Warburghiana and Benjaminiana, Vol 8, No 2 (2015) di "Aisthesis. Pratiche, linguaggi e saperi dell'estetico"

«Du lebst, und tust mir nichts» («you live and do me no harm») is the famous motto that Warburg apposed on an early notebook, which was dedicated to the Fundamental Fragments for a Pragmatic Knowledge of Expression (Grundlegenden Bruchstücke zu einer pragmatischen Ausdruckskunde). The «you» is here the representative form that Warburg investigates in these fragments. Is there a «life» (a «leben») of forms then, which is independent from us, as the «du» here states? If so, what is the meaning of this life? Moreover, what is the meaning of the second, oppositional sentence: «you do me no harm»? Is there a sort of relief in that, or on the contrary a certain amount of pain or delusion, as though something is missing? These are some of the questions that the present issue of “Aisthesis” is going to raise, through a number of essays that deal directly with Warburg’s thought or, in other cases, take this Warburgian set of problems as their starting point.Rebirth of human being and rebirth of images and memories are strictly connected in Warburg’s thought. This aspect will become very important for an author who felt a great affinity with Warburg’s research and who is the protagonist of two contributions of this issue: Walter Benjamin.