We associate philosophy with a form of disembodied knowledge, and we forget thus that at the heart of
philosophy, as Plato teaches, there is not the simple love of knowledge, but the “desire of procreation and
birth in the beautiful both according to the body, as well as according to the soul.” Philosophy as a
generative force is a complex experience of parenthood that brings into play all the resources of the
subject. And at the same time, parenting is a profound philosophical experience, because to measure
oneself against the birth of a son or daughter is to measure oneself against another origin of the world.
Starting from his own experience as a philosopher and Julia’s father, moving between autobiography and
philosophy, between Japanese cartoons and ancient philosophy, between talking puppets, the
dolls with which Nietzsche played with and the sword with which she trains her daughter, Simone
Regazzoni offers us anew image of fatherhood that recovers the Greek idea of strength. Fatherhood is a
transmission of life force, an education to develop one’s own life force, to be “good in strength.” But
fatherhood is also rebirth, becoming-child of one’s own child, experience of childhood not as a time of life
to be overcome but as a form of life connected with the life of the whole, as an animated philosophy.
The crystal necklace
