Sossio Giametta’s thought is intimately connected to his work as a philologist and translator. His youthful enthusiasm for Benedetto Croce, Caesar, and Goethe, his discovery of Spinoza, his meeting with Giorgio Colli, and his subsequent study of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer all shaped his intellectual journey. Translation and commentary, interpretation and reconsideration, love and loyalty, but also criticism of these authors all form the true grounds of Giametta’s thought. His philosophy, which he developed later in life, is essentialism-organicism – a new system of thought based exclusively on nature both naturans (nature in the process of creation) and naturata (nature as created). This system is encapsulated by the motto: “Nihil nisi ex natura” (Nothing except from nature). 

Essentialism-organicism describes the human condition as determined by the combination of two heterogeneous elements: the divine origin and essence of everything that exists and the often diabolic conditions of existence. This combination affects all creatures. The varying mix or blending of these two elements in each individual’s experience explains the eternal reasons why one may be a believer or an unbeliever, affirm or deny life, or see the proverbial glass as half full or half empty. This perspective excludes any unilateral optimism or pessimism. It explains the evil destined for creatures (evil does not exist in Being, as there is no division or distinction in it) through their subordinate position as cells of the universal organism (infinite and eternal being in our human perception), which are obliged to follow the law of the macro-organism instead of their own internal law as micro-organisms.

From this philosophy, Giametta draws many fertile corollaries across diverse fields such as philosophy, science, religion, and history. For example, he redefines the philosophical method through nature and history, emphasizing continuity rather than separation. He recomposes the traditional dichotomy between idealism and realism, demonstrates free will in its ‘conditioned’ form, and recasts morality within the empirical and worldly sphere. Experience, according to Giametta, becomes the insurmountable limit of science and the experimental method. This limit can be surpassed only through philosophical speculation, which enables the articulation of two new principles involving the organic translation of Einstein’s mechanistic language: the principle of organicity and the principle of maximum determination.

Giametta also proposes an unprecedented definition and critique of Christianity. He argues that, in the wake of Augustine, Christianity represents an internalization of Parmenidean being. However, it does so in a way that is contrary to any healthy, outward-looking life. Giametta identifies in Christianity a reversal of the ‘aristocratic’ values of antiquity – such as the triumph of the individual, blood and soil, nationalism, inequality among individuals, peoples and ethic groups, war, conquest, and revenge – into ‘democratic’ values: equality and dignity of all before God, peace, solidarity, charity even towards enemies, forgiveness, and universalism. From a historical perspective, this leads Giametta to view Christ as a human rather than a divine figure, emphasizing the essentially historical and civilizing mission carried out by Jesus and subsequently by the Catholic Church.

Giametta finds the unified and dramatic meaning of the modern age in the process of Europe’s secularization, initiated by the Renaissance philosophers of nature who sought to replace God with nature and theology with philosophy. He advocates for reinterpreting important characters and events in light of this secularization. Giametta views the modern age as the story of the rise and triumph of European nations, culminating in their colonization of much of the world. This period of supremacy, following the cyclical process of diastole and systole, then led to its overthrow: hence the invasion of Europe by the colonized – migrants – after its extreme attempt to re-establish the aforementioned vacillating domination through fascism and communism.

Giametta’s essentialism-organicism, rooted in Italian Renaissance naturalism, stems from his recovery and revaluation of the speculative riches of Bruno, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, offering a fresh interpretation of their ideas. Simultaneously, he delivers robust critiques of Plato, Descartes, Pascal, Heidegger, Hadot, Putnam, Severino, and others. Nietzsche in particular, profoundly absorbed over decades of study by Giametta, emerges as the philosopher who encapsulates the essence and embodiment of the European crisis, albeit projected towards ancient Greece or transformed into tragic poetry and philosophy (the Dionysian vision). Nietzsche, particularly in his mature work Thus Spoke Zarathustra, represents the culmination of modernity. Indeed, Giametta sees Nietzsche not only as a religious and linguistic genius – a sort of second Luther – but also as largely misunderstood by both himself and his major interpreters.

Giametta’s philosophy and insights are expressed in his books with a distinctive style – clear, succinct, and powerful –reflecting the craftsmanship of a writer deeply steeped in the classical tradition, particularly influenced by much-admired figures like Caesar and Lucretius.