Notes on etymological argumentation from Heidegger to Cacciari

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i8.11490

Keywords:

etymological argument, Martin Heidegger, Massimo Cacciari, etymology, Giovanni Semerano

Abstract

The essay deals with the so-called ‘etymological argument’ and how it was first used by Heidegger and then also taken up in Italy, among others by Massimo Cacciari. By the expression ‘etymological argument’ is meant the rhetorical move whereby the etymological origin of a term already contains the essence of the meaning of the term itself, regardless of how that meaning has changed over time. The two authors of this essay examine the implications and fallacies, both logical and linguistic, that the use and abuse of this argument has produced in both philosophical and linguistic-literary analysis.

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Author Biographies

Stefano Brugnolo, University of Pisa

Stefano Brugnolo is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Pisa; he has worked on comedy and black humour, post-colonial literature, and Freudian theory of literature. His latest essays include Dalla parte di Proust (Carocci 2022) and Rivoluzioni e popolo nell’immaginario letterario italiano ed europeo (Quodlibet 2023).

Francesco Rovai, University of Pisa

Francesco Rovai is Professor of Historical and General Linguistics at the University of Pisa. His research interests include language change, sociolinguistic variation, and orthographic coding in Latin, as well as multilingualism and contact between linguistic and writing systems in the ancient Mediterranean world.

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Published

2024-12-28 — Updated on 2025-05-31

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How to Cite

Brugnolo, S., & Rovai, F. (2025). Notes on etymological argumentation from Heidegger to Cacciari. SigMa - Rivista Di Letterature Comparate, Teatro E Arti Dello Spettacolo, (8), 295–323. https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i8.11490 (Original work published December 28, 2024)

Issue

No. 8 (2024): Simultaneity and polyphony. Choir voices in contemporary drama and the arts

Section

Varia

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