Praise for V a t the responsibility t i m of the philosopher o t h over the course of his career, gianni “There is no better guide to Gianni Vattimo’s philosophy e Vattimo has assumed a number of public than Franca D’Agostini’s introduction to this book. One of r e and private identities and has pursued mul- Vattimo’s most skilled students, D’Agostini manages to s present both the logic behind weak thought and the novelty p tiple intellectual paths. He seems to embody o several contradictions, at once defending of this text, which reveals the Italian master’s intuitions on n and questioning religion and critiquing and crucial problems of contemporary philosophy.” s i serving the state. Yet the diversity of his life b gianni vattimo is emeritus professor santiago zabala, Author of The Remains of Being: Hermeneutic il and thought form the very essence of, as of philosophy at the University of Turin Ontology After Metaphysics it he sees it, the vocation and responsibility and a member of the European Parliament. y of the philosopher. in a world that desires His books with Columbia University Press “The Responsibility of the Philosopher is brilliant and o quantifiable results and ideological expe- f diency, the philosopher becomes the vital include Christianity, Truth, and Weakening entertaining without becoming overly conceptual, yet it t interpreter of the endlessly complex. Faith: A Dialogue; Not Being God: A Collab- makes no concessions to or falls into mediocrity or com- h orative Autobiography; Art’s Claim to Truth; monplaces. The language is consistently rigorous, yet it e as he outlines his ideas about the philoso- After the Death of God; Dialogue with is incredibly clear and accessible to a philosophically p h pher’s role, Vattimo builds an important Nietzsche; The Future of Religion (with Rich- unsophisticated audience.” i companion to his life’s work. He confronts l ard Rorty); Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, silvia benso, Rochester Institute of Technology o questions of science, religion, logic, litera- Politics, and the Law; and After Christianity. s the responsibility ture, and truth, and passionately defends o p of the philosopher the power of hermeneutics to engage with franca d’agostini is professor of phi- h life’s conundrums. Vattimo conjures a clear losophy at the University of Turin. She is er Gianni Vattimo vision of philosophy as something sepa- the author of, most recently, The Last rate from the sciences and the humanities Fumes: Nihilism and the Nature of Philosoph- Columbia university press but also intimately connected to their pro- ical Concepts. new york cesses, and he explicates a conception of Franca D’Agostini William McCuaig www.cup.columbia.edu truth that emphasizes fidelity and partici- editor translator jaCkET dESign: maRTin HinzE printed in the u.s.a. columbia pation through dialogue. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PHI LOS O PHER gianni vattimo THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PHI LOS O PHER franca d’agostini Edited with an Introduction by william mccuaig Translated by COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK columbia university press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Originally published in Italian as Vocazione e responsabilità del fi losofo Copyright © 2000 Gianni Vattimo Translation copyright © 2010 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Vattimo, Gianni, 1936– [Vocazione e responsabilita del fi losofo. English] The responsibility of the philosopher / Gianni Vattimo ; edited with an introduction by Franca D'Agostini ; translated by William McCuaig. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-15242-6 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-52712-5 (ebook) 1. Philosophy, Modern—20th century. 2. Philosophy, Italian—20th century. I. D'Agostini, Franca, 1952– II. Title. B3654.V383V6313 2010 190—dc22 2010003075 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: THE STRONG REASONS FOR WEAK THOUGHT(cid:2)1 Franca D’Agostini Weakness 3 French Nihilism and Italian Nihilism 6 Nihilism and Diff erence 9 Diff erence and Dialectic 15 Nihilism, Hermeneutics, and Postmodernity 22 Verwindung 25 Argumentation and Provenance 29 This Book 32 Postscript (2009) 36 1. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE(cid:2)47 After Kant, After Hegel 47 The Flash of the Ereignis 51 The Story of a Comma 56 Science and “Being– not beings” 59 The Edifi cation of Humanity 62 Cumulative Knowledges 64 2. PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, LITERATURE(cid:2)69 Truth, Rhetoric, History 69 Are History and Ontology Compatible? 71 Mythization of the World 73 Fugues 75 Sciences of Nature and Sciences of the Spirit? 77 3. LOGIC IN PHILOSOPHY(cid:2)81 i Logic and the Logics 81 v Logic and the History of Being 84 Philosophy of Logic and Logic of Philosophy 87 S Logic and Ontology 90 T N E T 4. TO SPEAK THE TRUTH(cid:2)95 N O Redemisti nos Domine Deus veritatis 95 C The Endless Banquet 96 Do Vampires Exist? 98 5. THE VOCATION TO PHILOSOPHY AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PHILOSOPHY(cid:2)101 Writing for the Newspapers 101 Writing in the First Person 102 The Dive Into Politics 104 Politics Philosopher- style 107 Losing your Soul 111 Filling In the Blanks 112 The Construction of Universality is Po liti cal 115 NOTES(cid:2)119 BIBLIOGRAPHY(cid:2)135 INDEX(cid:2)145 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PHI LOS O PHER INTRODUCTION: THE STRONG REASONS FOR WEAK THOUGHT Franca D’Agostini There exist thinkers— Kierkegaard and Hannah Arendt come especially to mind— whose propensity for singularity and antitheory is grounded in precise and rigorously theoreti- cal reasons. This to a certain extent is Gianni Vattimo’s case too, and the primary aim of what follows is to bring out the strong reasons for Vattimo’s commitment to “weak thought” (pensiero debole), and to an “attenuation” or “lightening” of the structures of traditional philosophical discourse.1 Attenuation and lightening are not self- explanatory no- tions when applied to philosophy. To lighten or pare down a theory generally means strengthening the logical power of the theory itself (a point made promptly by acute critics of Vattimo like Carlo A. Viano and Enrico Berti). Actually, when the formula was coined, it conveyed a meaning more associa- tive than argumentative. The expression “weak thought” was quite clearly a catchphrase meant to characterize, and render historically intelligible, the aftermath of an unpleasantly shallow and cruel climate that had come about in philosophy and po liti cal thought in the second half of the 1970s. At that time, the analyses of such neostructuralist think- ers as Deleuze and Foucault were picked up in Italy and fused