[1] Grassi sought to take up the Heideggerean Destruktion of metaphysics, grounding his philosophical enterprise instead in the tradition of rhetoric.

In this tradition, "work and metaphor are the source of human history and society", an approach to thought which must reject the rational, proceeding as it does from "general and necessary premises.

There are three primary faculties of true rhetoric: Ingenium-Most important and essential to the understanding of humanistic tradition.

Metaphor-With this, according to Grassi, a person must be able to bring together Ingenium and work making metaphor beneficial for the continuation of growth and development.

Ingenium, Work, and Metaphor is intertwined with knowledge, rationality, language and plays a role in nature.