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LIFE
Luigi Zanzi
was born in Varese on the 20th of September 1938, he completed his
studies in Varese (Classical high school) and in a College in Pavia,
graduated in Law in 1960. He works as a lawyer, mainly in civil matters.
He teaches Theory of history since 1973 at the University of Literature
and Philosophy in Genova and since 1987 at the University of Literature
and Philosophy in Pavia. His political engagement has been steady since
1964, with Altiero Spinelli, with the European Movement, whose Central
Committee he has been a member for a long time. Today he is assessor at
the Economic Program at Varese Municipality as an indipendent. He is
counsellor representing Pavia University at the Center of Scientific
Culture “Alessandro Volta”. He has been one of the founders, then
President and today Counsellor of the Institute “Ludovico Geymonat”. He
is vice-president of the International Association for the history of
the Alps, with its seat in Lucern.
THOUGHT
The field of
research of Luigi Zanzi can be divided in different parts:
a) a
methodological and epistemological part in which he has made researches
on the historiographical working and on the different moments of history
of the historical thought, from the XVI to the XX century;
b) a part
dealing with the history of alpine civilization, particularly with
researches about alpine pastures high in the Central Alps (he has also
made, in this field, researches on the history of migrations in a
mountain environment);
c) a part
dealing with the history of nature, in which he has made works about the
history of “locally” natural evolution, addressing in particular to the
world of forests and mainly of alpine forests;
d) a part of
historical cosmology in which, in 1994, he has made researches on the
epistemological aspects of the cosmological history of the universe,
together with Ilya Prigogine.
Rethinking
Medical Science in the Light of Darwinism and
Eco-history in the context of a pluralistic approach to the culture of
health
Often, in the various considerations regarding alternative medicine ant
its myriad of therapeutic methods, the point of reference for all
comparisons is the so called “medical science”. However, this scientific
medicine only very rarely includes the results of eco-historical
research.
The thesis of
this exposition is that we need a critical review of the historical
development of the medical science from the “local” perspective. Such a
research would follow the tortuous ways by which the different
therapeutic traditions have developed in different natural-environmental
contexts, coming as response to the different types of ills and diseases
that men and women were confronted to in their specific habitat.
This approach
allows a historical comparison between the different medical traditions
in their different environments.
This corresponds to the proposal of understanding the evolution of the
medical practices in the light of eco-history – a Darwinian point of
view.
Thanks to this, what we hope will emerge
most clearly is the profound signification of the specific natural
environment for the shaping of the knowledge and habits of different
cultural groups.
From this perspective, whether or not a medical system (including the
modern so called “medical science”) is successful in “Realising peace
with the environment” is thus a fundamental criterion to evaluate its
adequateness.
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