SPECIAL ARTICLES   

Chirurgia Del Piede 1999 December;23(3):145-56

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Foot and literature. A “new” foot: the beginning, how it is and workes and how to understand it

Paparella Treccia R.

Human foot will be examined in the light of the present scientific knowledge, which developed by placing face to face two fundamental paradigms: simplicity and complexity. At the basis of the relationship between biology and physics, the human foot, ''organ of sense'' before than ''organ of motion'' and therefore element of knowledge, provides its valid contribution to the well-balanced flowing together of the two opposite factions. After the synthetic presentation of the state-of-the-art of scientific knowledge, some observations will follow aimed at explaining the pathways that lead to the human foot concept, in both its shape and its essence. According to the notion that unify thought (mind) and material, as defined by the present knowledge of nature, the analysis will definitely be transferred into the field of literary abstraction. Attention will be particularly focused on rhetoric, teacher of the art of saying and, meanwhile, satellite of philosophy, since it behaves as a mirror of ideation. In fact, the progression old->new cannot be fully understood without the help of rhetoric. This present contribution to the understanding of the ''new'' human foot will also provide some hints regarding recent scientific concepts in podology and podiatric. Particular mention will be made to the ³geometrical soul² (helix in shapes and motions) as well as to the importance of systemic analysis in the study of normal and pathologic foot.