“Vattimo’s philosophy can be characterized as postmodern with his emphasis on ‘pensiero debole’ (weak thought). This requires that the foundational certainties of modernity with its emphasis on objective truth founded in a rational unitary subject be relinquished for a more multi-faceted conception closer to that of the arts. He draws on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger with his critique of foundations and the hermeneutic philosophy of his teacher Hans-Georg Gadamer. Perhaps his greatest influence though is the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose ‘discovery of the “lie”, the discovery that alleged “values” and metaphysical structures are just a play of forces’ (1993:93), plays an important role in Vattimo’s notion of ‘weak thought.’”