Among the most well-known Italian philosophers and among the greatest exponents of hermeneutic philosophy on a global level, translated into various languages, scholar and original continuer of the thought of Martin Heidegger, Gianni Vattimo – who died this evening at the age of 87 in Turin, after being hospitalized in the last few days at the Rivoli hospital, with Simone Caminada, 38 years old, assistant and companion at his side – he theorized the abandonment of the claims of foundation of metaphysics and the relativization of every philosophical perspective, thus becoming the master of «weak thought » on an international level. Vattimo, in his work, underlined the historicity and finiteness of the human condition and the centrality of language (and interpretation) not only in the understanding of the work of art, but in every other form of experience. At the beginning of the 1980s he was noted for his proposal, connected to the Nietzschean and Heideggerian theoretical horizon but also to that of the debate on postmodernism, of a “weak thought” characterized by the abandonment of the claims of foundation of traditional metaphysics and by the relativization of any philosophical or political perspective that intends to present itself as definitive.
Vattimo, the wedding with Caminada suspended: the future husband on trial, the accusation is of “circumvention of an incapable person”
Who was
Born in Turin on 4 January 1936 as Gianteresio known as Gianni, Vattimo was a student of Luigi Pareyson, from whom his original interests in aesthetics derive, having Umberto Eco as a fellow student with whom he shared friendship and interests, graduating in philosophy in 1959 at the University of Turin. In addition to his youthful militancy in Catholic Action, Vattimo was also among the pioneers of Italian television with Eco: in 1954 together they participated and won a Rai competition for the hiring of new officials; they left the television organization in the late 1950s. Vattimo then specialized at the University of Heidelberg with Hans Georg Gadamer and Karl Löwith. In 1964 he became a professor at the University of Turin, first as professor of aesthetics, then (from 1982) as professor of theoretical philosophy. In the seventies he was dean of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Turin, of which he became professor emeritus after his retirement.
Studies
A scholar of contemporary hermeneutic philosophy, he investigated its historical presuppositions and developed its theoretical implications, dedicating his research to Friedrich Schleiermacher, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Gadamer, for whom he edited the Italian edition of «Truth and Method» (1972 ). Vattimo has taught as a visiting professor in the United States and held seminars in various universities around the world. He was director of the «Rivista di estetica», member of scientific committees of various Italian and foreign journals, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin, as well as editorialist for the newspapers «La Stampa» and «La Repubblica» and for the weekly « L’Espresso”. He received honorary degrees from the Universities of La Plata, Palermo, Madrid and from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. Vattimo was not only a speculative thinker but also a prominent militant intellectual of the left, openly homosexual and at the same time claiming his Catholic faith, carrying out political activity in various formations: first in the Radical Party, then in the Alleanza per Torino, subsequently in the Democrats of the Left (from 1999 to 2004), for which he was a European parliamentarian, and finally in the Party of Italian Communists. From 2009 to 2015 he was an independent European parliamentarian elected on the lists of Antonio Di Pietro’s Italia dei Valori, finally moving to the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals for Europe.
The thought
The complexity of his thought places Vattimo among the main postmodern philosophers. On the basis of the Nietzschean and Heideggerian objections to the ‘metaphysics of representation’ (correspondence of language to being) and in consonance with Gadamerian hermeneutics, Vattimo has come to identify being and language, underlining the role that interpretation on the basis of linguistic presuppositions and historical-cultural aspects in every area of human experience. The hermeneutic outcomes of contemporary philosophy constitute for Vattmo the starting point of a historicized and “nihilistic” conception of reality and values, for which being exists only as temporality and as the “transmission of linguistic messages” from an era to the other. This perspective is codified with the proposal – connected to the Nietzschean and Heideggerian theoretical horizon, but also convergent with the postmodernist (Jean-François Lyotar) and neopragmatist (Richard Rorty) theses – of a “weak thought” characterized by the abandonment of pretensions of foundation of traditional metaphysics and of every philosophical or ideological conception that intends to present itself as absolute. He recently proposed a “secularized” vision of the Christian faith, based on charity and considered adequate for the contemporary era, characterized by the dissolution of metaphysical projects.
The books
Vattimo has numerous books, among which are: «Being, history and language in Heidegger» (Edizioni di Filosofia, 1963); «Poetry and ontology» (Mursia, 1967); «Schleiermacher philosopher of interpretation» (Mursia, 1968); «The subject and the mask. Nietzsche and the problem of liberation” (Bompiani, 1974); «The adventures of difference. What does it mean to think after Nietzsche and Heidegger” (Garzanti, 1980); «Beyond the subject» (Feltrinelli, 1981); «The weak thought (collection of essays edited in collaboration with Pier Aldo Rovatti, Feltrinelli, 1983); »The end of modernity. Nihilism and hermeneutics in post-modern culture« (1989); »Ethics of interpretation« (Rosenberg & Sellier, 1989); »Beyond interpretation« (Laterza, 1994); »Dialogue with Nietzsche. Essays 1961-2000« (Garzanti, 2001); »Technique and existence. A philosophical map of the twentieth century« (Bruno Mondadori, 2002); »After Christianity. For a non-religious Christianity« (Garzanti, 2002); »The future of religion« (with Richard Rorty, Garzanti, 2005); »Don’t be God. A four-handed autobiography« (in collaboration with Piergiorgio Paterlini, Aliberti, 2006); »Ecce com. How to re-become what you were” (Fazi, 2007); »Goodbye to truths« (Meltemi, 2009); »Introduction to aesthetics« (Ets, 2010); »Of reality« (Garzanti, 2012); »Hermeneutic communism. From Heidegger to Marx« (with Santiago Zabala, Garzanti, 2014). The volumes »Being and surroundings« (La Nave di Teseo, 2018) and »Philosophical and political writings« (La Nave di Teseo, 2021) have recently appeared. In the pamhplet »Believing to Believe« (Garzanti, 1996) Vattimo proposed a »secularized« vision of the Christian faith, based on charity and considered adequate for the contemporary era, characterized by the dissolution of metaphysical projects. Among the philosopher’s numerous experiences was also that of creator and host of the philosophical dissemination television program »La clessidra« on Raitre in 1986.
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