Il riconoscimento come segno dell’«incompiutezza» e della «socialità» dell’essere umano. L’antropologia di Tzvetan Todorov tra etica ed estetica

The paper reflects on Tzvetan Todorov’s anthropological conception, with particular attention to the role played by the question of recognition – a central theme in his exploration of the social nature of the human being, as presented in Life in Common (1995). The analysis highlights Todorov’s intellectual debt to the dialogical thought of Mikhail Bakhtin and to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s «third way», both of whom were the subjects of monographic studies published by Todorov in the 1980s. These two thinkers help to define the incompleteness of the human being and the aesthetic and ethical need for others, providing essential elements for the development of the concept of recognition and the types of relationships that emerge from it. These relationships appear to take on a paradigmatic function in the articulation of «everyday virtues», among which artistic activity is included.