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The Fundamental Tendency of Our Time

The Fundamental Tendency of Our Time cover

The Fundamental Tendency of Our Time

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Description

The Fundamental Tendency of Our Times (Tendenza) is the Italian philosopher Emanuele Severino's crucial reflection on modern technology and science, in which he articulates his major contribution to the analysis of Western modernity: the claim that, beginning with Greek civilization, a nihilistic spirit of domination informs our conceptual and social systems.

In this book Severino applies his framework to the geopolitical situation before the fall of the Berlin Wall; yet his insights have continuing relevance in light of the current threat of ecological collapse accelerated by an orientation to the world as an object of exploitation.

Significant for its parallels with, and differences from, Heidegger's discussion of technology, this book's explicit discussion of politics gives essential clarification to Severino's notoriously complex philosophical discourse. With a foreword contextualizing the historical moment of its publication, this first English translation will be invaluable for those interested in understanding the thought of one of the most remarkable Italian theorists of the 20th century.

Published with the kind support of SEPS (Segretariato Europeo per le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche).

Table of Contents

Foreword, Ines Testoni, Damiano Sacco and Giulio Goggi
“In Technology We Trust”: An Introduction to Emanuele Severino's Understanding of the Human Technological Era, Antimo Lucarelli
Introduction
1. About the “Crisis”
2. The Fundamental Tendency of Our Time and the Meaning of the Future
3. The Ethics of Science
4. Élenchos
5. What is Europe?
6. Notes on the Italian State of Affairs
7. Summary: The West as the History of Nihilism
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Jan 08 2026
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 224
ISBN 9781350468351
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Works of Emanuele Severino
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Translator

Antimo Lucarelli

Antimo Lucarelli is a translator and scholar at th…

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