Weakening Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Gianni Vattimo

by Santiago Zabala (Editor)

Moving away from Jacques Derrida's deconstructionism and Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics, and building on his experiences as a politician, Vattimo asks if it is still possible to speak of moral imperatives, individual rights, and political freedom. Acknowledging the force of Nietzsche's "God is dead," Vattimo argues for a philosophy of pensiero debole or "weak thinking" that shows how moral values can exist without being guaranteed by an external authority. His secularising interpretation stresses anti-metaphysical elements and puts philosophy into a relationship with postmodern culture.

Genres: Philosophy

464 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 2006

About the author

Santiago Zabala is ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He is the author of The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy: A Study of Ernst Tugendhat (Columbia, 2008); The Remains of Being: Hermeneutic Ontology After Metaphysics (Columbia, 2009); and (with Gianni Vattimo) Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx (Columbia, 2011), and the editor of several of Vattimo's books, including Nihilism and Emancipation: Ethics, Politics, and Law (2004); The Future of Religion (2005, with Richard Rorty); and Art's Claim to Truth (2008). He also writes opinion articles for publications including the New York Times, Al Jazeera, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.