The “civilisation” was for Leopardi absolutely negative, in that in destroying “illusions” it distances man from the state of “nature”, the “ancient” state, the only one that gives happiness.
Leopardi wrote so much on the subject that it is difficult to summarise. We should however note how in his youth Leopardi’s ambition was to intervene in the orientation of contemporary Italian “civilisation”, and maybe modify it, thus composing “serious” analyses and statements (some Canzoni and a few Operette of 1824, and the Discorso sugli Italiani); and how instead, having become aware of the total incompatibility between his point of view and the hegemonic, progressive and spiritualist cultural orientation of the time, he later radically modified what he said, attacking the “nineteenth century” with merciless satire (Tristano, Palinodia, I nuovi credenti, Paralipomeni).
Civilisation made men “all similar the ones to the others” [22, 1513-8] – “The civilisation of nations consist of a tempering of nature with reason, where nature has the major part” [114-5] – “The scope of modern civilising should have been to lead us back to ancient civilisation that has been obscured and extinguished by the barbarities of the times between” [162-3, 1077-8, 1100-1, 3802, 4289] – that of “middle” civilisation is the best state [403-4, 421-3, 431-3, 2331-5] – “there has never been a century so faulty and depraved, which believes itself to be at the top of civilisation, of social perfection” [822-5] – civilisation provokes illnesses that the ancient did not know [1624-5, 1631-2] – fallacy of the pretence that civilisation can improve mankind [3179-82] – it brings increased unhappiness [3936-7, 3973-5] – “If it had been nature’s intention, in making man so weak and without defence, he providing for life and his wellbeing through his genius, that he should reach a state of civilisation; why so many hundreds of savage and barbarian nations ... have not reached that state yet ...?” [4265-6].
Civilisation
