The Originary Structure: (The Works of Emanuele Severino)

About the Book

The Originary Structure (La struttura originaria) (1958) is the foundation of Italian philosopher Emanuele Severino's thought, the starting point that establishes and recognizes the essential tenets of the incontrovertibility and necessity of the ‘truth of being’.

The first book written by Severino, it lays out the logical structure that underlies the philosophical development of his thought for the next six decades. According to Severino himself, it constitutes ‘the ground as part of which all his subsequent writings receive their own meaning’ – first and foremost because it aims to articulate the structure of the appearing and meaning of everything that is and appears, according to a logic that should prove itself to be unable to be refuted by any (non)philosophical discourse. This book presents the fundamental determinations of a philosophical discourse that cannot be refuted, to the extent that any such refutation would itself be grounded in the discourse to be refuted. It is on the basis of this logical structure that Severino is able to exhibit the necessity of his most challenging claim – that of the eternity of every being.

One of the most singular philosophical works written in the 20th century, this book plays an irreplaceable role in the system of Severino’s writings.

Published with the kind support of SEPS (Segretariato Europeo per le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche).

Table of Contents:

Foreword: The Ground, Damiano Sacco (Institute of Cultural Inquiry, Germany)
Introduction
The Originary Structure
1. The Exposition of the Originary Structure
2. The Immediacy of Being
3. The Immediacy of the Non-Contradictoriness of Being
4. The Aporia of Nothingness and Its Resolution
5. The Structure of the Totality of the Ph-Immediate
6. The Analysis of the Originary Meaning: Semantic Simplicities and Semantic Complexities
7. Logical Immediacy and Logical Mediation
8. The Ground qua Contradiction
9. Dialectic
10. The Manifestation of the Whole
11. The Abstract (Ga) (and Concrete) Concept of the Originary as the Originary Problem and Contradiction
12. The Inherent Contradictoriness of the Negation of the Presence of Being
13. Originary Metaphysics
Index

About the Author :

Emanuele Severino (1929 –2020) was an Italian philosopher. An original thinker and public intellectual, he is considered one of the most important Italian thinkers of the 20th century.

Damiano Sacco is a philosopher and translator and fellow of the Institute of Cultural Inquiry, Germany.

Review :
The Originary Structure is the fundamental text that allows us to understand the thought of one of the most important contemporary philosophers in its entirety and systematicity. An unparalleled analysis of the foundation and incontrovertibility of the truth of being, it finds its place among the most important texts in the history of Western philosophy. Long overdue, the appearance in English of Severino’s ground-breaking vision of western philosophy comes at the right time, just when the “battle of giants over being” is firing up again in both science and philosophy. Severino’s audacity will leave no philosophical reader indifferent. Emanuele Severino’s early Opus magnum, The Originary Structure, can undoubtedly be included among the ten most important and significant works produced by 20th-century philosophy. The book addresses the question of truth, and answers it by emphasising the inescapable interconnection of being and knowing: the ultimate ground of knowing is the being of knowing. As knowers and questioners of truth, we do not approach the question of truth from outside: rather, we are always already within the circle of being, which originarily structures itself as knowing. Severino’s wide-ranging elaboration of this thesis is more than ‘Neoparmenidism’: it is an example of genuinely speculative philosophy and lasting inspirational power.