VINCA, NON CHE GIOCHI BENE. Edit

We want our favorite baseball team to play a little better than its opponents but care little about the absolute level

Note: ESEMPIO Edit

competition via steroid use is a mistake.... Both teams, boxers, or runners get a little better, their relative ability is unaffected, the fans are no happier and the athletes die a little younger.

Note: GLI STEROIDI DIVENTANO ALLORA UNO SPRECO: NESSUN VANTAGGIO. DI LORO CI PRENDIAMO SOLO IL NEGATIVO.  È PARADOSSALE MA SE IL PUBBLICO FOSSE RALMENTE SPORTIVO E NON TIFOSO, I MOTIVI PER LIMITARE IL DOPING SI INDEBOLIREBBERO

Ritalin, for example, is usually thought of as medication for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). It turns out, however, that one cannot tell if someone has ADD by giving him Ritalin and seeing if his concentration improves, because Ritalin improves everyone's concentration.

Note: PER CAPIRE MEGLIO FACCIAMO UN PARALLELO FUORI DALLO SPORT: IL RITALIN… INDISTINGUIBILITÀ DELLE PRESTAZIONI Edit

Perhaps when the due date for a paper approaches, a student given to procrastination might want to obtain some modafinil,10 a drug that appears to eliminate the need for sleep

Note: ESAMI. DROGHE CHE ELIMINANO IL SONNO Edit

One argument for prohibiting the use of such drugs by those taking the bar exam, or SATs, or a final, is that they distort the information that the exam produces. A law firm deciding whether to hire you doesn't want to know how good a lawyer you are when you are under the influence of Ritalin

Note: ALTRO ARGOMENTO CONTRO LE DROGHE NELLA VITA REALE: LE DROGHE PRODUCONO INFO DISTORTE. Edit

That makes sense as long as we are only talking about temporary effects. The question becomes more interesting if we consider a drug that can be used on a regular basis

Note: E I DROGATI REGOLARI? L' INFO CHE GENERA LA LORO PRESTAZIONE NON È AFFATTO DISTORTA Edit

That argument reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of economic competition. If you and I are runners and both use steroids, both run a little faster and you still win the race. Nothing is gained and, if steroids have undesirable side effects, something is lost. But if you and I are house carpenters who use an improved version of modafinil to increase both labor and leisure, working ten hours out of twenty-two instead of eight out of sixteen, the result is that more houses get built.

Note: ORA CAPIAMO CHE L'OBIEZIONE CHE VALE PER LA DROGA NELLO SPORT NON VALE FUORI: FUORI C'È SEMPRE QUALCUNO CHE TRAE VANTAGGIO DALLE SUPERPRESTAZIONI. IN ALTRI TERMINI: FUORI LA PRESTAZIONE ASSOLUTA DOMINA SU QUELLA RELATIVA Edit

"Competition" is a misleading term because it suggests that, as in athletic contests, all that matters is who wins.

Note: COMPETIZIONE: TERMINE FUORVIANTE PER DESCRIVERE IL MERCATO Edit

An alternative explanation, and one that provides at least a partial explanation of hostility to many different technologies, is that people are simply conservative, skeptical of anything new, "unnatural," despite the unnatural nature of virtually everything we currently eat, drink, or wear.

Note: ULTIMA  SPIEGAZIONE RIMASTA PER OPPORSI ALLA DROGA PERFETTA: DIFFIDENZA PER IL NUOVO Edit

***

DROGHE E PERSONALITÀ: CHI SONO IO?

As we develop ways of easily obtaining much more intense pleasures, there is some risk that we may be tempted into giving up long-term benefits in exchange for short-term benefits even when we should not. This raises an obvious question: What does "should not" mean?

Note: DROGA. BENFICI A BREVE E A LUNGO. UN TRADE OFF Edit

An approach to that question that I find intuitively appealing is to think of myself as two people in one, a long-term planner and a short-term current utility maximizer.

Note: PENSIAMOCI COME DUE PERSONE IN LOTTA TRA LORO. METAFORA SCHIZOFRENICA Edit

This way of looking at it suggests an intriguing possibility. Perhaps the problem with pleasure drugs can be dealt with by personality drugs.

Note: VINCERE LA DROGA (DEL PIACERE) CON LA DROGA (DELLA VOLONTÀ) Edit

Perhaps, as we learn more about how the brain works, we will discover that the difference reflects some difference in brain chemistry.

Note: DROGHE E PERSONALITÀ: ALTERARE LA CHIMICA DEL CERVELLO Edit

Consider, for example, what we already know about the effects of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in brain chemistry. A shortage of dopamine in the brain results in an indecisive personality;

Note: DOPAMINA Edit

The formerly mild mannered, thoughtful, and cooperative foreman had been transformed into a cursing, belligerent tyrant.

Note: LA TRISTE STORIA DI PHINEA GAGE Edit

Bipolar disorder is one example, depression another. Both can be seen as personality disorders. Both are treated with drugs,

Note: DISORDINE BIPOLARE E DEPRESSIONE. ALTERAZIONI DI PERSONALITA’ CHE TUTTI NOI ACCETTIAMO Edit

***

DROGHE CHE CI DANNO IL CONTROLLO SU ALTRI

drugs to make the victim unconscious - chloral hydrate, the "Mickey Finn" of old detective stories, and its more modern equivalents - and the use of alcohol as an aid to seduction.

Note: DROGHE PER RENDERE LA VITTIMA INCOSCIENTE Edit

the difference between personality drugs and control drugs depends not so much on the nature of the drug as on how it is used

Note: NON CONTA IN QUESTI CASI LA DROGA MA COME LA SI USA Edit

There are drugs that induce temporary amnesia, such as Rohypnol, sometimes called the date rape drug. There are drugs such as alcohol and marijuana that relax people and make it harder to think clearly.

Note: LA DROGA DELLO STUPRO Edit

One odd set of experiments involving the reaction of some people to smelling other people's perspiration suggest that there may be human pheromones, compounds that make someone smell sexy to someone else; perhaps some perfume actually works.'4

Note: DROGA DELLA SEDUZIONE Edit

Still more disturbing is the possibility of drugs that make the consumer credulous, willing to believe whatever he is told, or obedient, or loyal. There is some evidence that oxytocin has such an effect.

Note: DROGHE CHE FANNO SPENDERE Edit

To get some feeling for how a loyalty drug might work, consider the Mule, a character in Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, an old and famous work of science fiction.

Note: ASIMOV E LA DROGA DELLA LEALTÀ Edit

the feeling of parents toward their children. Parents love their children and wish to serve and protect them, not because the parent has made an objective judgment about how deserving their children are but because the parent has been programmed by his genes to feel that way, by mechanisms some of which may well be chemical

Note: L'AMORE PER I NOSTRI FIGLI. VERO O CHIMICO? Edit

three different kinds. Drinking from the first eliminates your memory. Drinking from the second makes you hate whatever being you most loved. Drinking at the third makes you fall in love with the next living thing you see.

Note: DROGA E LETTERATURA: IL DILEMMA DELL' ORLANDO FURIOSO Edit

Suppose we develop much better control drugs; how might our laws and institutions adjust? One possibility is a legal regime under which a contract is binding only if both parties have been tested just before they signed... we should ban all sex not preceded by suitable drug tests. 

Note: CONTRATTI AL TEMPO DELLE DROGHE. CHE FARE? L' IPOTESI PROIBIZIONISTA Edit

One can imagine more sophisticated versions, as defensive technology improves to match improved offensive technology. Perhaps we will eventually use nanotechnology to equip ourselves with microscopic chemical labs that continually monitor our bloodstreams and let us know if there is anything there that shouldn't be.

Note: TECNOLOGIA DIFENSIVA Edit

***

DROGHE E LAVORO

So far in the discussion of control drugs I have been assuming that they are given to people without their consent.

Note: MA LA DROGA PER LA PERSONALITÀ PUÒ ESSERE ASSUNTA ANCHE VOLONTARIAMENTE Edit

There are quite a lot ofjobs for which loyalty is an important qualification.... After calculating the cost of watching everyone all the time, I decide to offer two different employment contracts, one paying $50,000 a year, one $100,000. There is only one difference between the two contracts: The second one requires the employee to consume a drug that makes him loyal to the firm.

Note:  L'OFFERTA DEL DATORE DI LAVORO: TI PAGO DI PIÙ SE PRENDI LA DROGA DELLA LEALTÀ

One might object that letting someone agree to such a contract is rather like letting him sell himself into slavery.

Note: OBIEZIONE: MA QUESTA È SCHIAVITÙ!!! Edit

Firms, armies, and nations have been using more primitive methods to try to make people feel loyal for a long time.

Note: LA DROGA DEL NAZIONALISMO È UNA ROZZA DROGA DELLA LEALTÀ  Edit

An important question here is whether the drug makes you permanently loyal, as parents are permanently loyal to their children,

Note: LEALTÀ PERMANENTE E PROVVISORIA?  Edit

***

DROGA E AMORE

Falling in love is for some people an intensely pleasurable, indeed addictive, experience, which may explain why some men fall intensely in love with one woman and then, after their efforts meet with success, lose interest and fall in love with another. A famous example is Giacomo Casanova,

Note: LO CHOC DELL'INNAMORAMENTO Edit

I love my wife very much but I am not in love with her in the sense in which I was when I first courted her some thirty years ago.

Note: INNAMORAMENTO E AMORE. CHIMICHE DIVERSE… MA SEMPRE DI CHIMICA SI TRATTA  Edit

Parental love features the same intense focus, the same feeling that one being is the most important thing in the world, as romantic love.

Note: LA COSA PIÙ IMPORTANTE DELLA NOSTRA VITA Edit

irrational belief that one person is the most important thing in the universe, the proper target for most of one's thoughts, hopes, and attention.

Note: IL SENTIMENTO DELL' INNAMORATO Edit

Humans rarely stay in love; typically, the feelings and associated behavior last for months, not years. Sometimes love is succeeded by attachment, a behavior pattern associated with less intense emotions and one that can, with luck, last a lifetime.

Note: ATTACCAMENTO Edit

Suppose, as seems likely enough, that further research makes it possible to control them, to fall in and out of love, to maintain or destroy the emotions of romantic attachment, to turn love and lust on or off, with a pill, a patch, an injection. What consequences would follow?

Note: IPOTESI: L'AMORE PUÒ ESSERE INDOTTO O REPRESSO ARTIFICIALMENTE Edit

The consequences of involuntary use are obvious and unattractive: a pill that makes a beautiful woman fall in love or, for shorter-term objectives, lust, with you. What about voluntary use?

Note: USO VOLONTARIO E INVOLONTARIO DELLA DROGA DELL'AMORE Edit

Many years ago I spent a long airplane flight - from Bombay to Sydney - next to a woman from southern India, flying out to join her husband. She came from a society where arranged marriages were taken for granted. Her husband had been selected for her by her parents, although she had then met him before consenting to the arrangement. I came from a society where it was taken for granted that individuals found and selected their own mates. She accepted her society's arrangements and was intrigued by the odd way we did things; I felt much the same in the other direction. And she was not a stick figure in a history or anthropology text but a living, breathing human being, obviously intelligent and thoughtful. Furthermore, on at least our small sample, the superiority of the Western system was far from clear; she was happily married, I recently divorced.

Note: L'AMORE A COMANDO ESISTE GIÀ: MATRIMONI COMBINATI Edit

Perhaps in the brave new world of modern chemistry one will be able to get the best of both worlds. First I select a spouse by some suitably calm and objective analysis, making use of the services of a professional matchmaker to find a woman ideally suited to be my wife - one requirement being, of course, that I am ideally suited to be her husband. After she and I have agreed on the match, either just before or just after the wedding, we take our pills, look into each other's eyes, and fall deeply and passionately in love. After six months or so of ecstatic but distracting bliss - both of our employers are beginning to worry about declining job performance - we switch the prescription from passion to attachment and so shift into a long and satisfying marriage. If on some suitable future occasion, say a tenth anniversary, we feel in need of a  second honeymoon

Note: FORSE IL FUTURO SELEZIONERÀ IL MEGLIO DAI VARI MONDI CHE CONOSCIAMO (MONDO DELL'AMORE LIBERO E MONDO DELL'AMORE A COMANDO). FORSE POTREMMO PERMETTERCI UNA SECONDA LUNA DI MIELE.

"At orgasm, levels of vasopressin dramatically increase in men and levels of oxytocin in women." 17 The connections between those hormones and the neurotransmitters that seem to be associated with romantic love - dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin - are complicated but clearly exist.'8

Note: SESSO E ORMONI Edit

Which brings us back to one of the central conflicts of our culture: the case for and against nature. We routinely use "natural" as a term of praise: natural food, unspoiled nature, natural childbirth. And yet we have constructed our world in large part to avoid the defects of nature.

Note: E SIAMO DI NUOVO AL DILEMMA MEGLIO NATURALI O INNATURALI?

Unnatural childbirth, up to and including caesarean section (currently more than one-quarter of all U.S. births), is the reason that death in childbirth is now a rare tragedy

Note: IL CESAREO COME SIMBOLO DELL'ARTIFICIOSO Edit

Very few residents of either Chicago or Houston prefer, given the choice, to maintain their houses year-round at their natural temperature.

Note: E CHE DIRE DELLE TEMPERATURE NATURALI. NON SONO POI IL MASSIMO  Edit

If not our houses, what about our hearts?

Note: CUORE E CASE Edit

Studying mind drugs by injecting chemicals into people's brains and seeing how they react raises serious practical and ethical difficulties. An attractive alternative is to observe people who, possibly for genetic reasons, behave in different ways and checking their blood to see what is in it.

Note: PROBLEMA: COME SPERIMENTARE IN QUESTO CAMPO?

Fine vita mai SAGGIO

The latest lethal disease – Future imperfect by David Friedman

Over the past 500 years, the average length of a human life in the developed world has more than doubled while the maximum has remained essentially unchanged.

Note:GRANDI PROGRESSI NELL'ETÀ MEDIA

We have eliminated or greatly reduced most of the traditional causes of mortality, including mass killers such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and complications of childbirth.

Note:DOVE LE MAGGIORI VITTORIE

Even if you are no longer fertile, staying alive and healthy allows you to help protect and feed your descendants.'

Note:VECCHIAIA ED EVOLUZIONISMO

The obvious answer is that if nobody got old and died there would be no place for our descendants to live

Note:PERCHÈ LA MORTE?

But that confuses individual interest with group interest; although group selection may have played some role in evolution, it is generally agreed that the major driving force was individual selection.

Note:MA NON CONFONDIAMO L'INTERESSE DI GRUPPO CON QUELLO INDIVIDUALE

second possible answer is that immortality would indeed be useful, but there is no way of producing it.

Note:FORSE L'IMMORTALITÀ È IMPOSSIBILE

there are organisms that are immortal. Amoebas reproduce by division

Note:EPPURE L'IMMORTALITÀ ESISTE GIA’ IN MOLTI ORGANISMI

while the cells in my body are massively redundant, the single fertilized cell from which I grew was not. Any error in that cell ended up in every cell of my adult body.

Note:ALTRA SPIEGAZIONE: L'ERRORE INIZIALE È PRATICAMENTE IMPOSSIBILE DA EVITARE

Aging may simply be the working out of a large collection of accumulated late-acting lethal genes.

Note:LA MORTE È IL RIFLESSO TARDIVO DI PICCOLI ERRORI INIZIALI

A slightly different version of this explanation starts with the observation that in designing an organism - or anything else - there are trade-offs. We can give cars better gas mileage by making them lighter, at the cost of making them more vulnerable to damage.

Note:VARIANTE: LA SALUTE PROLUNGATA È SOTTOPOSTA A TRADE OFF

Suppose there is some design feature, encoded in genes, which can provide benefits in survival probability or fertility early in life at the cost of causing increased breakdown after age sixty… My genes made the correct calculations in designing me for reproductive success in the environment of 50,000 years ago but I, living now and with objectives that go beyond reproductive success, would prefer they hadn't.

Note:ESEMPIO DI TRADE OFF

our knowledge of biology has increased at an enormous rate

Note:IL PROBLEMA DELLA MORTE VERRÀ RISOLTO. PERCHÈ?. PRIMO MOTIVO.

The second is that solving the problem is of enormous, indeed vital, importance to old people, and old people control very large resources, both economic and political.

Note:SECONDO MOTIVO: POTERE AI VECCHI

Most of the relevant information consists of the observation that doing particular things to particular strains of mice or fruit flies, experimental subjects with short generations and no legal rights, results in substantial increases in their life span.Thus, for example, it turns out that transgenic fruit flies provided with a particular human gene have a life expectancy up to 40% longer than those without the extra gene.

Note:SPERIMENTAZIONE PROMETTENTE

One of the most effective ways of extending the life span of mice turns out to be caloric deprivation, feeding them a diet at the low end of the number of calories needed to stay alive but otherwise adequate in nutrients. The result is to produce mice with very long life expectancies. Whether it will work on humans is not yet known

Note:DEPRIVAZIONE CALORICA

***

IL LATO NEGATIVO DELL’ IMMORTALITA’

People whoprefer mortality can still die. Those of us with unfinished business can get on with it.

Note:IL LATO POSITIVO DELLA FACCENDA DELL'IMMORTALITÀ

But while I am unambiguously in favor of stopping my aging, it does not follow that I must be in favor of stopping yours. One reason not to be is concern with population growth.

Note:E IL SOVRAFFOLLAMENTO DEL PIANETA?

I do not share that concern, having concluded long ago that, at anything close to current population levels, mere number of people is not a serious problem…. look at the works of the late Julian Simon…

Note:PERICOLO REMOTO. SIAMO SEMMAI TROPPO POCHI

***

GERONTOCRAZIA

One is the problem of gerontocracy, rule by the old. Under our political system incumbents have an enormous advantage; at the congressional level they almost always win reelection. If aging stops and nothing else changes, our representatives will grow steadily older.

Note:ALTRO PROBLEMA: IL GOVERNO DEI VECCHI

societies dominated by the attitudes of the old: bossy, cautious, conservative.

Note:SOCIETÀ VECCHIA SOCIETÀ POCO INNOVATIVA

world without aging it seems likely that Salazar would still rule Portugal and Franco Spain.

Note:NEL CASO DELLE DITTATURE ANDRÀ ANCHE PEGGIO

It has been argued that scientific progress consists of young scientists adopting new ideas and old scientists dying.

Note:PROGRESSO DELLA SCIENZA

One answer, popular with the old, is that it is because they know more. If so, perhaps gerontocracy is not such a bad thing.

Note:MA PERCHÈ I VECCHI PENSANO DIVERSAMENTE? PRIMA IPOTESI

Another is that the brain has limited capacity…. Humans, old and young, demonstrate a strong preference for the beliefs they already have; old people have more of them….

Note:SECONDA IPOTESI: EFFETTO DOTAZIONE

shift from fluid to crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is what you use to solve a new problem. Crystallized intelligence consists of remembering the solution you found last time and using that.

Note:COMPRENDERE LA VECCHIAIA: DAL FLUIDO AL CRISTALLIZZATO

***

CHE FARE CON TUTTO QUESTO TEMPO A DISPOSIZIONE?

When contemplating an extra few centuries, one obvious question is what to do with them. Having raised one family, grown old, and then had myyouth restored, would I decide to see if I could do even better a second time or conclude that that was something I had already done?

Note:PROBLEMA DELLA NOIA

Weak evidence for the former alternative is provided by the not uncommon pattern of grandparents raising their grandchildren when the children's parents prove unable or unwilling to do the job.

Note:RIFARE LE COSE: I NONNI CON I NIPOTI DIMOSTRANO CHE NON CI SI ANNOIA RIFACENDO LE COSE

in many fields, scholars do their best and most original work when young. My father once suggested the project of funding successful scholars past their prime to retrain in some entirely unrelated field,

E NEL LAVORO? FORSE È MEGLIO RICOMINCIARE ALTROVE

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L’ALTERANTIVA: SPASSARSELA

you could spend the first fifty years of adulthood earning (say) $80,000 a year, spending $50,000, saving the rest, accumulate about $2.54 million and then spend the rest of a very long life living on the interest: $50,800 a year for food, housing, and a good Internet connection.

Note:PROGETTO DI VITA

While thinking about how to spend your second century, you might want to consider the social consequences of eliminating the markers of age. In a world where aging is entirely under our control, a young woman of 20 might be dating a young man 100 years older than she is - and he might or might not tell her.

Note:I SEGNI DELL'ETÀ. LA PEDOFILIA SDOGANATA

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PROBLEMI LEGALI

Immortality also raises issues for our legal system.

Consider a criminal sentenced to a life sentence. Do we interpret that as "what a life sentence used to be" - say to age 100? Or do we take it literally?

Note:LA SORTE DEGLI ERGASTOLANI

two different theories of criminal punishment… One is that we lock a murderer up for the same reason we lock a tiger up: He is dangerous to others, so we want to keep him where he cannot do much damage. That is the theory of criminal punishment sometimes described as incapacitation….

Note:CHIEDIAMOCI: PERCHÈ LA GALERA? PRIMA RISPOSTA

impose a cost on him, a cost high enough so that other people contemplating murder will choose not to incur it. That is the theory described as deterrence.

Note:SCONDA TEORIA: DETERRENZA

If our objective is deterrence, centuries of incarceration maybe overkill, which is an argument for eventually letting the convict out. If our objective is incapacitation, on the other hand, we may want to keep him in.

Note:CONSEGUENZE DELLE DUE TEORIE

A third justification offered for imprisonment is rehabilitation,

Note:TEORIA RIABILITATIVA

If so one might reinterpret "life" as "to age 100 or until rehabilitated, whichever takes longer.""

Note:CONSEGUENZA TERZA TEORIA

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Thus, the appropriate clinical trials would be to:1. Select N subjects.2. Preserve them.3. Wait 100 years.4. See if the technology of 2100 can indeed revive them.

Note:IBERNARE

-what is the status of a corpsicle? Is it a corpse, a living person temporarily unable to act, or something else?

If I am frozen, is my wife free to remarry? If I am then thawed, which of us is she married to? Do my heirs inherit, and if so can I reclaim my property when I rejoin the living?

Note:PROBLEMI LEGALI

If I am concerned about keeping my wealth to support me in the second half of my life, there are legal institutions, trusteeships and the like, that give dead people some degree of control over their assets.

Note:L'ISTITUTO DEL TRUST

Their chief limitation is one that applies to almost all solutions, the fact that over a period of a century or more, legal and social institutions might change in ways that defeat even prudent attempts at planning for revival.

Note:MA I PROBLEMI RESTANO

One alternative is to transfer wealth in ways that do not depend on stable institutions, perhaps by burying a collection of valuable objects somewhere and preserving their location only in memory.

Note:ALTERNATIVA: NON AFFIDARSI ALLE ISTITUZIONI

If I commit a crime and then get frozen, does the statute of limitations continue to run, providing me a get out of jail free card if I stay frozen long enough?… does my sentence continue to run?…

Note:IL CRIMINALE IBERNATO COME, QUANTO E QUANDO SCONTA?

somebody who wants to get frozen a little before he dies instead of a little after. Whether or not freezing makes it impossible to revive me, dying surely makes it harder. And some illnesses - cancer is an obvious example - do massive damage

Note:EUTANASIA E IBERNAZIONE

Under current law, freezing someone before death, even ten minutes before, is murder.

Note:IBERNAZIONE E OMICIDIO

The simplest way of changing that is to interpret freezing not as death but as a risky medical procedure whose outcome will not be known for some time. It is both legal and ethical for a surgeon to conduct an operation that might kill me if the odds without the procedure are even worse.

SCAPPATOIA LEGALE