Professeur des universités and Agrégé de philosophie in France, Lorenzo Vinciguerra is Full Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna. He conducts his research in the field of moral philosophy. His research interests are particularly directed at the foundations of ethics and aesthetics in modern and contemporary contexts. In 2021 he founded and directs the international research center SIVE NATURA. International Center for Spinozan Studies (ICSS): https://site.unibo.it/sivenatura/en.
Education
Graduated in painting from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan (1988) at the studio of Vincenzo Ferrari, Lorenzo Vinciguerra graduated in philosophy at the State University of Milan (1992) where he was the student of Carlo Sini. Perfezionando of the Class of Philosophy at the Scuola normale superiore (SNS) in Pisa (1993-96) under the guidance of Paolo Cristofolini, he went on to the École normale supérieure (ENS) in Paris (1993-96), where he received the Diplôme d'études avancées (DEA) in History of Philosophy from the Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (1994), the "Agrégation de philosophie" (1995), his PhD in Philosophy at the Université de la Sorbonne (2000) under the direction of Pierre-François Moreau and the "Habilitation à diriger des recherches" (HDR) at the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris (2010) with Jean-Marie Schaeffer.
Academic career
After being Allocataire de recherche (fixed-term researcher) at the Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (1993-95) and then Attaché temporaire d'enseignement et de recherche (fixed-term teacher-researcher) at the University of Grenoble (1997-01), in 2001 he was elected "Maître de conférences" (Associate professor) at the University of Montpellier and the University of Reims (2001-12). Having attained eligibility for full professorship (2010), in 2012 he was elected "Professeur des universités" at the University of Amiens, as well as director of the "Centre de recherche en arts et esthétique" (CRÆ UR 4291), a position he held for two consecutive terms (2012-20). Here he founded and directs the aesthetics journal Tetrade (www.tetrade.fr). At the EHESS in Paris, for fifteen years in collaboration with François Flahault (CNRS) he led the annual "Anthropologie générale et philosophie" seminar (2007-2021). He has also taught at Université de Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle (2006-07), EHESS Paris (2010-12) and several foreign universities. Since 2019, he has been a full professor at the University of Bologna.
Publications
Best known for his studies on Spinozism and modern philosophy, his work has been published and translated into several languages. He is the author of ten volumes, some seventy articles, and about two hundred university lectures. Among his recent books: La Semiotica di Spinoza (ETS, Pisa, 2012); Pourparlers. Deleuze entre art et philosophie (Reims, PUR, 2013); Spinoza (Carocci, Rome, 2015); L'œil et l'esprit. Merleau-Ponty entre art et philosophie (Reims, PUR, 20152); Spinoza et le signe. La logique de l'imagination (Paris, Vrin, 20182). With Pierre-François Moreau he edited the volume Spinoza et les arts (Paris, L'Harmattan, 2020), now also in Italian under the title Pensare le arti con Spinoza (Milan, Mimesis, 2023).
Scientific Activities
He has participated in numerous national (PRIN) and international research programs, directed and co-directed five research seminars, and organized and co-organized some 20 international conferences. As head of two research laboratories (CRÆ, MIS), he led the international project in Digital humanities Ethica (2015-18), funded by the University of Amiens (UPJV), the Fondation de la maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH) in Paris, and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), in which research institutes and universities from around the world collaborated. He has benefited from a one-year délégation de recherche (research secondment) at CNRS (2017-18) and carried out research stays at various institutions, including the Paul Getty Center in Santa Monica (1998), the Freie Universität in Berlin (1999), the Scuola normale superiore in Pisa (2007), the Centre franco-russe de recherche en sciences humaines et sociales (CNRS) in Moscow (2007), and the University of Urbino (2008, 2009). He was invited as Resident fellow for a research stay by the Institut d'Études Avancées (IEA) in Nantes (2020).
Institutional activities and academic appointments
For eight years he was director of the Centre de recherche en arts & esthétique UR 4291 at the University of Amiens (2012-20); member of the Freudian Group Research (Louvain, Paris, Brussels) (since 2010), the International Symposium for Phenomenology (Louvain, Paris, New York) (since 2007), of which he was also elected director for three years (2008-2011); associate member of the Centre de recherches dans les arts et le langage UMR 8566 (EHESS/CNRS) (1999-2007), the Institut d'histoire des représentations et des idées dans les modernités UMR 5317 (ENS Lyon/CNRS), the Centre d'études en rhétorique, philosophie et histoire des idées (ENS Lyon) (since 1995), the Société des amis de Spinoza and la Società degli amici di Spinoza (since 1993). He was also a member of the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les langues et la pensée EA 4299 (Université de Reims) (2001-12).
He is currently an ASN (National Scientific Habilitation) commissioner at the Ministry of University and Research for Section 11/C3 Moral Philosophy (2023-25). In France, he was a member of the College of Professors of the Philosophy section of the CNU (Conseil national des universités) (2016-19). He has participated in some 30 doctoral and HDR committees, holding various institutional positions: co-director of department, head of international relations, member of various academic committees and commissions of specialists for competitions for associate and full professors. He has promoted bilateral conventions with foreign universities and research institutes. He is the originator of the master's degree program in Esthétique comparée at the University of Amiens, for which he was also the head. Visiting professor at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (2009), the High School of Economics in Moscow (2011), the Federal University of Fluminense in Niteroi (2014), the University of Cordoba (2016), and the University of Urbino (2018), he has taught in French, Italian, English and Spanish.
