From Distance to Difference: Knowledge and Error in Leopardi

Abstract

ABSTRACT Leopardi’s philosophical questions are often approached in straightforwardly ontological terms, thus detracting from the distinctiveness of his theoretical struggle. This article argues instead that Leopardi’s adherence to empirical reasoning and eighteenth-century French epistemology generates a productive tension in their development at an ontological level. Although certain concepts (illusion, pain, matter) show an ontological aspect early on, Leopardi continues to approach them from an epistemological perspective throughout his life. To explore this tension, the article examines Leopardi’s engagement with the notion of error: from errore as distance, an epistemological mistake to be rectified by reason, to errare as difference, the ontological condition to which all living beings are destined. Paying attention to how Leopardi thinks, the article also aims to shed light on the function ascribed to poetry in ‘La ginestra’, in which he resorts to an epistemological corrective in order to move from subjective perception to ontological evidence.