Silvia Benso Headshot

Silvia Benso

Professor

Department of Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts
Director, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Office Location

Silvia Benso

Professor

Department of Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts
Director, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Education

Laurea, University of Torino (Italy); MA, Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University

Bio

Silvia Benso has been Professor of Philosophy at RIT since Winter 2008. After completing her undergraduate work in philosophy at the University of Torino, Italy, and studying in Germany for almost two years, she graduated with a Ph.D. in philosophy from Penn State University, USA. Among her areas of interest and specialization are ancient philosophy, contemporary European philosophy, the history of philosophy, and feminist theories. Besides having published articles on Nietzsche, Heidegger, Levinas, and ancient philosophy (especially Plato), she is the author of Thinking After Auschwitz: Philosophical Ethics and Jewish Theodicy (in Italian); The Face of Things: A Different Side of Ethics; Viva Voce: Conversations with Italian Philosophers, and the co-author of the volume Environmental Thinking: Between Philosophy and Ecology (in Italian). She has also co-edited the volumes Contemporary Italian Philosophy: Between Ethics, Politics and Religion; Levinas and the Ancients; Between Nihilism and Politics: The Hermeneutics of Gianni Vattimo; Thinking the Inexhaustible: Art, Interpretation, and Freedom in the Philosophy of Luigi Pareyson; Open Borders: Encounters between Italian Philosophy and Continental Thought; Contemporary Italian Women Philosophers: Stretching the Art of Thinking; and Rethinking Life: Italian Philosophy in Precarious Times. She is the general co-editor for the series Contemporary Italian Philosophy published by SUNY Press and the co-director for SIP—Society for Italian Philosophy

Select Scholarship

Full Length Book
Benso, Silvia and Antonio Calcagno, edts. Open Borders: Encounters between Italian Philosophy and Continental Thought. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2021. Print.
Benso, Silvia and Elvira Roncalli, edts. Contemporary Italian Women Philosophers: Stretching the Art of Thinking. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2021. Print.
Benso, Silvia and Brian Schroeder, eds. Thinking the Inexhaustible: Art, Interpretation, and Freedom in the Philosophy of Luigi Pareyson. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2018. Print.
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Book Chapter
Benso, Silvia. "Gianni Vattimo’s Encounter with Gadamer: Hermeneutic Ontology from Dialogue to Conflict." The Gadamerian Mind. Ed. Theodor George and Gert-Jan van der Heiden. New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. 333-346. Print.
Benso, Silvia. "Tra Diotima e Maria. Figure della maternità per un’idea di spazio condiviso [Between Diotima and Mary: Figures of Maternity for a Notion of Shared Space]." Ragioni comuni. Culture e religioni in trasformazione. Ed. Alessandra Cislaghi. Turin, Italy: Rosenberg & Sellier, 2021. 36-54. Print.
Benso, Silvia and Elvira Roncalli. "Introduction: Contemporary Italian Women Thinkers: Attending to Thinking, Extending the Art." Contemporary Italian Women Philosophers: Stretching the Art of Thinking. Ed. Silvia Benso and Elvira Roncalli. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2021. 1-16. Print.
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Invited Keynote/Presentation
Benso, Silvia. "A Response to Paul Stern, ‘Dante’s Critique of Aquinas’." Dante Politico at the Crossroad of Arts and Sciences: An International Symposium on Dante’s Political Thought. University of Rochester. Rochester, NY. 17 Apr. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Benso, Silvia. "Concluding Remarks on Dante as Poet and Thinker." Dante: Poesia e Pensiero/Poetry and Thought (On the 700th Anniversary of His Death, 1321). Consulate General of Italy in Houston, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of Houston, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles. Houston, TX. 20 Oct. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Benso, Silvia. "Subjects, Passions, and Care in Ugo Perone and Elena Pulcini’s Thinking." SIP--Society for Italian Philosophy. Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester, NY. 7 Nov. 2021. Conference Presentation.
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Journal Paper
Benso, Silvia and Antonio Calcagno. "Introduction. Italian Philosophy from Abroad." Italian Philosophy from Abroad, special issue of Trópos: Rivista di Ermeneutica e Critica Filosofica 22. 1 (2019): 5-8. Print.
Benso, Silvia. "Affirmative Biopolitics: Love, Life, and Politics in Lea Melandri." Italian Philosophy from Abroad, special issue of Trópos: Rivista di Ermeneutica e Critica Filosofica 22. 1 (2019): 9-20. Print.
Guglielminetti, Enrico, et al. "Thinking of Work." SpazioFilosofico. 1 (2011) Web.
Journal Editor
Benso, Silvia and Antonio Calcagno, ed. Italian Philosophy from Abroad, special issue of Trópos: Rivista di Ermeneutica e Critica Filosofica. Rome: n.p., 2019. Print.
Benso, Silvia, ed. Aesthetics of the Virtual. Albany: SUNY Press, 2012. Print.
Editor (book or journal)
Benso, Silviaand Brian Schroeder, eds. Between Nihilism and Politics: The Hermeneutics of Gianni Vattimo. Albany: SUNY Press, 2010. Print.
Published Article
Benso, Silvia and Brian Schroeder. “Italian Philosophy Between 1980-1995.” The History of Continental Philosophy. Vol. 7: Post-Poststructuralism. Ed. Alan Schrift and Rosi Braidotti. Chesham, UK: Acumen Publishing, 2010. 83-110. Print.
Benso, Silvia.“Emancipation and the Future of the Utopian: On Vattimo’s Philosophy of History.” Between Nihilism and Politics: The Hermeneutics of Gianni Vattimo. Ed. Silvio Benso and Brian Schroeder. Albany: SUNY Press, 2010. 203-219. Print.
Published Review
Benso, Silvia. Rev. ofPlato and Levinas: The AmbiguousOut-side of Ethics, by Tanja Straehler. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, October 2010. Web.

Currently Teaching

PHIL-201
3 Credits
This course examines the origin and development of Western philosophy in ancient Greece from Thales in the 6th century down to at least the 4th century B.C.E., concentrating on the central ideas of the pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Some attention might also be given to the Hellenistic philosophers (Epicureans, Stoics, and Sceptics). This was a period of remarkable intellectual creativity in philosophy, mathematics, medicine, rhetorical theory, ethics, aesthetics and cosmology. Questions to be considered in this course will include: What are the nature and limits of knowledge? Is knowledge even possible? What is the nature of language? How reliable is perception? What is the true nature of reality? What is the origin and nature of the material world? Is moral knowledge possible? What is the nature of happiness, and what sort of life would make people happy?
PHIL-318
3 Credits
Love is indeed one of the most central concerns in everyone’s life; yet, we spend very little time thinking conceptually about love in its various forms, aspects, implications, nuances, benefits, detriments, and harms. In this course, we will examine views from classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary thinkers on various kinds of love, including some controversial versions of it; we will consider the relation of love in its various forms to desire, emotions, physical intimacy, seduction, sex, sexuality, sexual orientation, and the construction of personal identity; and we will analyze how the various forms of love affect and are affected by gender norms, roles, and images.
PHIL-416
3 Credits
This course is a discussion-oriented, small group exploration of a targeted philosophical topic. The topic varies depending on the current research interests of the instructor. The seminar is an opportunity to do cutting-edge philosophy alongside other students. It is open to both majors and non-majors and may be retaken for credit.
WGST-318
3 Credits
Love is indeed one of the most central concerns in everyone’s life; yet, we spend very little time thinking conceptually about love in its various forms, aspects, implications, nuances, benefits, detriments, and harms. In this course, we will examine views from classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary thinkers on various kinds of love, including some controversial versions of it; we will consider the relation of love in its various forms to desire, emotions, physical intimacy, seduction, sex, sexuality, sexual orientation, and the construction of personal identity; and we will analyze how the various forms of love affect and are affected by gender norms, roles, and images.

In the News

  • May 7, 2024

    four women stand next to each other for a photograph with a blank wall behind them.

    Women’s, gender, and sexuality studies program honors first graduating class

    The first class of graduates from RIT’s women’s, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS) program will be celebrated during commencement this month. The bachelor’s degree program was approved and offered for current students in 2023, and enrollment will be available to incoming first-year students this fall.