UW-Madison’s John Baldacchino recently released two new books, “Sejjieħ il-Ħsieb: Limitu u Ħelsien (Rubblewalls of Thought: Limit and Freedom)” and “Educing Ivan Illich: Reform, Contingency, and Disestablishment.”
Baldacchino is a professor with the School of Education’s Art Department.
Written in his mother tongue, Maltese, “Sejjieħ il-Ħsieb” is Baldacchino’s first book of philosophy. This work takes a poetic yet rigorous approach to explore the relationship of freedom and the “limit.”
“This book opens new horizons to those who care for philosophy written in the Maltese Langauge; a book that invites readers to roam and dialogue with major concepts in ethics, politics, literature, and epistemology,” Professor John Portelli, of the University of Toronto, said in his endorsement. “Baldacchino shows how philosophy is borne out of our existential relationships, in dialogue with ourselves and with others.”
Baldacchino’s other book, “Educing Ivan Illich,” is in conversation with Illich’s work, almost 50 years since his “Deschooling society” was first published. Receiving several endorsements from colleagues across Europe and Canada, Baldacchino’s book is revered as a unique contribution to commentary on Illich’s work.