Ritsurin Garden (栗林公園), Takamatsu, Japan

© Gerald Cipriani 

Gerald Cipriani 

CertH&A, CertEd, PGCertResMeth, MA, PhD

Gerald Cipriani is a Franco-British scholar of Irish and Corsican descent. He specialises in the philosophy of art and culture, as well as cross-cultural philosophy, having dedicated over three decades to studying, teaching, and researching these areas. His first awakening encounter with philosophy dates back to his school days when, initiated into Pascal's Pensées, he learned about the limitations of reason in our quest to understand that slippery fish called truth. Subsequently, through the influence of his teacher, Jean-Michel Galano, he was introduced to Marxian thought, which brought a timely and conclusive end to his earlier, juvenile embryonic leanings towards Berkeleyan idealism. After completing a baccalauréat in mathematics & physics followed a period of ventures into various artistic and cultural fields through both theoretical studies and practical experiences, ultimately leading him to refine his focus on philosophy. A lasting outcome was a concern with understanding, reconciling, and living with the perceived dichotomy between the material world and the realm of ideas, practice and theory, or between concreteness and representation in various forms and traditions. This motivated him to pursue further study and exploration of contemporary philosophies of experience and interpretation, eventually guiding him towards his cultural engagement with relational contra totalitarian thought and praxis in whatever mode of expression or political colour. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Western aesthetics with full scholarship in Leeds (LMU) under the supervision of art theorist Ian Heywood and hermeneutician Nicholas Davey. He also studied East Asian philosophy and the Kyoto School in London (SOAS) and Kyoto (KyotoU), the latter under the mentorship of aesthetician and Nishida scholar Ken'ichi Iwaki.

Teaching liberated from the totality of instrumental and economic drive of nowadays academia prevalent in many parts of the world has remained his primary motivation. While some may consider this a lost cause, he has always believed that contributing to the shaping of thought through small group seminars or person-to-person tutoring is a deeply valuable, lifetime endeavour. Witnessing the unique taking-place of this formation has always been both a precious achievement and a true privilege. He has taught philosophy for many years in Europe and East Asia, until recently at the School of History and Philosophy of National University of Ireland, Galway. He is currently affiliated as a Guest Professor with the Fine Arts Academy of Hunan Normal University, PR China. Other positions include Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of Philosophy of National Central University, Taiwan, Professor at Kyushu University, Japan, Visiting Scholar at the University of Helsinki, Visiting Professor at National Taiwan University of Arts, British Academy Research Fellow at Kyoto University, and Senior Lecturer at the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design. He was accredited for directing doctoral supervisory teams in 2004. He is also Honorary Professor to the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue, based at the D.S. Likhachev Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Moscow. [ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT SUSPENDED]. Invited lectures at a number of institutions including The University of Tokyo, Peking University, Sungkyunkwan University Seoul, and Goldsmiths University of London. 

He is the recipient of several study and research awards, including from the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan, the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the British Academy, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust. He has been for several years consultant, editor, and reviewer for various academic publishers as well as research institutions and funding agencies such as the French National Research Agency (Paris), the National Fund for Scientific Research (Brussels), and the National Science Centre (Krakow). He is the chair of the International Research Group for Culture and Dialogue and Founding Editor of peer reviewed journals Culture and Dialogue (Brill) and Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology (Routledge). He has edited around thirty titles in philosophy and the arts and published numerous texts in the fields. His current research focuses on contemporary interpretive aesthetics, relational phenomenology of culture, and dialogical philosophy East-West. Latest book publication: Depois de Nishida: O Vazio Dialógico e a Cosmovisão Histórica (After Nishida: Dialogical Emptiness and the Historical Worldview, trans. André Bueno, 2023). 

And, he also has an interest in the practice of poetry, ink painting, photography, and at times lyrical singing...