Humberto Giannini


Humberto Giannini Íñiguez was a Chilean philosopher of Italian descent. A disciple and continuator of, he was a member of the Academia Chilena de la Lengua and winner of the National Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences in 1999.

Biography

The son of Osvaldo Giannini Piga and Olga Íñiguez Maturana, Humberto Giannini was born in San Bernardo, and grew up in Valparaíso. He was the brother of deputy Osvaldo Giannini Íñiguez.
Giannini described his studies as "a life a bit uneven". He was thrown out of school because of discipline problems and was a sailor for two years. Then he resumed his studies at a night school and became "a great reader of philosophy." He enrolled at the University of Chile's in 1953, where he would teach beginning in 1958, and where he would become, years later, professor emeritus and director of the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy based in Santiago.
He studied Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion at the Sapienza University of Rome, a two-year scholarship from the Italian government. His degree thesis was on the Metaphysics of Language. After the military coup of 11 September 1973, he got on "very badly...I received reprimands; they did not promote me for a long time and they suppressed the philosophy department of which I was director."
In 1998 he was elected an active member of the Academia Chilena de la Lengua, where he occupied chair No. 12.
Regarding his work, it has been said:
Several essays have been dedicated to his work, some of which have been collected in Humberto Giannini: filósofo de lo cotidiano. In El pensamiento filosófico latinoamericano, del Caribe y 'latino' , edited by Enrique Dussel, Eduardo Mendieta, and Carmen Bohórquez, a section is dedicated to his thinking.

Death

On 25 November 2014, he fell into a coma and later died at Santiago's.

Awards and distinctions