Explosion

Abstract

This chapter is part of an anthology on the figure of Yuri Lotman, published for the hundredth anniversary of his birth.This chapter is devoted to the key concept of "explosion". I addressed it in relation to two problem areas: knowledge and evolution. I will make use of both theoretical writings and documents such as Lotman's letters, autobiographical interviews and television lectures for the general public. This array of sources will contribute to showing how his scientific thought, feeding on metaphorical images and "explosive" insights, is inseparable from his aesthetic sensibility and, in general, from real life understood as ongoing creativity.