“How strange it is to be young when you are old,” confesses Edgar Morin, and it is very fitting now that he is somewhere in Eternity.
Read more Edgar Morin dies, French sociologist and philosopher, at 104 years old
A couple of book fairs ago, in Frankfurt, we discovered Seeds of Sagacity, a title we published in March this year at Plataforma, translated by Fernando Borrajo Castanedo.
In the brief preface, Morin begins with this sentence: “I am like a tree whose seeds the wind carries and sometimes end up in the desert or, on occasion, germinate far from here.”
Edgar Morin says he was encouraged to write tweets to share his ideas about education. He realized it was an excellent opportunity to express his ideas and reflect on the world, on life, on the human being, and on society, and even, sometimes, on current events.
Morin had written profound books. Specialists of his work know them much better than we do but, for his readers, it was always an important stimulus.
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Morin acknowledged, with a certain sense of humor, that his books could be quite extensive or intimidating, and he believed that Twitter was a kind of public square, from where, in a Socratic manner, he would address the inhabitants of the digital city. Playfully, he admits that he liked to find formulas and wordplays that would catch attention.
Recently, with the director of the French Institute in Barcelona, Valérie Nicolas, we tried to do a presentation of the book where he, from Paris, would connect. We tried with much affection and delicacy, but the fragility of his health made it impossible. Sometimes, wishes are impossible. Since we will not be able to attend the farewell ceremony of this French thinker, let us pay tribute to him here. By the way, how great France is and how great its thought is, and how evident it is that in their schools they have made them read to educate them in thinking and reasoning!
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As a tribute to the thought of this author, here are two aphorisms from this latest book, whose reading is a boost of energy as great and pure as that of the owner of an electric vehicle when recharging their batteries.
“Socrates said what he thought in the public square of Athens. And sometimes he was insulted. My public square is Twitter.”
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“I think I have lived a long time because I have never been resentful.”
Fertile thought. Thank you, Edgar Morin.
