The first English translation of Emanuele Severino's radical critique of the notion of identity.

Starting from his central intuition that Western culture is essentially nihilism, Emanuele Severino reflects anew on the problem of identity, abandoning the ambiguous (and ultimately contradictory) fashion in which being and becoming are grasped in the Western tradition. In this foundational work in Severino's philosophy, the philosopher questions the dominant understanding of identity in Western culture, tracing it back to Aristotle's definition of identity as 'tautótes'. In his endeavour, Severino discusses – with his particular depth – the most renowned philosophical passages from Hegel, Aristotle, Plato and Kant, presenting a radical critique of identity.

This book constitutes part of Severino's monumental theoretical apparatus, comprising a critique of Western metaphysics that sets him alongside Heidegger in contemporary theory. This translation of Tautótes will appeal to those interested in the central problems of Ancient and contemporary philosophy, ontology and metaphysics.

Emanuele Severino (1929 –2020) was an Italian philosopher. An original thinker and public intellectual, he is considered one of the most important Italian thinkers of the 20th century.


Antimo Lucarelli is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Philosophy Department of Yale University, USA. He obtained his PhD from the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK. Lucarelli holds a BA in Philosophy and an MA in Philosophical Sciences from the University of Milan, Italy.