L’Ermeneutica tra critica della metafisica e ontologia del conflitto in Gianni Vattimo

Abstract

This article examines Gianni Vattimo’s philosophy by focusing on the nexus between hermeneutics, critique of metaphysics, and ontology of conflict. In an age dominated by techno-scientific rationality and by the progressive emptying of philosophy’s foundational role, Vattimo rethinks hermeneutics as a critical practice aimed at unmasking any claim to neutrality. Far from being reduced to a superficial relativism or to a conciliatory philosophy of dialogue, Vattimo’s hermeneutics emerges as a weak and nihilistic ontology, interpreting being not as stable presence but as historical and linguistic event. This perspective makes it possible to recover the conflictual dimension of thought, moving beyond the culturalist trivialization of hermeneutics and recognizing in conflict – rather than in neutralizing dialogue – the driving force of historical and political transformation. From here arises the project of a “hermeneutic communism,” understood not as an ideological doctrine but as an emancipatory praxis rooted in the awareness of the interpretive and contingent character of every truth.