Symposium

Volume 13, Issue 1, Spring/Printemps 2009

The Verwindung of Capital
On the Philosophy and Politics of Gianni Vattimo

Gianni Vattimo occupies the relatively rare position of being both a prominent philosopher and an engaged politician. This article outlines Vattimo’s philosophy of “weak thought” and his democratic socialist politics, and argues that there is a “gap” between them: his stated political positions seem at odds with aspects of his philosophy. This gap between the philosophical and the political is examined with reference to the topic of globalised capitalism. I then apply Vattimo’s own strategy in reading other philosophers to his thought, attempting to draw out the possible political implications of weak thought against his own stated position. I do this through the application of one of Vattimo’s central concepts, Verwindung (“twisting-free”), to globalised capitalism. I conclude with some reflections on the prospects for a politics of weak thought.