The hubris of the word. Logic and Language in The Philosophy of Giorgio Colli

Abstract

This article will be divided into three sections and will address the status of logic and language in Colli’s philosophy. Firstly, I will examine the final chapter of Filosofia dell’espressione, where Colli develops the hypothesis of the ‘spurious λόγος’. From a Collian perspective, logic is regarded as having merely instrumental value, being reduced to a set of relations to a form of substantial otherness that cannot be expressed and which, for that very reason, makes the λόγος unstable. Secondly, I will conduct an examination of the manner in which the spurious λόγος attempts to disguise its caducous nature through the use of the language. Thirdly, I will demonstrate how Colli’s theses on logic and language represent a deepening of certain Nietzschean positions. Furthermore, I will show how Colli’s engagement with Nietzsche led him to adopt a markedly divergent philosophical position from those of other authors (Derrida, Vattimo, Heidegger) – who, following Nietzschean thought, had previously highlighted the crisis in logic and language.