The Originary Structure

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 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, The Originary Structure plays an

irreplaceable role in the system of Severino’s writings.

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.