Gianni Vattimo Bio, Wiki, Death, Age, Education, Networth, and More

Career

After graduated he 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.

He 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.

Philosophy

Vattimo's philosophy can be characterized as postmodern with his emphasis on "pensiero debole" (weak thought). This requires that the foundational certainties of modernity with its emphasis on objective truth founded in a rational unitary subject be relinquished for a more multi-faceted conception closer to that of the arts. He draws on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger with his critique of foundations and the hermeneutic philosophy of his teacher Hans-Georg Gadamer. Perhaps his greatest influence though is the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose "discovery of the 'lie', the discovery that alleged 'values' and metaphysical structures are just a play of forces" (1993:93), plays an important role in Vattimo's notion of "weak thought".

Selected work

• (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.