Vittorio Bufacchi

There is only one take from the presidential election in Ireland: Catherine Connolly won by a HUGE margin. It was a POSITIVE campaign, and the LEFT candidate won fair and square.
The rest is minor details: spoiled votes, Jim Garvin, etc. is just background noise.

It's election day in Ireland. Go out and vote 🗳.

Yup, caught in the act, yet again, far-right bashing, this time on the far-right threat to public health.

Thomas Hobbes conference in Malmesbury (of course), March 2026. Spread the word. Send a paper proposal. Tell your students.
#Hobbes
#PhilosophyMatters

With Catherine Connolly (future president of Ireland), John Maher, my daughter Natalie, and her friend Lidia.

Some people are expensive. Others are cheap. Me? I'm free.
👇

Sorry I missed you at UCC yesterday, teaching got in the way of things.

If you are in Dublin on Saturday 27 September, come along to this free event! I'll be in conversation with the amazing Justine McCarthy of The Irish Times as part of the Festival of Italian and Irish Literature in Ireland 2025.

Canvassing with John Maher (Labour) for the next President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly.

If you liked 'Free', you will love 'Indignity'. I read both. In this interview Lea Ypi says: "every voice out there is always a result of some power relation". Her book explores the indignity of dominant power relations, and yet there is always moral freedom. A beautiful book by a remarkable writer.

Hospitals in Gaza reported that eight people – including three children – died from starvation and malnutrition in the last 24 hours.
My piece for RTE Brainstorm on how Netanyahu's politics of starvation is starving human rights:

My piece on the politics of hunger and starvation in Gaza:

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Having read all four Sally Rooney's novels, this is how I rate them:
1. Intermezzo
2. Normal People
3. Conversations with Friends
4. Beautiful World, Where Are You
Tell me if you agree or disagree.

Walking for many miles between the dry stone walls of Inis Meain, on the Aran Islands, trying to make sense of Gramsci's distinction between dialectical materialism and historical materialism.

I'm at Cork Opera House since 4am, watching the mesmerising Eileen Walsh in 'The Second Woman'. Possibly the most incredible thing I've ever seen on stage. Part of Cork Midsummer Festival.

Review: Why Cicero Matters, Newcastle ClassicsFest 2025 Are we about to make the same mistake as the Romans?

Review: Why Cicero Matters, Newcastle ClassicsFest 2025
"As we see the rise of right-wing populism around the world and in our own communities, with all its destructive tendencies, it appears to me that Cicero definitely does matter"
northeastbylines.co.uk/culture/hist...

The three-days 'Why Cicero Matters' ClassicsFest finished last night, but the banner is still up, and I'm still on a high. Seven events, including talks, debates, an oratory competition, and a theatrical reenactment of a Cicero trial. Life doesn't get better than that.
@classicsforall.bsky.social

Starts tomorrow, 15-17 May. See you in Newcastle.
@litandphil.bsky.social

Starts this Thursday, in Newcastle, at The Lit & Phil: 'Why Cicero Matters'.
@litandphil.bsky.social

Vittorio Bufacchi: Kneecap should be commended rather than condemned Belfast rappers' choice of word may have been crass but at least they were using their artform to create a space for politics

This is what I have: www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

Philosophy meets rap music. My piece in today's Irish Times on Kneecap, Wittgenstein, Charles Taylor, and Hannah Arendt.

This is not a popular view, but this is why I believe in more military spending across Europe. In the @irishexaminer.bsky.social today.

Excited to share this symposium on my book at Philosophy & Public Issues, edited by Uğur Bulgan and Valentina Gentile. Features super interesting critiques from @artsofdenial.bsky.social @vittorio66.bsky.social Mara Marin and Rossella De Bernardi. Thanks to everyone involved 🥰 shorturl.at/FCM7A

I learned a lot from reading your excellent book.

Pope Francis had a Masters Degree in Philosophy.

I'm holding a first 'head' edition of Hobbes' Leviathan, 1651. In Malmesbury, at the Thomas Hobbes Festival last weekend. Life can be sweet.

In Malmesbury, UK, I found the perfect pizza. Four books in the 'Leviathan ', four sections in the pizza.

Happy birthday Thomas Hobbes 🎂
Four more years of the Trump-Vance-Musk triumvirate and life will once again be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on Hobbes and 'The Hunger Games', in Malmesbury, Hobbes's hometown. And today I find that the local bookshop in Malmesbury has done this! A whole window! That's me with Amanda, owner of the fabulous Barn Owl Books.

Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, but "may the odds be ever in your favor”.
My talk, next Saturday, on Hobbes's birthday (April 5th), in Hobbes's hometown (Malmesbury).
See here for details: thomashobbesofmalmesbury.org/recent-events