Peter Serracino Inglott
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Peter Serracino Inglott (b. 1936) is Emeritus Professor of philosophy at and former rector of the University of Malta (1987-1988, 1991-1996). He studied at the then Royal University of Malta (BA 1951-1955), the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (MA 1955-1958), the Institut Catholique de Paris (BD cum laude 1958-1960) and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Ph.D. 1960-1963) with a thesis on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. He was head of the philosophy department at the University of Malta between 1971 and 1996, when he was succeeded by Joe Friggieri. He is also professor in the faculty of theology at the University.
He was conferred honorary doctorates by Brunel University in the United Kingdom, Luther College, Iowa and the International Maritime Organization's International Maritime Law Institute. He was also honoured by the French, Italian, Portuguese and Maltese governments respectively with the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur(1990), Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Ordine al Merito (1995), Gra-Cruz da Ordam (1995) and Companion of the Order of Merit (Malta)[1] (1995).
Serracino Inglott was professor of aesthetics at the Instituto Internazionale di Arte e Liturgia at Milan, visiting professor at the University of Paris II (Sorbonne – Pantheon) (1989-1990), UNESCO Fellow at the Open University, UK (1978) and guest lecturer at the universities of Cincinnati, Milan (Cattolica), Venice (Ca Foscari), Palermo and the College d’Europe at Bruges (1989, 1990).
An advisor to Nationalist Party prime minister of Malta, Eddie Fenech Adami (1987-1996, 1998-2004), now 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. The other representatives were the present minister of foreign affairs Michael Frendo and the leader of the opposition Alfred Sant (Malta Labour Party). He contributed to various aspect of the debate at the Convention ranging from proposed amendments to include a reference to Europe's Christian traditions [2] to procedural proposals to streamline the decision-making process [3].
A Catholic priest, Peter Serracino Inglott was ordained in Milan by Cardinal Montini, later Pope Paul VI. The compatibility between his priesthood and political partisanship has been a matter of some controversy in Malta.[citation needed]
Language is at the centre of Serracino Inglott's philosophical work with Thomas Aquinas and Ludwig Wittgenstein as the two critical signposts on his conceptual terrain. From this point of view, one may link him to his friend Herbert McCabe. MacCabe, who was also an acknowledged influence on the thought of Terry Eagleton, Alasdair MacIntyre, Anthony Kenny and Seamus Heaney, was for several years external examiner in philosophy at the University of Malta. A former student of his, Mario Vella, 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. See also Mark F. Montebello, Stedina għall-Filosofija Maltija, Marsa, Malta : PEG, 1995 ISBN 99909-0-060-4, for a general introduction to philosophy in Malta. Admittedly, Montebello's definition of philosophy is broad enough to include the work of the pioneer of lateral thinking, Maltese-born Edward Debono.
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 and human rights [4]) but the Mediterranean region stands out as a leitmotiv in his thought and his core interest.
[edit] Selected bibliography
- Linji Ġodda, Malta (1973);
- ‘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);
- ‘The Law of the Sea and the Development of Mediterranean Regional Institutions’, in Small States in the Modern World: The Conditions of Survival (ed. P. Worsley and P. Kitromilides), Nicosia (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;
- It-tieni mewt ta’ Lazzru, Malta (1994);
- 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.
- with contributions by:
