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Editorial

THE PLANET OF SELFISHNESS

by Cesare Patrone *

ur forefathers knew it as flat and limited, very limited. It was only in
Copernicus’ times that they began to cast doubt on what they had believed
Ountil then, namely that the Earth, our world, the third planet in the solar
system for its distance from the Sun, was a true planet indeed. As for its form, the
Greeks supposed it was spherical, though we do not have any data which can confirm
that they could depict it with the appearance of a big orange. Still, flat and little as they
thought it was, the ancients made it a subject of study, paid attention to it, made it the
topic of philosophical and literary works, created its genesis, tried to steal its secrets.
Most importantly, they have always respected it either when they made it their divinity
(Tellus, according to Roman mythology, means goddess of the earth and protector of
fertility) or, as Hesiod would relate in his Theogony, when they considered it, the
Earth, immortal Gaia (mother earth), the ancestor of the gods of Olympus.
Although they were short of that knowledge which nowadays makes humanity
uselessly proud, ancient thinkers respected the Earth. They considered the Earth as a
“group of people living together”, a source of supplies but also as one of the four
elements which, according to Thales’ school of philosophy, had given life to the Universe,
i.e.: Earth, Fire, Water and Air. And to the earth, taken in its broadest sense, both
in its general meaning of nature and way of living together, from a philosophical and
human perspective, we dedicate the “Focus” section of this issue of Silvae.
Unfortunately, such a broad and involving topic, especially in this period, can
only be dealt with briefly since our journal, rather than scamping, aims at suggesting
guidelines for a debate and at putting forward solution hypothesis on topics
concerning both the institutional life of CFS and the civil society as a whole. On
this latter future perspectives, scholars and researchers’ bitter controversy hangs over
and it risks to stop any kind of initiative that could help humanity avoid heading
towards “the brink of collapse”, as some would say.
Anno
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* Head of Corpo forestale dello Stato
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