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April 24, 2020 Aldo Masullo died at 97. The philosopher and politician, who had just celebrated his birthday, was born in Avellino in 1923. Two years ago, in June 2018, he had been awarded honorary citizenship by the Municipality of Naples, during a ceremony at Maschio Angioino. He was currently an emeritus professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Naples Federico II. Masullo was a deputy and senator as well as a European parliamentarian.

The condolences of the mayor of Naples 
"Master Aldo Masullo, to whom we recently also conferred honorary citizenship of Naples, has left his life on earth. One of the greatest philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century, of a very high ethical profile, of profound intellectual rigor, we remember his lucid political analyzes up to A few days ago, a beacon for many, a very solid point of reference for the Neapolitan culture. My personal condolences to the family and loved ones, from the administration and from the city of Naples ". So, in a note, the mayor of the Campania capital, Luigi de Magistris.

Amendola: cultural and political landmark
"Naples and Italy lose Aldo Masullo, a brilliant and courageous intellectual". So Enzo Amendola, minister for European affairs, remembers the philosopher and politician Aldo Masullo, who passed away at the age of 97. "His thought and his works - adds Amendola - remain to show us a rational path. A political and cultural reference point that taught us that 'none of us save ourselves'". 

Theoretic of a complex and original anthropological perspective of "phenomenological" sign
Graduated in philosophy, with a thesis on the philosophy of law, and in jurisprudence in Naples, he was a disciple of Antonio Aliotta and Cleto Carbonara. After practicing the profession of criminal lawyer between 1947 and 1951, in 1955 he became a free professor of theoretical philosophy, then full professor since 1967. Masullo carried out his entire academic career at the Neapolitan University (from 1984 to '90 he directed the Department of Philosophy), while spending various research and teaching periods in Germany. He was a member of the Pontaniana Academy, of the National Society of Sciences, Letters and Arts of Naples, of the Pugliese Academy of Sciences and member of various international scientific societies and of the scientific committee of the philosophical magazine "Paradigmi". He had been awarded the gold medal of the Ministry of Education.       

The various epistemological and ethical directions of his research converge in a complex and original anthropological perspective of a "phenomenological" sign. Central reasons are its intersubjectivity, time, pathicity. Among his many books: "Structure subject praxis" (Scientific publishing book, 1962), "The sense of the foundation" (Scientific publishing book, 1967), "Fichte: intersubjectivity and the original" (Guide editors, 1986) , "Philosophies of the subject and right of sense" (Marietti, 1990), "Time and grace. For an active ethics of salvation" (Donzelli, 1995), "Paticity and indifference" (Il Nuovo Melangolo, 2003), "Freedom and opportunities" (Jaca Book, 2011).       

The intense activity of scholar and teacher did not prevent Masullo from being present in the political debate and in civil action, in particular between the 70s and 90s, with frequent polemical interventions in the national press and with the exercise of the critical opposition in elective institutions as deputy and senator of the PCI and then PDS-DS.