A few thoughts on Leopardi’s linguistic philosophy

The essay describes, on the one hand, how much technical and scientific knowledge played an important role in Leopardi’s formation—demonstrated in the first place by the Dissertazioni filosofiche and Storia dell’Astronomia—and, on the other hand, highlights how they then influenced his philosophical reflection represented both by his materialist conception of man, and by the thoughts on language in a unitary vision of man and of his expressive abilities. As regards this last area, we have concentrated our analysis on two fundamental themes: 1. the distinction between words and terms; 2. the dialectical conception of language that holds together apparently antithetical aspects, such as those of vagueness and semantic uniqueness or beauty and usefulness.