Evandro Agazzi (born 23 October 1934) is an Italian

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and professor at the

University of Genoa The University of Genoa () is a public research university. It is one of the largest universities in Italy and it is located in the city of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy. The original university was fou ...

. His fields of interest are

ethics of science and technology Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

philosophical anthropology Philosophical anthropology, sometimes called anthropological philosophy, is a discipline within philosophy that inquires into the essence of human nature. It deals with questions of metaphysics and phenomenology of the human person. Philosophic ...

, and

systems theory Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...

Education

Agazzi is a graduate of the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

, where he studied physics and the

Catholic University of Milan The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

where he earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in philosophy in 1957. Agazzi also did postgraduate work at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and the universities of

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

and

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

Teaching

Agazzi taught

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

at Genoa, and philosophy of science and mathematical logic at the Catholic University of Milan. He then was named professor of the philosophy of science at Genoa in 1970. He was named chair of philosophical anthropology, philosophy of nature and philosophy of science at the

University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg (; ) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland. The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg ...

in 1979. He has served as visiting professor at the

University of Düsseldorf A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, the

University of Berne The University of Bern (, , ) is a public research university in the Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and progra ...

, the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, and the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

as well as other institutions of learning.

Professional associations

Agazzi is currently president of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science, honorary president of the

International Federation of Philosophical Societies The International Federation of Philosophical Societies (French: ''Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie'', FISP) is a world organization for learned societies in philosophy. Its member-societies arguably include every country ...

and of the

International Institute of Philosophy The International Institute of Philosophy (''French: ''Institut International de Philosophie'', ''IIP) is an international body of leading philosophers, named by election only, and limited by statute to 115 members. It has counted among its member ...

. He previously served as president of the Italian Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science, the Italian Philosophical Society, and the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science. He served as treasurer of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanities of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. He also has been a member of the Italian National Committee for Bioethics.

Publications

Editor

Journals

Agazzi was the editor of

Epistemologia ''Epistemologia'' was a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy. It was focused on analytical philosophy, publishing articles that deal with philosophy of science, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. ...

, a former Italian journal for the philosophy of science, and of Nuova Secondaria, an Italian journal for high school teachers. He is a consulting editor for several international journals, including Revue Internationale de Philosophie,

Zeitschrift für allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie The Journal for General Philosophy of Science (also Zeitschrift für allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie) is an academic journal publishing contributions from all areas of philosophy of science and about all philosophical topics relevant to the scienc ...

and

Modern Logic The history of logic deals with the study of the development of the science of valid inference (logic). Formal logics developed in ancient times in Indian logic, India, Logic in China, China, and Greek philosophy, Greece. Greek methods, particula ...

Author

Journal articles

Agazzi has published over seven hundred articles in scholarly journals and essays in volumes of collected works. He is the author of nineteen books, including '' Philosophie, Science, Métaphysique'', '' Right, Wrong and Science: The Ethical Dimensions of the Techno-Scientific Enterprise''

Books

*''Philosophy of Mathematics Today'' (with György Darvas, 1997) *''Realism and Quantum Physics'' (1998) *''Advances in the Philosophy of Technology'' (with

Hans Lenk Hans Lenk (23 March 1935 – 30 July 2024) was a German rower who competed for the United Team of Germany in the 1960 Summer Olympics, and an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy. He was born in Berlin. In 1960, he was a crew member of the West Ger ...

, 1999) *''The Reality of the Unobservable'' (with Massimo Pauri, 2000) *''Life-Interpretation and the Sense of Illness within the Human Condition: Medicine and Philosophy in a Dialogue'' (with

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (; February 28, 1923 – June 7, 2014) was a Polish philosopher, phenomenologist, founder and president of The World Phenomenology Institute, and editor (from its inception in the late 1960s) of the book series, ''Analect ...

, 2001) *''The Problem of the Unity of Science'' (with Jan Faye, 2001) *''Complexity and Emergence'' (with Luisa Montecucco, 2002) *''Valori e limiti del senso comune'' (2004)

Awards and honors

* Centro di Studi Filosofici di Gallarate in 1962 for his book ''Introduzione ai problemi dell’assiomatica'' * Cortina-Ulisse in 1983 * Prince of Liechtenstein Prize in 1983 for his book ''Il bene, il male e la scienza'' * International Prize for Philosophy Salento in 2004 for his global work

External links

Agazzi's webpage at U of GenoaWorks by Evandro Agazzi at PhilPapers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agazzi, Evandro Members of the International Academy of Philosophy of Science 1934 births Living people Writers from Bergamo Italian philosophers of science Italian logicians Academic staff of the University of Genoa Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences 20th-century Italian philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers University of Milan alumni Academic staff of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa