Esperienza senza unità. Le radici storico-filosofiche del nichilismo leopardiano

This article aims at offering a definition of the concept of nihilism in Leopardi's works based on what can be considered the theme unfolded in 1821 and which we can find in Zibaldone's notes. Firstly, a brief reconstruction of the meaning of Leopardi's nihilism in the italian History of Philosophy is provided and, secondly, it is shown how the meaning given to the word "nothing" by Leopardi depends on the empiricist epistemology assumed as the only possible way of knowing. Specifically, we take into account several interpretations which, implicitly or explicitly, attempt to find out the role played by the concept of nothing in Leopardi's thought. After the analysis of these authors' standpoints, it will be clear how a coherent and accurate definition of a sharp nihilism is possible only after the consideration of the consequences entailed in Plato's epistemology dereliction shown in Leopardi's words.