Amor proprio e amore nell'ontologia leopardiana

Amor proprio is the only innate principle that is acknowledged within Leopardi’s ontology. Unlike the 18th-century notion of amor di sé, the concept employed by Leopardi introduces a relational dimension within the constitutive dynamic of the living. In fact, loving one’s own good means identifying a good external to the self (pleasure) and making it the object of the infinite desire that animates the individual. In this sense, the self-love on which all passions depend is already a drive that leads the individual outside herself. The contribution intends to reflect on this erotic dynamism of Leopardi’s ontology, considering Eros as the very force that moves the living matter and comparing it with similar notions such as the spinozian conatus. The original contribution of Leopardi within the wide debate around living forces is the idea that both love and self-love – conceived as illusions directed towards pleasure – are sustained by the activity of imagination. In this sense, the natural illusions produced by imagination should be considered as entities which are able to extend the surface of reality, instead of cover it.