1001Philosophers

Luigi Pareyson 1918 – 1991

Luigi Pareyson was an Italian philosopher of existence, hermeneutics, and aesthetics and the principal architect of Italian personalism in the second half of the twentieth century. Long-time professor at Turin, he taught and shaped a generation of Italian philosophers, including Gianni Vattimo and Umberto Eco. His Existence and Person, Aesthetics: Theory of Formativity, Truth and Interpretation, and the late Ontology of Freedom developed a philosophy in which the person is a unique interpretation of being, art is the formative making of forms, and truth is given only in the singularity of interpretation.

Key facts

Nationality
Italian
Era
Contemporary
Movements
Continental, Existentialism

Selected quotes

  • Attributed to Luigi Pareyson:

    “Each person is a unique interpretation of being.”

  • Attributed to Luigi Pareyson:

    “Aesthetics is the science of the formation of forms.”

  • Attributed to Luigi Pareyson:

    “Truth is given only in interpretation; interpretation is the form of truth.”

  • Attributed to Luigi Pareyson:

    “Freedom is what makes the person more than nature.”

  • Attributed to Luigi Pareyson:

    “Tragic ontology grasps that being itself is given as gift.”