Beyond the Cave: in Dialogue with thought for Sustainable Action

This paper reflects on the link between thought and language and on the connotative function of words (Cosentino), through which it is possible to begin the search for shared meanings (Lipman), capable of provoking sustainable action (Mortari, Malavasi). Starting from Dewey’s considerations on the processes of attribution of value and on the criterion of experience, we intend to validate the philosophical dialogical practice of community, which allows the recognition of the fallibility of beliefs (Peirce) and affective attitudes, as well as the assumption of the criterion of sociality as a privileged cognitive and moral criterion. In this way, it would seem possible to exit the cave of Platonic memory, to face the current challenges between presence and distance, above all the environmental one. The solution could be identified in a recovery of the ethically-oriented dialogical dimension, which could reveal scenarios of light, capable of eliciting sustainable action through the activity of thinking.