G. Ferraro, A.C. Caeiro - Formas de Conversão

“We can affirm,” writes Pierre Hadot, “that the idea of ​​conversion represents one of the constitutive notions of Western consciousness: effectively, we can represent the entire history of the West as a constantly renewed effort to perfect the techniques of ‘conversion,’ that is, the techniques aimed at transforming human reality, either by leading it back to its original essence (conversion-return), or by radically modifying it (conversion-change).”
This collection of essays aims to be a small cartography of this phenomenon, which brings together seemingly distant figures from the ancient and modern philosophical tradition, such as Plato, Plotinus, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer; from the religious tradition, such as Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Father Antônio Vieira, and Pope Francis; revolutionary militants such as Marx, Lukács, Lenin, and Tronti; as well as poets and writers such as Lucretius, Petrarch, Goethe, Leopardi, and Pessoa,

among others.
Thus, we outline a notion of philosophy, religion, literature, and politics that deviates from the usual: understanding them as efforts to transform and change the perspective from which the world is viewed – and, eventually, to transform our own world.

And perhaps this book, in turn, represents a little of the "practice through which a person is displaced, transformed, destabilized" – which, according to Michel Foucault, would constitute the very definition of "spirituality."

Gianfranco Ferraro and Antonio de Castro Caeiro

With essays by:
Fábio Serranito
Hélder Telo
Luis Aguiar de Souza
Marta Faustino
Antônio de Castro Caeiro
José Eduardo Franco
Andreas Lind
Bartolomeu Ryan
Federico Testa
Gianfranco Ferraro
Antonio Cardiello