Premessa to: From Artistotle to Chomsky

The present book contains nine essays that appeared in different journals or collective volumes over a period of more than thirty years; three of them were originally published in English (chaps. 7, 8 and 9), one in French (chap. 3), and the remaining 5 ones in Italian. They are reproduced here without any substantial changes. I have only corrected some inaccuracies and misprints; I have also added an appendix to chap. 2, which is the oldest paper of the collection, to provide some further references and to clarify some points. Moreover, all passages that were originally in other languages have been translated into English; where possible, standard translations 10 have been used, but in all other cases they are my own.