Peter Serracino Inglott - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Peter Serracino Inglott is Emeritus Professor of philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

at and former rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

of the University of Malta

University of Malta

The University of Malta is the highest educational institution in Malta Europe and is one of the most respected universities in Europe. The University offers undergraduate Bachelor's Degrees, postgraduate Master's Degrees and postgraduate Doctorates .-History:The University of Malta was founded in...

(1987-1988, 1991-1996). He studied at the then Royal University of Malta (BA 1951-1955), the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

as a Rhodes Scholar (MA 1955-1958), the Institut Catholique de Paris

Institut Catholique de Paris

The Institut Catholique de Paris, or the Catholic University of Paris, is a private university located in Paris, France. The institute was founded in 1875, under the name Université Catholique de Paris, by Maurice Le Sage d'Hauteroche d'Hulst....

(BD cum laude 1958-1960) and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is a privately-owned Catholic university founded in 1921 by Agostino Gemelli. Its main campus is located in Milan, Italy with satellite campuses in Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona, Rome, and Campobasso...

(Ph.D. 1960-1963) with a thesis on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime. It was an ambitious project: to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science...

. He was head of the philosophy

Philosophy

department at the University of Malta between 1971 and 1996, when he was succeeded by Joe Friggieri

Joe Friggieri

Joe Friggieri is professor of philosophy at the University of Malta – the first not be a Catholic priest – succeeding Peter Serracino Inglott in 1996 upon the latter’s retirement. He holds degrees from the universities of Milan and Oxford. He has written two books on J.L. Austin and a history of...

. He is also professor in the faculty of theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

at the University.

He was conferred honorary doctorates by Brunel University

Brunel University

Brunel University is a public research university located in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. The university is named after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel....

in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Luther College

Luther College (Iowa)

Luther College is a four-year, residential liberal arts institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, located in Decorah, Iowa, USA...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

and the International Maritime Organization

International Maritime Organization

The International Maritime Organization , formerly known as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization , was established in Geneva in 1948, and came into force ten years later, meeting for the first time in 1959...

's International Maritime Law Institute

International Maritime Law Institute

The IMO International Maritime Law Institute was established under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, a specialised agency of the United Nations...

. He was also honoured by the French, Italian, Portuguese and Maltese governments respectively with the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

(1990), Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Ordine al Merito (1995), Gra-Cruz da Ordam (1995) and Companion of the Order of Merit (Malta) (1995).

Serracino Inglott was professor of aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

at the Instituto Internazionale di Arte e Liturgia at Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, visiting professor at the University of Paris II (Sorbonne – Pantheon) (1989-1990), UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

Fellow at the Open University

Open University

The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...

, UK (1978) and guest lecturer at the universities of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....

, Milan (Cattolica), Venice

University of Venice

Ca' Foscari University is a university in Venice, northern Italy. It was founded in 1868 as the first Italian business college. The main building of the University, Ca’ Foscari Palace, is placed in a strategic position on the bend of the Grand Canal, in the heart of the city...

(Ca Foscari), Palermo

University of Palermo

The University of Palermo is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties.-History:The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its earliest roots date back to 1498 when medicine and law were taught there...

and the College of Europe

College of Europe

The College of Europe is an independent university institute of postgraduate European studies with the main campus in Bruges, Belgium...

at Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

(1989, 1990).

An advisor to Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party (Malta)

The Nationalist Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party. It was founded by Fortunato Mizzi in 1880 as the Anti-Reform Party, opposing taxation decreed by the British colonial authorities and measures to Anglicise the educational and the...

former prime minister of Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, Eddie Fenech Adami

Eddie Fenech Adami

Edward “Eddie” Fenech Adami is a Maltese politician who was Prime Minister of Malta from 1987 until 1996 and again from 1998 until 2004...

(1987-1996, 1998-2004), former president of the Republic, Serracino Inglott was one of three Maltese representatives at the Convention on the Future of Europe presided by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981...

. The other representatives were the former minister of foreign affairs Michael Frendo

Michael Frendo

Michael Frendo is a Maltese politician who has been Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malta since 2010. Previously he served in the government of Malta as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2008.-Political life:...

and the former leader of the opposition Alfred Sant

Alfred Sant

Alfred Sant is a Maltese politician. He led the Labour Party from 1992 to 2008 and served as Prime Minister of Malta between 1996 and 1998 and as Leader of the Opposition from 1992 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2008....

(Malta Labour Party

Malta Labour Party

The Labour Party is, along with the Nationalist Party, one of two major contemporary political parties in Malta. It is the party of opposition in the Maltese House of Representatives where it has thirty-four of the sixty-nine seats.- Party Structure :...

). He contributed to various aspect of the debate at the Convention ranging from proposed amendments to include a reference to Europe's Christian traditions to procedural proposals to streamline the decision-making process.

A Catholic priest, Peter Serracino Inglott was ordained in Milan

Milan

by Cardinal Montini, later Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI

Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

. The compatibility between his priesthood and political partisanship has been a matter of some controversy in Malta.

Language is at the centre of Serracino Inglott's philosophical work with Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...

and Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...

as the two critical signposts on his conceptual terrain. From this point of view, one may link him to his friend Herbert McCabe

Herbert McCabe

Herbert McCabe was an English Dominican priest, theologian and philosopher, who was born in Middlesbrough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. After studying chemistry and philosophy at Manchester University, he joined the Dominicans in 1949, where under Victor White he began his life-long study of...

. MacCabe, who was also an acknowledged influence on the thought of Terry Eagleton

Terry Eagleton

Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...

, Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a British philosopher primarily known for his contribution to moral and political philosophy but known also for his work in history of philosophy and theology...

, Anthony Kenny

Anthony Kenny

Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny FBA is an English philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of religion...

and Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

, was for several years external examiner in philosophy at the University of Malta. A former student of his, Mario Vella

Mario Vella

Mario Vella is a major Maltese philosopher, economist and political theorist. His area of specialisation in philosophy is chiefly critical analysis.-Beginnings:...

, has written one of the few critical assessments of Serracino Inglott as philosopher, Reflections in a Canvas Bag: Beginning Philosophy Between Politics and History Marsa, Malta: PEG, 1989 ISBN 99909-0-234-8.

Apart from his two principal philosophical texts (Beginning Philosophy 1987 and Peopled Silence 1995), Serracino Inglott has written and expressed himself on the media on a variety of subjects (notably on biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

and human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

http://www.parliament.gov.mt/information/Papers/Biotechnolog.htm) but the Mediterranean region stands out as a leitmotiv in his thought and his core interest.

Selected bibliography

‘Secolarizzazione e linguaggio’, in Crisi dell’Occidente e Fondazione della Cultura (ed. N. Incardona), Palermo (1976);
‘Malta and the EEC: The Priority of Political Considerations’, in Azad Perspektiv, Malta, no. 8 (1979);
Mediterranean Music, UNESCO (1988) with Charles Camilleri;
‘The Mediterranean Story-Telling Sailor: Odysseus and Sinbad’ in Atti della Terza Assemblea Plenaria della Communità delle Università Mediterranee (1989);
‘Responsabilità morali degli scienziati nei confronti delle generazioni future’ in Scienza ed Etica nella Centralità dell’ Uomo (ed. P. Cattorini), Milano (1990);
Compostella, Malta (1993) Libretto of an Opera on the European significance of the pilgrimage in medieval and contemporary times;
The Maltese Cross, Malta (1995) – A European Opera on the mystery of Schiller’s Die Malteser;
Pynchon, Wittgenstein and Malta (1995) with Petra Bianchi et al.;
The volume Interfaces, essays in honour of Peter Serracino-Inglott (1997) with contributions by:
- Alain Blondy (Professor of History at the Sorbonne)
- David E. Cooper (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Durham)
- David Farley-Hills (Emeritus Professor at the University of Wales)
- John Haldane (Professor of Philosophy and Head of the School of Philosophical and Anthropological Studies at the University of St. Andrews)
- Peter Jones (Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh)
- Elisabeth Mann Borgese (Professor of Politics at Dalhousie University)
- Federico Mayor (Director General of UNESCO)
- Paul Streeten (Professor of Economics and chairman of the editorial board of the bi-monthly journal World Development)
- contains a brief biography of Peter Serracino Inglott by his successor in the chair of philosophy at the University of Malta Joe Friggieri and a very useful annotated bibliography.

Selected bibliography

External links

See also