Dipartimento di Studi Letterari, Filosofici e di Storia dell'Arte
Università di Roma Tor Vergata
via Columbia 1, I-00133 Rome
Italy
Ordinary Academicians
Most important awards, prizes and academies
Order of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany; first cohort fellow of the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies; chairman of the 24th World Congress of Philosophy Beijing 2018 Program Committee; member of the Institut International de Philosophie, the Academia Europaea, the Europäische Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste, the Accademia degli Agiati, and the International Confucian Association.
Summary of scientific research
Pozzo is a philosopher with a background in logic and philosophy of science. His core philosophical concern is the reflective society and the use it makes of philosophy for enhancing participation, co-creation, and inclusion, which he has elaborated under the heading of cultural innovation. He is pursuing lines of research in the history of philosophy (Kant edition), China studies (Neo-Confucianism), and science policy studies (research and innovation infrastructures).
Main publications
Monographs: History of Philosophy and the Reflective Society (New York/Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021); Adversus Ramistas: Kontroversen über die Natur der Logik am Ende der Renaissance (Basel: Schwabe, 2012); Georg Friedrich Meiers Vernunftlehre: Eine historisch-systematische Untersuchung (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2000); Kant und das Problem einer Einleitung in die Logik: Ein Beitrag zur Rekonstruktion der historischen Hintergründe von Kants Logik-Kolleg (Frankfurt: Lang, 1989), translated into Spanish: Kant y el problema de una introducción a la lógica, transl. Javier Sánchez-Arjona Voser (Madrid: Maia, 2016); Hegel: Introductio in Philosophiam: Dagli studi ginnasiali alla prima logica (1782-1801) (Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1989). Papers: “中国与欧洲文化创新的界定与比较 [Defining Cultural Innovation in China and in Europe],” transl. by Shi Wei, 《国际儒学（中英文）》 [International Confucian Studies (Chinese-English)] 4 (2026), #1; (Riccardo Pozzo, Fabio Ciotti) “Time Comprehended in Thoughts: The World Congress of Philosophy Collection,” Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 117 (2025), #1, 219-233. DOI:10.26350/001050_000451; “G. F. Meier’s Letter to his auditors, in which he informs them of his decision to hold a collegium on Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” Studi Lockiani 6 (2025) [DOI: 10.4454/sl.6], 11-29; “Research and Innovation for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities,” in Disability and the Human Condition: Changing the Social Determinants of Disabilities and Building a New Culture of Inclusion, ed. Helen Alford and Fabio Ferrucci (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2025), 357-364. ISBN: 9788826610269; “Antonio Banfi storico della filosofia,” Filosofia Italiana 19 (2024), #2, 37-52: DOI: 10.531136/97912218; “Enrico Berti storico della filosofia moderna e contemporanea,” Humanitas 78, N.S. 1 (2023), 77-83. ISSN: 2611-8068; “Le projet d’écrire un manuel de logique et métaphysique pendant la décade silencieuse,” in Kant - Ontologie et métaphysique : Sources, transformations et héritages, ed. Gualtiero Lorini, Mai Lequan and Diogo Sardinha (Paris: Vrin, 2023), 181-192. ISBN: 9782711631506; (Hansmichael Hohenegger, Antonio Lamarra, Riccardo Pozzo) “Johann Reinhold Grube’s Opposing Remarks on Kant’s Nova dilucidatio,” Kant-Studien 113 (2022), #2, 330-366. DOI: 10.1515/kant-2022-2022; (Hansmichael Hohenegger and Antonio Lamarra) “Neuaufgefundene Exemplare des Erstdrucks der Nova dilucidatio”, Kant-Studien 112 (2021), #1, 133-136. DOI: 10.1515/kant-2021-0015;“Bilingualism and Multilingualism in Chinese and Western Philosophy", 中国学第八辑China Studies Quarterly 8, 56-67; (corresponding author, coauthor Vania Virgili) “Community Readiness for Local COVID-19 Management,” Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. 5: 602200. DOI: 10.3389/frma.2020.602200; (corresponding author, coauthors Andrea Filippetti, Mario Paolucci and Vania Virgili) “What does Cultural Innovation stand for? Dimension, Processes and Outcomes of a new Category of Innovation”, Science and Public Policy 47 (2020), #3, 425-433. DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scaa023; “Epistemological Challenges of Engaging Humanities-led Cross-disciplinary Migration Research Issues”, in Briefs on Methodological, Ethical and Epistemological Issues (2019), No. 11, 1-8. www.migrationresearch.com; “Innovation for the Reflective Society”, fteval Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation 46 (2019), 53-55. DOI: 10.22163/fteval.2019.367; “G. F. Meiers rhetorisierte Logik und die freien Künste”, Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 36 (2018), #2, 160-178. DOI: 10.1525/rh.2018.36.2.160; (corresponding author, coauthor Vania Virgili) “Social and Cultural Innovation: Research Infrastructures Tackling Migration”, Diogenes: International Journal of Human Sciences 64 (2017). DOI: 10.1177/0392192117739822; “Digital Humanities, Digital Cultural Heritage e l’istanza Open”, Archeologia e Calcolatori, supplemento 9 (2017), 133-138. ISSN: 1120-6861. DOI: 10.19282/ACS.9.2017.06; (corresponding author, coauthor Vania Virgili) “Governing Cultural Diversity: Common Goods, Shared Experiences, Spaces for Exchange”, Economia della cultura: Rivista trimestrale dell’Associazione per l’Economia della Cultura 26 (2016), #1, 41-47. DOI: 10.1446/84035; “Ius-Lex-Corpus: Corpus Mysticum", Trans/Form/Ação: Revista de Filosofia 37 (2014), edição especial, 245-252. DOI: 0.1590/S0101-3173201400ne00013; “Storia storica e storia filosofica della filosofia nel XX e XXI secolo”, Archivio di storia della cultura 27 (2014), 361-372; “Generi letterari: Programmschriften filosofiche nella Germania della Aufklärung”, Quaestio: The Yearbook for the History of Metaphyics 11 (2011), 111-130. DOI: 10.14484/J.QUAESTIO.1.103020; “Schiavitù attiva, proprietà intellettuale e diritti umani”, Intersezioni: Rivista di storia delle idee 30 (2010), 145-156; “L’ontologia nei manuali di metafisica della Aufklärung”, Quaestio: The Yearbook for the History of Metaphysics 9 (2009), 177-193; “Cornelius Martini sull’oggetto della metafisica”, Medioevo 24 (2009), 305-314; “The Epistemic Standpoint from Kant to Hegel”, Internationale Zeitschrift für Philosophie 16 (2007), #2, 52-66; “La ricezione di Kant in Svizzera: 1788-1804”, Rivista di storia della filosofia 60 (2006), #4, 23-32; “Immanuel Kant on Intellectual Property”, Trans/Form/Ação: Revista de Filosofia 29 (2006), 11-18. DOI: 10.1590/S0101-31732006000200002; “Prejudices and Horizons: The Philosophy of G. F. Meier", Journal of the History of Philosophy 43 (2005), 185-202. DOI: 10.1353/hph.2005.0122; “Kant on the Five Intellectual Virtues”, in The Impact of Aristotelianism on Modern Philosophy, ed. Riccardo Pozzo, Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 39 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2004), 173-192. ISBN: 0813213479; “Georg Friedrich Meier, Immanuel Kant und die friderizianische Universitätspolitik”, Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 7 (2004), 147-167; “Ramus and Other Renaissance Philosophers on Subjectivity”, Topoi 22 (2002), #1, 5-13; (coauthor, coauthor Michael Oberhausen) “The Place of Science in Kant’s University”, History of Science 40 (2002), #2, 353-368. ISSN: 0073-2753; “Dall’‘intellectus purus’ alla ‘reine Vernunft’: Note sul passaggio dal latino al tedesco prima e dopo Kant”, Giornale critico della filosofia italiana 80 [82] (2001), #2, 231-245.
Riccardo Pozzo is chair professor of History of Philosophy at Tor Vergata University of Rome, Department of Literary, Philosophical and Art History Studies, where he teaches History of Chinese Philosophy and Research Policy. His research focuses on spiritual humanism for reflection and inclusion as social processes that shape our understanding of what constitutes cultural innovation, a new category of innovation economics, of which he has made the unprecedented attempt of indicating dimensions, processes and outcomes, while showing their operationalization in empirical case studies. Graduated from the State University of Milan in 1983, he completed his education in Germany – Dr.phil. at the University of Saarland in 1988 and Habilitation at the University of Trier in 1995. In 1996 he was appointed at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 2003 the University of Verona called him back to the chair of the History of Philosophy. From 2009 to 2012 he directed the Institute for the European Intellectual Lexicon and History of Ideas of the National Research Council of Italy. From 2012 to 2017, when he was head of the Department of Human and Social Sciences, Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council, he implemented Italy’s participation in the European research infrastructures for social and cultural innovation CESSDA, CLARIN, DARIAH, EHRI, ERIHS, ESS, OPERAS, RESILIENCE and SHARE. Titular member of the Institut International de Philosophie, ordinary member of the Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, and overseas member of the International Confucian Association. In 2014 he was awarded the Order of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany. Pozzo’s lines of research are in Philosophy, China Studies, and Science and Technology Studies.
Areas of Competence
Logic and Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy, Chinese Philosophy, Science and Technology Studies.
Introductory: The Classical Mind, The Modern Mind.
Upper-division: Reasoning and Argumentation, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion, History of Concepts, Senior Seminar.
Graduate seminars: Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Mencius, Cicero, Seneca, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Aquinas, Ficinus, Wang Yangming, Bruno, Spinoza, Locke, Wolff, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Freud, Cassirer, Heidegger, Gadamer, Klibansky, Arendt, Habermas, Berque.
Areas of Research
Pozzo is a philosopher with a background in the history of logic. His innovative approach to intellectual lexicography relies on information technologies for linguistic and textual content documentation and elaboration.
During his tenure at CNR, he implemented the participation of Italy in European research infrastructures for social sciences and humanities, i.e., CLARIN-Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure, DARIAH-Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities, E-RIHS-European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science, and OPERAS-Design for Open Access Publications in European Research Area for Social Sciences and Humanities.
Pozzo’s research is focused on reflection and inclusion as societal processes that shape our understanding of what cultural innovation stands for. He works in science and technology studies, cultural heritage, and migration, which are cross-disciplinary domains that involve all social sciences and humanities with mathematics, physics, chemistry, life sciences and medicine, environmental sciences, logistics, agri-food and ICT.
History of Philosophy and the Reflective Society. Like many other disciplines today, the history of philosophy is also taking a global perspective. This research is about innovation, reflection and inclusion. The study has the ambition of providing new impulses to research in the history of philosophy by showing the possibilities and limits of new approaches common to diverse philosophical traditions. It aims to break ground for rethinking the discipline of the history of philosophy within a global framework. It offers new definitions and stocktaking of best practices focused on European-Chinese cultural interactions, which can be taken as the start for extending the model to other cultures – China being the most populous country in the world and the fourth country of origin of non-nationals in EU member states. Cultural innovation is something tangible that tops up social and technological innovation by providing the reflective society with spaces of exchange in which citizens engage in sharing their experiences while appropriating common goods content. We are talking of public spaces such as universities, academies, libraries, museums, and science centers, but also of any place in which co-creation activities may occur, e.g. research infrastructures such as DARIAH-Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and the Humanities. At this level, social innovation becomes reflective and generates cultural innovation.
Social and Cultural Innovation. The focus is on introducing the notion of cultural innovation, which requires adapting the process of co-creation, as it is pivotal for the theoretical framework. The argument starts with the first conceptualization of cultural innovation as an additional and autonomous dimension of the complex processes of innovation. Here, the dimension of cultural innovation is contrasted against other forms of innovation. Based on such conceptualization, in a second step, the research makes an unprecedented attempt to point out processes and outcomes of cultural innovation while showing their operationalization in some empirical case studies. Policy implications and verification strategies result from the final proposed definition.
Research and Innovation Agenda on Migration. Migration has become a benchmark of political decision-making and a decisive segment of the economic, environmental, ethical, sanitary and cultural development of society. Research on migration finds a place at the frontiers of science. It integrates technological innovation with social innovation and eventually with cultural innovation, thus providing substantial added value to citizens of a global community. The migrant crisis poses to Europe a challenge whose dimensions are comparable to those of the ecological crisis of the last quarter of the previous century, whose icon was the acid rains and was overcome through an epochal effort in research that brought about an industrial reconversion and a change in the mindset of the citizens. Today, the migrant crisis requires a cross-disciplinary research agenda. It involves the whole domains of social sciences, humanities and cultural heritage together with mathematics, physics, chemistry, life sciences and medicine, environmental sciences, logistics, agri-food and ICT. Migration asks for a change of paradigm that involves all disciplines in the direction of a new hybrid consideration in which top-down modelling of phenomena finds a unique synthesis with the discovery of new cognitions bottom-up, which emerge from the immense masses of available data. It proposes a holistic approach that embraces the sectors of cultural, social, environmental and economic sustainability. The idea is to aggregate research performing organizations, universities, research infrastructures and cultural institutions for actions on migrations, cultural heritage, interreligious and intercultural dialogue, security, agri-food, and health. The main goal is to deal with every aspect of science and technology related to migration.