Gianni Vattimo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gianni Vattimo
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Born |
Gianteresio Vattimo
4 January 1936 |
Died | 19 September 2023 Turin, Piedmont, Italy
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(aged 87)
Alma mater | University of Turin (Laurea, 1959) |
Era | Contemporary philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Continental philosophy Phenomenology Hermeneutics |
Main interests
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Ethics Political philosophy |
Notable ideas
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Pensiero debole (weak thought) |
Gianteresio Vattimo (4 January 1936 – 19 September 2023) was an Italian philosopher and politician.
Biography
Gianteresio Vattimo was born in Turin, Piedmont. He studied philosophy under the existentialist Luigi Pareyson at the University of Turin, and graduated with a laurea in 1959. In 1963 he moved to Heidelberg and studied with Karl Löwith, Habermas and Hans-Georg Gadamer with a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Then, Vattimo returned to Turin where he became assistant professor in 1964, and later full professor of Aesthetics in 1969. While remaining at Turin, becoming Professor of Theoretical Philosophy in 1982, he has been a visiting professor at a number of American Universities.
For his works, he received honorary degrees from the universities of La Plata, Palermo, Madrid, Havana, and San Marcos of Lima.
Vattimo said he was exempted from military service.
After being active in the Radical Party, the short-lived Alleanza per Torino, and the Democrats of the Left, Vattimo joined the Party of Italian Communists. He was elected a member of the European Parliament first in 1999 and for a second mandate in 2009.
He was openly gay and a nihilist who embraced Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of God's death.
In March 2012 he was a speaker at the national congress of the Grand Orient of Italy in Rimini.
Views and opinions
Palestine and Israel
Vattimo added his name to a petition released on 28 February 2009, calling on the European Union to remove Hamas from its list of terrorist organizations and grant it full recognition as a legitimate voice of the Palestinian people.
He expressed his willingness to go to Gaza and fight side by side with Hamas.
Selected works
- (1991) The End of Modernity: Nihilism and Hermeneutics in Post-modern Culture, translated by John R. Snyder, Polity Press, 1991. Translation of La fine della modernità, Garzanti, Milan, 1985
- (1992) The Transparent Society, translated by David Webb, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. Translation of La società trasparente, Garzanti, Milan, 1989
- (1993) The Adventure of Difference: Philosophy after Nietzsche and Heidegger, translated by Thomas Harrison and Cyprian P. Blamires, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Translation of Le avventure della differenza, Garzanti, Milan, 1980
- (1997) Beyond Interpretation: The Meaning of Hermeneutics for Philosophy, translated by David Webb, Stanford University Press, 1997. Translation of Oltre l'interpretazione, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1994
- (1998) Religion by Jacques Derrida, edited by Gianni Vattimo, translated by David Webb, Stanford University Press, 1998
- (1999) Belief by Gianni Vattimo, et al., Polity Press, 1999. Translation of Credere di credere, Garzanti, Milan, 1996
- (2002a) Nietzsche: Philosophy as Cultural Criticism, translated by Nicholas Martin Stanford University Press, 2002. Translation of Introduzione a Nietzsche, Laterza, Rome-Bari,1985
- (2002b) After Christianity, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
- (2004) Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, Politics and Law, edited by Santiago Zabala, Columbia University Press, 2004
- (2005) The Future of Religion, Richard Rorty and Gianni Vattimo, edited by Santiago Zabala, Columbia University Press, 2005
- (2006) After the Death of God, John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, edited by Jeffrey W. Robbins, Columbia University Press.
- (2008) Dialogue with Nietzsche, Gianni Vattimo, Columbia University Press.
- (2008) Art's Claim to Truth, Gianni Vattimo, edited by Santiago Zabala, Columbia University Press.
- (2009) Christianity, Truth, and Weak Faith, Gianni Vattimo and René Girard, edited by P. Antonello, Columbia University Press.
- (2010) The Responsibility of the Philosopher, Gianni Vattimo, edited by Franca D'Agostini, Columbia University Press.
- (2011) Hermeneutic Communism, Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala, Columbia University Press.
- (2012) Weak Thought, translated by Peter Carravetta, SUNY series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy, 2012. Translation of Il pensiero debole, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1983
- (2014) Deconstructing Zionism: A Critique of Political Metaphysics, edited by Gianni Vattimo and Michael Marder, Bloomsbury.
See also
In Spanish: Gianni Vattimo para niños
- Anti-Zionism#View that the two are interlinked
- Deconstruction
- Post-Marxism
- Postmodern Christianity
- Nihilism