Maurizio Ferraris (born 7 February 1956, in Turin) is an Italian continental philosopher and scholar, whose name is associated especially with the philosophical current named "new realism"—Ferraris wrote the Manifesto of New Realism in 2012, which was published by SUNY Press in 2014) -- which shares significant similarities with speculative realism and object oriented ontology.
A pupil of Gianni Vattimo, and influenced by Jacques Derrida, Ferraris began as a theorist of hermeneutics before turning his attention to analytic philosophy. Over the years he has been able to create an effective synthesis between the two approaches, creating a new ontological realism that rejects Kant's schematism in the domain of cognition.
Since 1995, Ferraris has been Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Turin, where he also runs the LabOnt (Laboratory for Ontology). He studied in Turin, Paris and Heidelberg and has taught at major European Universities. He is the editor of the Rivista di Estetica and is a member of the editorial board of Critique and aut aut. From 1989 to 2010 Ferraris contributed regularly to the cultural supplement of the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE. Since 2010 he has been writing for the cultural section of La Repubblica. His main areas of expertise are hermeneutics, aesthetics and ontology.