Philosopher Vittorio G. Hösle named to Adelmann Chair
Philosopher Vittorio G. Hösle, the author, editor, and translator of more than 50 books, including 2004’s Morality and Politics, has been appointed to the Frederick J. Adelmann, S.J., Chair and Professor in the Department of Philosophy, starting in the fall semester.
Hösle has spent the past 27 years at the University of Notre Dame, where he is the Paul Kimball Professor of Arts and Letters, his teaching spanning the departments of German, Philosophy, and Political Science. He served as the founding director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study from 2008-2013.
“I am very interested in seeing a different type of Catholic university—I think it is important to compare things in life,” Hösle said of his decision to join Boston College. “I admire the Jesuits. The order has done so much in the formation of education. So, I was attracted to a Jesuit institution. And Boston is the academic capital of the United States.”
Hösle brings a remarkable range of interests to the Philosophy Department and University, said Albert J. Fitzgibbons Professor of Philosophy Jeffrey Bloechl, the department chair.
“Vittorio is not only a leading interpreter of Hegel and leading scholar of morality and politics but also has serious and weighty books in the theory of knowledge, ecology, philosophy of religion, and literature,” Bloechl said. “He also watches Russian politics very closely, reading the newspapers and press dispatches in the original language, and submitting the data to impressive political analysis. We look forward to his regular presence, which is at once intelligent, energetic, and warmly engaging.”
Hösle said he was drawn to a department at BC with a history of continental philosophy, focused on the subjective experiences of life, compared to Notre Dame, which is more rooted in analytic philosophy with its emphasis on logic and conceptual analysis. He said he will work primarily with graduate students.
His scholarly interests include systematic philosophy—examining the areas of metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics and political theory—and the history of philosophy. He lectures in German, Italian, English, Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, and French and reads 10 other languages.
Hösle’s honors include the Fritz-Winter Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, and among his fellowships was one from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.. He was appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2013, and to the Council of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2017.
“ Philosophy is not a specific discipline. It weighs the claims of the different disciplines against one another. It is a very strong antidote to approaches that seek to avoid value judgments. ”
Born in Milan, Italy, Hösle lived most of his childhood in the German state of Bavaria, where his father was a professor of literature. He was exposed to many languages and discussions about books and ideas.
“We had a lot of discussions at home,” he said. “We had a very good library. All this helped to develop my philosophical interests.”
A curiosity with the significant questions of life prompted him to pursue a doctorate in philosophy, which he earned at the age of 21.
“The reason I became interested in philosophy early on was that I thought that philosophy satisfied two important needs I had,” he said. “First was to understand how the various realms of knowledge I was interested in fit together. Philosophy helps to frame and connect various claims to knowledge.
“Second, I thought that philosophy could give me answers to the great questions that were not based on the assumptions of traditions or scripture,” he said. “In theology, you must presuppose certain things and then go on. Philosophy developed a concept of God based on reason, which then connects all human beings, and not only those who accept certain texts.”
The married father of three said he draws from as broad an expanse of knowledge as possible.
“As a philosopher, I try various things,” he said. “Philosophers must not shy away from the great questions. I try to use all the resources of a rich tradition to give answers to the questions. I see limits in analytical philosophy, where you narrow down the questions to obtain greater precision—which is laudable and understandable—but it comes at the price of bypassing the questions that traditionally characterize philosophy.”
Though in today’s world few people may have the patience to wrestle with philosophical questions that have persisted across millennia, Hösle believes the discipline may now be more vital than ever.
“Philosophy translated means love of wisdom,” he said. “Wisdom is more than the accumulation of knowledge. It means to have an orientation within the world. Philosophy is not a specific discipline. It weighs the claims of the different disciplines against one another. It is a very strong antidote to approaches that seek to avoid value judgments. We are trying to answer questions about which values are preferable.”