Gianni Vattimo

Interview

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Biography

Gianni Vattimo was born in Turin in 1936. He studied under Luigi Pareyson, and graduated from Turin University in 1959. He studied at Heidelberg with Karl Lšwith and Hans Georg Gadamer, and introduced the latter's works to Italy. From l964 he was assistant professor and from 1969 full professor of Aesthetics at Turin. He has been Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the same University since l982. He has been visiting professor to various universities int eh United States. He is editor of "Rivista di estetica" (Aesthetic Review); member of the scientific committees of various Italian and international journals, and fellow of the Accademia delle Scienze (Academy of Sciences) of Turin.

In his works, Vattimo has proposed an interpretation of contemporary hermeneutic ontology, emphasising its positive link with nihilism, understood as a weakening of ontological categories arising from the metaphysics and criticism of Nietzsche and Heidegger. This weakening of being is the central concept for understanding the characteristics of man's existence in the late-modern world and - in the form of secularisiation, the passage to democratic political regimes, pluralism and tollerance - represents the guiding thread of any possible emancipation.

Bibliography

• Il concetto di fare in Aristotele, Giappichelli, Turin, 1961;
• Essere, storia e linguaggio in Heidegger, "Filosofia", Turin 1963;
• Ipotesi su Nietzsche, Giappichelli, Turin, 1967;
• Poesia e ontologia, Mursia, Milan 1968;
• Schleiermacher, filosofo dell'interpretazione, Mursia, Milan, 1968;
• Introduzione ad Heidegger, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1971;
• Il soggetto e la maschera, Bompiani, Milan, 1974;
• Le avventure della differenza, Garzanti, Milan, 1980;
• Al di là del soggetto, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1981;
• Il pensiero debole, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1983 (edited by G. Vattimo e P. A. Rovatti);
• La fine della modernità, Garzanti, Milan, 1985;
• Introduzione a Nietzsche, Laterza, Rome-Bari,1985;
• La società trasparente, Garzanti, Milan, 1989;
• Etica dell' interpretazione, Rosenberg & Sellier, Turin, 1989;
• Filosofia al presente, Garzanti, Milan, 1990;
• Oltre l'interpretazione, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1994;
• Credere di credere, Garzanti, Milan, l996.

He also writes an annual philosophical monographm, published by Laterza (Filosofia '86 etc.).