Some new reflections on Mr. Palomar

TL;DR

This paper explores the reflections of Mr. Palomar, illustrating how his observations of nature reveal insights into mental health, world complexity, and the influence of cosmological thinking on human experience.

Contribution

It offers a novel analysis of Mr. Palomar's reflections and discusses their implications in understanding the human condition through a cosmological lens.

Findings

Sea waves induce peaceful and inspirational states

Reflections reduce world complexity to elementary mechanisms

Cosmological thinking influences human well-being

Abstract

The character Mr. Palomar, the alter-ego of the Italian author Italo Calvino, appeared for the first time in 1975 on the pages of the "Il Corriere della Sera", and then more or less regularly till its debut as a book in 1983. Through illuminating thoughts and reflections based on observations, for instance, of sea waves, Mr. Palomar discovers that they induce a peaceful and inspirational state of mind that prevents coronary and mental illnesses, and also holds the key to capturing the complexity of the world reducing it into its most elementary mechanisms. In this contribution I will survey some of Mr. Palomar's thoughts while he observes the sky and speculate on others that he might have explored if he shared our contemporary knowledge of the cosmos. I will also discuss the thoughts of other authors on how, cosmological thinking affects the human condition.