Thomas International

Fulvio Di Blasi graduated Summa cum Laude in Law from the University of Milan in 1994. The graduation committee, on behalf of the University, awarded him, as a special distinction, the publication of his dissertation Natural Law Theory in the Thought of J. M. Finnis. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Law from the University of Palermo in 1998.

In 1999 he was accepted for a “Habilitation project” by the Internationale Akademie fuer Philosophie in the Principality of Liechtenstein, where he lived during the fall-semester of 1999. In the beginning of 2000 the Italian National Council of Research (CNR) conferred on him a fellowship to do research abroad on natural law theory.

In March of the same year he was invited and appointed Visiting Scholar and Research Associate by the Jacques Maritain Center, University of Notre Dame. Over the next three years, he taught courses in the Philosophy Department of the University of Notre Dame in “Ethics,” “Introduction to Philosophy,” “Political Philosophy,” and “Thomistic Personalism”. Since 2003, he has taught “Philosophy of Law”, “General Theory of Law”, and “Introduction to the Study of Law” at the LUMSA Law School (Palermo), “Introduction to Philosophy” at the University of Notre Dame, and “Business Ethics,” “Law and Ethics,” and “Ethics of Work” a the University of Palermo. Since 2004 he has been Visiting Professor of “Bioethics and Law” at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. In the spring semester 2006, he will be teaching again “Ethics” at the University of Notre Dame.

Since 2004, he has been Director of the Centro Ricerche Tommaso d’Aquino of the Collegio universitario ARCES. He has been Scientific Coordinator of distinguished international conferences and has given papers in several leading universities both in Europe and the USA. He is in the Board of Advisors of “New Things & Old Things,” and he is member of The American Philosophical Association and of The American Catholic Philosophical Association. He is editorialist for the Italian cultural magazine Il Domenicale, and contributor of Sensus Communis: Studi e Ricerche di Logica Aletica.

Selected Publications

Conoscenza pratica, teoria dell’azione e bene politico (Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli 2006).
(co-editor with G. Romano) L’Europa fra radici e progetto: Civiltà cristiana o relativismo etico? (Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli 2005).
“Natural Law and Natural Rights,” in A.C. Grayling and Andrew Pyle (eds.), Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, (Thoemmes Continuum: Bristol 2006).
Dio e la legge naturale. Una rilettura di Tommaso d’Aquino, ETS: Pisa 1999. English edition: God and the Natural Law: A Rereading of Aquinas (St. Augustine’s Press: South Bend 2003).
“Europa, meglio amici che uguali”, Il Domenicale, 12 giugno 2004.
“Democrazia, crisi dell’autorità e legge naturale”, in R. Di Ceglie (ed.), Pluralismo contro relativismo. Filosofia, religione, politica, Edizioni Ares: Milano, 2004, 191-212.
“Amicizia e/o eguaglianza? Riflessioni sul fondamento della comunità politica,” in F. Viola (ed.), Etica e politica dell’intersoggettività: l’idea di cooperazione nel diritto e nella politica, Il Mulino: Bologna, 2004.
“Practical Syllogism, Proairesis, and the Virtues: Toward a Reconciliation of Virtue Ethics and Natural Law Ethics,” New Things & Old Things, 1 (2004), pp. 21-41.
“Democrazia americana in crisi? Lo scandalo dell’aborto a nascita parziale,” Il Domenicale, 3 aprile 2004.
“What Nature? Whose Nature? Reflecting on Some Recent Arguments in Natural Law Ethics,” in M. Waddell (ed.), Reclaiming Nature: Essays in Thomistic Philosophy and Theology, St. Augustine’s Press: South Bend, IN, 2003 [with an introduction by Ralph McInerny].
“Response to John Crosby, ‘Does Plato in Republic IV Surpass his Intellectualism?,’” Sensus Communis 5/2004.
Review to Gabriel Chalmeta, La Giustizia Politica in Tommaso d’Aquino. Un’Interpretazione del Bene Comune Politico [Political Justice in Thomas Aquinas: An Interpretation of the Concept of Political Common Good] (Armando Editore: Roma, 2000), New Things & Old Things, 2 (2003), pp. 475-82.
“Frankenstein science,” South Bend Tribune, January 21, 2003.
“L’Europa non finanzi politiche contro la vita,”, Avvenire, 13 dicembre 2002.
“Università, persona e bene comune,” Universitas (2002).
“L’aborto causa il tumore al seno? A colloquio con Jose A. Bufill, oncologo statunitense,” Studi Cattolici, dicembre 2002.
“Dopo un Anno negli States: Appunti per un Confronto col Sistema Universitario Americano,” Universitas (Sett. 2001).
Review to John Finnis, Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory (Oxford University Press: New York 1998), Journal of Law & Religion, 16 (2001), pp. 653-59.
“Rapporti Prematrimoniali o Rapporti Anti-Matrimoniali?”, Studi Cattolici, ottobre 2001.
“Ultimate End, Human Freedom, and Beatitude. A Critique of Germain Grisez,” The American Journal of Jurisprudence, 46 (2001), pp. 113-35.
“Legge Naturale e Volontà di Dio: Finnis, Grisez, Suárez e la Teoria Convenzionale,” Iustitia, 3 (2000).
“The Concept of Truth and the Object of Human Knowledge,” in F. T. Arecchi (ed.), The Scientific and Philosophical Challenge of Complexity, ASRui: Milano 2000.
“La Conoscenza Naturale di Dio in Tommaso d’Aquino,” Aquinas, 2 (1999).
“I Valori Fondamentali nella Teoria Neoclassica della Legge Naturale,” Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia del Diritto, 2 (1999).

Translations

R. McInerny, Conoscenza morale implicita (Rubbettino: Soveria Mannelli 2006).
Y. Simon, La tradizione del diritto naturale. Le riflessioni di un filosofo, Thomas: Palermo 2004 (The Tradition of Natural Law: A Philosopher’s Reflections, Fordham University Press: New York 1992).
R. McInerny, Tommaso d’Aquino e l’analogia, Armando Editore: Roma 1999 (Aquinas and Analogy, The Catholic University of America Press: Washington, D.C. 1996).
J. M. Finnis, Legge naturale e diritti naturali, Giappichelli: Torino 1996, pp. 470 (Natural Law and Natural Rights, Clarendon Press: Oxford 1980).