L’EDIFICIO DELLA SCIENZA È L’OPERA DELLE MENTI ASSOCIATE

The title is a quote taken by Cattaneo’s lessons in Lugano, as BarbaraBoneschi indicates in her Introduzione of the innovative critical edition of the Lecturesof Cattaneo at Istituto Lombardo; but the same concepts are slightly modified in thefirst Lecture. Starting from the Cattaneo’s statement that the origin of every scientificconstruction stays inside a society, rather in many societies differently active into timeand space, my work identifies and contextualizes the presence, into the Lectures, oftechnical “arts†(as Carlo Lacaita describes into his masterful opening essay, Cattaneo modern philosopher), not subordinate but coordinate with “social artsâ€, “mental artsâ€and “fine artsâ€. Mathematics, physics, thermodynamics, chemistry, astronomy, optics,electrical and magnetic phenomena, agriculture, geology, metallurgy, hydraulic andnautical “artsâ€, architecture are the most mentioned of the “polytechnic†disciplines,referring with this adjective to the modern polytechnic schools, forthcoming or just founded in Italy at the time of Lectures; but referring also to the disciplines debated inthe review “Il Politecnicoâ€, disciplines that had always significance in Cattaneo’s ideasand works.