2. Philosophy - Stefano Franchi

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P RELUDE
dividual voices singing different melodies and composing, while unfolding them, a broader
all-encompassing texture. The main feature of the intimated harmony is the movement of
a completely given whole whose single parts enjoy their relative positions. Harmony is pos-
sibly the name of the opposition between man and world when such an opposition, instead
5
of being a discordant fracture, is recomposed in a chord, as Heraclitus reminds us. Be that
as it may, such an order, even if exists, must be found. And it is in the everyday world pop-
ulated by things, animals and plants, characterized by ongoing social interactions, enriched
by the fruits of human labor where Mr. Palomar seeks it.
However, he does not find any identifiable rhythm or pattern in reality, only chaos and
disorder. But in fact it would take little to meet the challenge of such complexities: it would
suffice to fix one’s gaze on any phenomenon whatever—on a wave, for example—and to
find in its motions what distinguishes it from the other waves while keeping it identical to
itself. It would be enough to identify what makes it a wave—as opposed to a ripple, crest,
or billow—and what distinguishes it from all the other similar but different waves. The
form of a wave might then appear to the intent observation of Mr. Palomar and from this
humble shadow of a broader harmony he might be able to broaden his field of observation
and eventually find the harmony of the whole universe. Or perhaps Mr. Palomar could hope
to find a wave, at least, a wave itself, with all its particularities, regularities and idiosyncra-
sies. In short, he might be able to grasp a thing, no matter how humble, in its wholeness.
But his attempt fails.
Far from unraveling themselves, from exposing their nude identity to his gaze, the
waves—when observed at length—start to sink into confusion. They even lose what
seemed to be most characteristic of them, to the point that they seem to move from the shore
to the open sea:
4. Concerto comes from concertare,
a contraption of cum certamen,
literally “fighting together.” Late
Latin has also another form, however, concento,
from cum cantus.
“Harmonia” is defined as the “tuning
of the instrument of the soul” by Plato. See Phaedrus,
86b7-c2
5. See Heraclitus, fragment 8 (Diels): “The opposites in agreement and from the disagreement a beautiful
harmony.” In the last pages of Stanze (Torino: Einaudi, 1977); Engl tr. Stanzas (Minneapolis: Minnesota
UP, 1993) Giorgio Agamben, commenting upon this fragment, insists that armonia is inseparable
from the idea of a juncture and an articulation: “the ‘perfect jewel of the cosmos’ implies for the
Greeks the idea of a laceration which is, at the same time, a suture” (188).