Roberto Calasso : society as superstition

"Secularised society, now dominant today, endeavours to study hundreds of societies of the past, whether tribes or empires, which are all defined and described in their relation to something invisible and unknown, sometimes inhabited by gods, and including what we now call nature. In contrast, secularised society is defined, described and functions solely in relation to itself, because it considers that it is self-sufficient and the only producer of meaning. The implications and origins of this change will be the subject of my talk." R. C.

Talk by Roberto Calasso (writer, essayist and director of the Adelphi publishing house in Milan).