Turin-based philosopher Gianni Vattimo has died at the age of 87. Born in Turin on January 4, 1936, Vattimo owes his international fame for theorizing and developing the concept of "weak thought", a critique of traditional metaphysics. He was a student of Luigi Pareyson along with Umberto Eco, with whom he shared friendship and interests, and graduated in Philosophy in 1959 from the University of Turin. In addition to his youthful militancy in Catholic Action, Vattimo was also among the pioneers of Italian television with Eco: in 1954, together they participated in and won a RAI competition to recruit new officials. They left the television corporation in the late 1950s. Vattimo taught as a visiting professor in the United States and gave seminars in several universities around the world. A leading militant intellectual on the left, openly homosexual, at the same time he claimed his Catholic faith and carried out political activities in different formations: first in the Radical Party, then in the Democratic Left (from 1999 to 2004), for whom he was a member of the European Parliament, and finally in the Party of Italian Communists. From 2009 to 2015 he was an MEP for Antonio Di Pietro's party Italia dei Valori.