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Alain Berthoz, Carlo Ossola

The Freedoms of the Improbable Publication date : June 19, 2019

Alain Berthoz is a neurophysiologist and honorary professor at the Collège de France (Chair in “Physiology of perception and action”).
Carlo Ossola is a philologist, historian of literature, and an Italian literary critic. He is professor at the Collège de France (Chair in “Modern literatures of neo-Latin Europe”).

The improbable is often considered to be a source of misfortune or worry in Western culture, which prefers the foreseeable to the uncertain. And yet…

Whether in basic scientific research or in artistic creation, in philosophical discussion or in the evolution of life, the improbable is that source of freedom out of which emerge ideas, solutions, or new and unforeseen events.

Wherever the impossible presents an obstacle, the improbable should be seen as that potential source of innovation to encourage us to go beyond what is simply already possible.