SORRISO E RICONOSCIMENTO: INTERPRETAZIONI DEL SORRISO NEONATALE NELLA TARDA MODERNITÀ = SMILE AND RECOGNITION: INTERPRETATIONS OF THE NEWBORN SMILE IN LATE MODERNITY

This contribution intends to analyse from a historical-theoretical perspective the interpretations of famous European thinkers of the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century on the newborn's smile. Through the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Albertine Necker de Saussure and Antonio Rosmini, an itinerary is outlined in which the first laugh of the newborn takes on increasing importance in virtue of the attention paid by the authors to the relationship between caregiver and infant. In particular, Rosmini's reflection represents the outcome of this itinerary, in which the smile of the newborn takes on the features of a sensorial-intellective response carried out by the infant towards the caregiver, to correspond to the care received. In a holistic interpretation Rosmini brings out the dynamic of recognition in all its pedagogical significance.