lessere

lEssere, in Italian philosophy, refers to the fundamental concept of being or existence. The term emerges from the verb essere (to be) and, with the definite article, denotes Being as a distinct philosophical notion rather than any particular thing. In scholarly usage, lEssere is treated as the object of ontology, the branch of metaphysics that asks what it means for something to be and how beings relate to one another.

Historically, notions of being have deep roots in ancient and medieval thought. In classical philosophy, discussions of being appear in the works of Parmenides and Aristotle, who distinguish between what it means for something to exist and the ways beings come to be. Medieval scholastics developed refined analyses of esse (being) as act versus potency and as the foundation of every entity’s existence. The Latin and Italian traditions often mirror broader debates in ontology and metaphysics, framing being as the most fundamental category of reality.

In modern philosophy, lEssere figures prominently in existential and phenomenological investigations. Martin Heidegger’s Sein (Being) reoriented ontology toward questioning the meaning of Being itself, a stance widely translated and discussed in Italian as lEssere in relation to time and human existence. Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, available in Italian as L’essere e il nulla, explores the structure of consciousness in relation to being. Both figures influenced contemporary debates on ontological status, grounding, and the nature of existence.

Today, lEssere appears across analytic and continental traditions, in discussions of ontology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and theology. It is often contrasted with the study of particular beings (ente) and with categories such as existence, essence, and modality, forming a core reference point for questions about what it means for anything to be at all.