Giacomo Leopardi and the roots of existentialism

Thesis

This study redefines the origins of existentialism by positioning the Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) as the initiator of atheistic existentialism. In his notebooks, the Zibaldone, Leopardi formulates what can be read as the foundational principle of existentialism: ‘existence precedes essence’. Throughout his writings he also expresses the typical affective states of existentialism: existential boredom, anguish, alienation, and the absurd. Leopardi offers the first integrated formulation of both the existentialist principle and the existentialist Stimmung. The existentialist principle underpins Leopardi’s work entirely. The main consequences of such principle are the absence of God, the absurdity of existence, and the freedom of the individual. These points place Leopardi in remarkable alignment with 20th-century atheist existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Martin Heidegger. Previous scholarship has limited itself to tracing isolated affinities between Leopardi and single existentialists. This project demonstrates that their alignment is both more profound and more systematic than has previously been acknowledged. Through such mediators as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Unamuno, and others, Leopardi’s works can be shown to have influenced, more or less directly, the existentialists. Leopardi also pioneers a mode of literature-philosophy that rejects formal logic and embraces poetry as a means of creating meaning in an otherwise meaningless existence. Indeed, poetry is the only means to create values that can sustain us in the face of existential absurdity. Many of these elements are to be found in Kierkegaard, yet neither atheism nor the idea that existence precedes essence are present in his work. Kierkegaard must therefore be regarded as the initiator of religious existentialism only, while it is Leopardi who stands at the roots of its atheistic form.

Authors: Costa, L

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-mnxpy58qo
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: history of philosophy; existentialism; Italian; Giacomo Leopardi; Jean-Paul Sartre
• Subjects: History of Philosophy; Modern Languages; Italian