NICHILISMO E POESIA NELLA FILOSOFIA DI LEOPARDI

Beniamino Ravera

In this article I outline some fundamental passages in the reading of the works of Leopardi proposed by E. Severino, according to whom the two aspects of the former’s production, viz. the poetic and the philosophical, are intrinsically and systematically linked to a radical, hitherto unseen, form of ontological nihilism. I first examine some instances of it as they emerge from passages such as the Dialogo di Federico Ruysch e delle sue mummie, setting then off for an outlook on the genesis and justification of this speculative position as stated, for instance, in P 1339-1342. I subsequently refer to the problem of the presence and the meaning of God in Leopardi’s thought, deeming it a fruitful node to grasp the essence of the whole system. On this foundations I then present a sketch of the role which poetry, conceived as the most peculiar work of the “genius”, plays in the frame of nihilism: far from being simply an innocent evasion from the truths of philosophical speculation or a mere restating of said cognition in the spoils of the beautiful, the work of poetry constitutes an essential moment of the system of “miserable but true philosophy”. In this vest， poetry is the only possible form of self-conscious actuality open for the philosopher and the most vigorous expression of human compassion animating the deserted landscape of a world deprived of its epistemic relief as well as of every remnant of its substantiality.