Maurizio Ferraris
b. 1956 · Italian philosopher, founder of New Realism
Maurizio Ferraris (born 1956 in Turin) is an Italian philosopher best known as the founder of New Realism, a current that responds to what he sees as the metaphysical emptiness left by postmodernism. A pupil of Gianni Vattimo, he began in hermeneutics and was shaped by Jacques Derrida, whose friendship marked his early career.
He graduated in philosophy in Turin in 1979 and spent the following years teaching, researching and writing cultural journalism, including work on the journal Alfabeta. After a period in Heidelberg with Hans-Georg Gadamer, he developed a critique of the Heideggerian and Gadamerian traditions. He later set aside radical hermeneutics and Derridean deconstruction in favour of a realism that defends a reality independent of interpretation. His social ontology culminates in documentality, set out in Documentalità (2009): social objects such as banknotes or debts exist because they are inscribed in acts and documents, so the letter comes before the spirit.
Since 1995 he has taught at the University of Turin, and in 1999 he founded the Laboratory for Ontology (LabOnt). His work also covers aesthetics, understood as the science of sensory perception, and has had a wide impact on the realist debate in Italy and beyond.
Key ideas
- New Realism: a reaction against the postmodern dogmas that all reality is socially constructed and that truth is a useless notion.
- The letter before the spirit: documents, rules and inscriptions come before thought and founded it, rather than being merely its result.
- Critical ontology: the everyday world is largely independent of our conceptual schemes, and confusing being with knowledge is a basic mistake.
- Documentality: social objects exist as inscribed acts, which allows us to correct Derrida's claim that there is nothing outside the text.
Curiosities
An intellectual friendship
His relationship with Jacques Derrida began in the early 1980s and later grew into a friendship.
Among the Alfabeta editors
During his years at the journal Alfabeta, its directive committee included figures such as Umberto Eco, Nanni Balestrini and Paolo Volponi.
Teachers and influences
Teachers
- Gianni Vattimo 1936–2023
Influenced by
- Jacques Derrida 1930–2004
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.