Not being God : a collaborative autobiography

194 Pages·2009·0.735 MB·English, Italian

by  Vattimo, Gianni, McCuaig, William, Paterlini, Piergiorgio

“Dual authorship allows this book to speak in a way that mirrors the play among perspec-
tives that is so central to Gianni Vattimo’s thinking. It is essential to understanding V
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Vattimo’s personality and captures quite accurately his candor, modesty, sense of humor, t
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and, above all, love of life and education.” im
—Robert T. Valgenti, Lebanon Valley College o
W
ith Piergiorgio Paterlini, a noted Italian writer and journalist, Gianni Vattimo, a
leading philosopher of the continental school, reflects on a lifetime of politics, sex-
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ual radicalism, and philosophical exuberance in postwar Italy. Turin, the city in which he
was born and one of the intellectual capitals of Europe (also the city in which Nietzsche
went mad), forms the core of his reminiscences, enriched by fascinating vignettes of
studying under Hans Georg Gadamer, teaching in the United States, serving as a public
intellectual and interlocutor of Habermas and Derrida, and working within the Euro-
pean Parliament to unite Europe.
Being
Vattimo’s status as a left-wing faculty president paradoxically made him a target N
of the Red Brigades in the 1970s, causing him to flee Turin for his life. Left-wing ter- o
rorism did not deter the philosopher from his quest for social progress, however, and in t

the 1980s, he introduced a daring formulation called “weak thought,” which stripped B
metaphysics, science, religion, and all other absolute systems of their authority. Vattimo e
then became notorious for his renewed commitment to the core values of Christianity i God
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(he was trained as a Catholic intellectual) and for the Vatican’s denunciation of his views. g
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“Not Being God is a pleasurable stroll through one corner of the Italian intellectual world.” o B
—Commonweal y M A Collaborative
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Gianni Vattimo is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Turin and o M
o Autobiography
a member of the European Parliament. His books with Columbia University Press are N
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Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue (with René Girard); Art’s Claim to AN
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Truth; After the Death of God; Dialogue with Nietzsche; The Future of Religion (with Richard Ri
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William McCuaig is also the translator of Gianni Vattimo’s Christianity, Truth, and Weak- H
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ening Faith; Dialogue with Nietzsche; and Nihilism and Emancipation. M
CoLuMBiA uNivERsiTy PREss / NEW yoRk with Piergiorgio Paterlini
Columbia
www.cup.columbia.edu
Printed in the U.S.A. Translated by William McCuaig
NOT BEING GOD

NOT BEING GOD
A Collaborative Autobiography
gianni vattimo piergiorgio paterlini
with
william mccuaig
Translated by
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK
columbia university press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
COPYRIGHT © 2009 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
PAPERBACK EDITION, 2010
ORIGINALLY COPYRIGHT © 2008 ALIBERTI EDITORE S.R.L.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress C ataloging- in- Publication Data
Vattimo, Gianni, 1936–
[non essere Dio. English]
Not being God : a collaborative autobiography / Gianni Vattimo with
Piergiorgio Paterlini ; translated by William McCuaig.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-231-14720-0 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-14721-7
(pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-231-51957-1 (e-book)
1. Vattimo, Gianni, 1936– 2. Philosophers—Italy—Biography. I. Paterlini,
Piergiorgio, 1954– II. Title.
B3654.V384A3 2009
195—dc22
[B]
2008045981
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
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
design by: martin n. hinze
Dear Professor, in the end I would much rather be a Basel
professor than God; but I have not dared push my private
egoism so far as to desist for its sake from the creation of
the world.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, LETTER TO JACOB BURCKHARDT
FROM TURIN, JANUARY 6, 1889

CONTENTS
Analogies xi
1. Incipit 1
2. Last Things 5
3. Closeness 7
4. The Untied Shoelace 9
5. Rorschach Test 12
6. Plateau Rosa 14
7. Being 17
8. Epochs 20
9. The Impossible Return 22
10. Debut 25
11. On the Banks of the Neckar 27
12. “Mad, utterly desperate study” 30
13. Vampires 32
14. Paradigms 33
15. Popular Novel 37
16. Oratory 40
17. Catholic Action 42
18. Beyond the Horizon 44
19. Working- Class School 48
20. Demonic Possession 50
21. Ulcer and Mao 52
22. The Dream of a Thing 53
23. Take a King and Thrash Him 55
24. Porta Palazzo 57
25. From Heidegger to Marx 60
26. The Movement 61
27. State of Grace 64
28. The Bicycle Left Behind 66
29. Lukács’s Slippers 70
30. Forced Out 73
31. In America 76
32. The Two Boys 79
33. Death Threats 81
34. Revolutionary Moralism 84
35. Weak Thought 86
36. Roots 89
37. Terraces 91
38. A Safe Pair of Hands 96
39. The Volunteer for Weak Thought 98
40. The World 100
41. In History 106
42. In Human Conversation 108
43. Barbarians 111
44. Science’s Positive Side 114
45. Obituaries 116
46. Obituaries Two: Cacciari 118
47. Obituaries Three: Eco 120
48. Under a Bad Sign 123
49. With the Younger Son 129
50. The Frankfurt School 131
51. The Rich Fiancée 134
52. The Little Old Lady in New York 136
53. Almost a Mayor 138
54. The End of Prehistory? 141
55. Joachim of Fiore 145
56. At a Certain Hour 147
57. Return to Christianity 149
58. Some Reality, Please 153
59. If Stalin Had Been a Nihilist 156
60. Evil, What a Pity 159
61. If I Weren’t God 160
62. Compline 161
63. The Treasure Chest of Being 162
64. Flashes 163
Envoi 165
Abbreviations 171
Index 173