Abstract

This contribution is devoted to Severino’s debt to the Hegelian dialectic. First, it critically introduces the key-elements of the Hegelian dialectic of Wesenheiten – which Severino pays close attention to in the central chapters of his main text, La struttura originaria. In particular, this introduction distinguishes, and then relates, the concepts of “dialectical contradictionµ and “formal contradictionµ. Second, the contribution analyzes the chapters in which Severino enhances, in his own way, the Hegelian “determinate negationµ. This formula is taken up by Severino to indicate that opposition between contrary meanings that establishes the organism of entities. Third, the contribution analyzes the concepts of “organicismµ and “absolute relationalismµ, which should be kept clearly separated, but which Severino – in fact – welds together, resulting in aporetic outcomes.