CV

Giovanni Ventimiglia (nationality: Swiss and Italian) is full (ordinary) Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lucerne (2016-), as well as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Theology,  member of the University Research Committee, Founding Director of the Centre for Theology and Philosophy of Religions (TheiRs) and of the online Master’s Programme in Philosophy, Theology and Religions (PhilTeR) of the same University. He is visiting professor for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at the University of Zurich. 

He is the author of more than 100 publications in English, German and Italian, many of them peer reviewed.

His research team consists of 10 people, most of whom are funded through competitive research grants.

He is a permanent member of the Evaluation Body of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and serves as referee for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, as well as an expert for the Swiss Agency of Accreditation and Quality Assurance (AAQ). He is a member of several scientific societies including: Society for the European History of Ideas (SEHI), Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics (SMLM), Società degli Accademici Italiani in Svizzera (SAIS), Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (SIEPM). He is also a member of the editorial board of several journals, including the European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Synthesis. Journal for Philosophy, TheoLogica. An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology.

He has directed multiple research projects, some of which were funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (Zwischen monastischer und reformierter Metaphysik: die schweizerische „Wiege“ der Ontologie im Zeitalter der Reformation from 2020 to 2023 and Metaphysik und Ontologie in der Schweiz im Zeitalter der Reformation (1519-1648) from 2016 to 2019). He is currently directing the SNSF project Senses of Being. The Medieval Reception of Aristotle’s doctrine starting from Metaphysics V 7 (1017 a7-b9) (collaborators: Marta Borgo, Jacopo Costa, Mostafa Najafi, Davide Falessi). He is Founding President of the Reginaldus Foundation, Switzerland. In 2015 he founded the Aristotle College in Lugano of which he was Honorary President until 2020.

From 2004 to 2016 he was ordinary professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Faculty of Theology, Lugano, where he founded the Institute for Philosophical Studies (ISFI) (formerly the Istituto di Filosofia applicata) in 2003 (Director 2003-2017) and the Bachelor in Philosophy. From 2017 to 2022 he has been Visiting Professor of Medieval Philosophy in the Master in Philosophy at the Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.

He received his Master Degree (summa cum laude) in Philosophy from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan in 1988. After passing a national public selection process of the Italian Ministry for the University, he studied in Germany, where he specialized in medieval Philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich in 1995. He earned his PhD in Philosophy from the Catholic University, Milan, in 1996. He completed his post-doctoral studies at the Catholic University, Milan, from 1997 to 1999. After a national public competition in Italy, he was appointed Researcher in Theoretical Philosophy in 1999. He obtained the title of Associate Professor in 2001 at the Faculty of Theology in Lugano, the title of Extraordinary Professor in 2003 and of Ordinary Professor in 2004.  He has been Researcher and Aggregate Professor at the Catholic University in Piacenza and Visiting Professor at the University of Pisa. He also earned the Italian national academic qualification (Habilitation) as Ordinary Professor of Theoretical Philosophy in 2013. He was Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London (2015), and Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford (2015, 2017, 2018) and visiting professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2024). In 2016 he was appointed Ordinary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lucerne. He was founder and main editor of the book series "Thomistic Metaphysics and Analytical Metaphysics” (Carocci, Rome).

He was Deputy Director of the Augustinianum College, Catholic University, Milan, from 1988 to 1990 and from 1994 to 1998, Academic Secretary of the Faculty of Theology of Lugano from 1999 to 2004, and member of the Commission of Culture of the City of Lugano from 2004 to 2008. He was founder and chairman of the non-profit Organization “Pro-filo umano”, whose main purpose is to promote philosophy as a form of social service.

Research

Research: Giovanni Ventimiglia works primarily on Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, often at the intersections of the continental and analytical traditions of philosophy (Analytical Thomism). His main interests lie in classical ontology (analogy and senses of being, God as Being, God’s names, transcendentals and medieval logic, transcendental multiplicity) and its relation to contemporary debates in analytic metaphysics. He also works on the reception of Plato’s “unwritten” doctrines in medieval commentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, the reception of Aristotle’s philosophy in medieval theology and philosophy, and the reception of Aquinas in contemporary philosophy. He has also worked on the ontology of material, digital objects and of cyberspace and the relation between philosophy and psychoanalysis.

He has been involved, as a research unit leader, in the consortium “Ethicbots” in the field of roboethics and is Director of the research project “Metaphysik und Ontologie in der Schweiz im Zeitalter der Reformation (1519-1648)”,  funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
 

Some special topics:

• analogy and senses of being (in ancient and medieval philosophy as well as in contemporary analytic philosophy: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Frege, Wittgenstein, Geach, Kenny, Miller, McGinn, McDaniel, etc.)

• God as Being vs. God as Person

• God’s names and the structure nomen/ratio/ens

• the question of the distinction between essence and existence (in medieval, modern and contemporary philosophy)

• the reception of Plato’s “unwritten doctrines" in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and in some medieval Commentaries on Aristotle’s Metaphysics

• the transcendentals: their history and their philosophical importance, also with regard to contemporary debates related to analytic ontology ("topic neutrality")

• transcendental multiplicity (especially in Aquinas and Frege)

• Being, time and eternity in medieval philosophy

• Being as an "event" in medieval philosophy

• Aquinas after Frege

Research Projects

• Senses of Being. The Medieval Reception of Aristotle's doctrine starting from Metaphysics V 7 (1017 a7-b9) (SNF)
• Zwischen monastischer und reformierter Metaphysik: die schweizerische 'Wiege' der Ontologie im Zeitalter der Reformation (SNF)
• Metaphysik und Ontologie in der Schweiz im Zeitalter der Reformation (1519-1648)  (SNF)
  (Dissemination: Corriere della Sera; La Regione) 
   
• The two-Sense Theory of Existence
   
• The reception of Plato's so called "Unwritten Doctrines" in medieval philosophy

Some concluded Research Projects

• To be o esse? La questione dell'essere nel tomismo analitico
   
• Ethicbots (Emerging Technoethics of Human Interaction with Communication, Bionic, and robotic systems)

Projects

2021: Senses of Being. The Medieval Reception of Aristotle's doctrine starting from Metaphysics V 7 (1017 a7-b9) (SNF)

2020: Zwischen monastischer und reformierter Metaphysik. Die schweizerische 'Wiege' der Ontologie im Zeitalter der Reformation (SNF)

2020:  Philosophies in the Mediterranean, II edition, International Conference: From Logic & Metaphysics to Computer Science. Formal Concepts and Logical Constants from Plato to Turing (Forschungskomission Universität Luzern) 

2016-2019: Metaphysik und Ontologie in der Schweiz im Zeitalter der Reformation (1519-1648) (SNF)

2018: The first steps of ontology in its birthplace: Switzerland (SNF)

2017: The "two-Sense" Theory of Existence (Foschungskommission Universität Luzern)

2017: The reception of Plato's so-called "Unwritten Doctrines" in Medieval Philosophy (Foschungskommission Universität Luzern)

2010-2011: Realism and objectivity, PRIN National Interest Research Project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research, National Coordinator: Prof. L. Frascolla, University of Basilicata, participant in the Research Unit of the University of Bergamo on “Fiat and bona fide objects”.

2005-2008: Ethicbots, Ethics and Robotics. International inter-disciplinary research programme (consortium), European Union FP6-Society: Emerging TechnoEthics of Human Interaction with Communication, Bionic, and Robotic Systems (Roboetics) (Verantwortlicher einer Research Group in Lugano).

2001-2003: Transcendentality, existence, person (coordinated by Prof. F. Bosio University of Verona, Italy) funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research.

1998-2001: Elements of theology and philosophical traditions in the development of the doctrine of Transcendental properties of being in the thirteenth century, Sub-project of the broad programme, Subject, truth, world: classical metaphysical models and contemporary deconstructions (coordinated by Prof. A. Bausola), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technological Research.

Publications

Achievements