About Me

Belliotti is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy Emeritus. He received his undergraduate degree with honors from Union College in 1970, after which he served three years in the U.S. Army in military intelligence units during the Vietnam War. Upon his discharge, he enrolled at the University of Miami where he earned his Master of Arts in 1976 and his doctorate in 1977, with a perfect academic record. After teaching at Florida International University and Virginia Commonwealth University, he entered Harvard University as a law student and teaching fellow. After receiving a juris doctorate with honors from Harvard Law School, he practiced law in New York City with the firm of Barrett Smith Schapiro Simon & Armstrong. In 1984, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Fredonia. He retired from SUNY in 2018.

           Belliotti is the author of 26 books: Justifying Law (1992); Good Sex (1993); Seeking Identity (1995); Stalking Nietzsche (1998); What is the Meaning of Human Life? (2001); Happiness is Overrated (2004); The Philosophy of Baseball (2006); Watching Baseball Seeing Philosophy (2008); Niccolò Machiavelli (2008); Roman Philosophy and the Good Life (2009); Dante’s Deadly Sins: Moral Philosophy in Hell (2011); Posthumous Harm: Why the Dead are Still Vulnerable (2011); Shakespeare and Philosophy (2012); Jesus or Nietzsche: How Should We Live Our Lives? (2013); Jesus the Radical: The Parables and Modern Morality (2014); Why Philosophy Matters: 20 Lessons on Living Large (2015); Machiavelli’s Secret: The Soul of the Statesman (2015); Power: Oppression, Subservience, and Resistance (2016); Dostoevsky’s Legal and Moral Philosophy: The Trial of Dmitri Karamazov (2016); Nietzsche’s Will to Power (2017); Is Human Life Absurd? (2019); Dante’s Inferno (2020); Values, Virtues, and Vices, Italian Style: Caesar, Dante, Machiavelli, and Garibaldi (2020); The Godfather and Sicily: Power, Honor, Family, and Evil (2021); Heroism and Wisdom, Italian Style (2022): and Italian Rebels: Mazzini, Gramsci, and Giuliano (2023). Good Sex and Power were both later translated into Korean and published in Asia.

He has also published 94 articles and reviews in the areas of ethics, jurisprudence, sexual morality, medicine, politics, education, feminism, sports, Marxism, and legal ethics. These essays have appeared in scholarly journals based in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States.  Belliotti has also made numerous presentations at philosophical conferences, including the 18th World Congress of Philosophy in England, and has been honored as a featured lecturer on the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner.

While at SUNY Belliotti served extensively on campus committees, including as the chairperson of the Department of Philosophy, as the chairperson of the University Senate, and as director of General Education. Belliotti also served as Vice President for Academics for the local United University Professions.  For six years he was faculty advisor to two undergraduate student clubs: the Philosophical Society and Il Circolo Italiano.  Belliotti has been the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the William T. Hagan Young Scholar/Artist Award, the Kasling Lecture Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship, and the SUNY Foundation Research & Scholarship Recognition Award. He was also a member of the New York State Speakers in the Humanities Program from 2006-2014. Belliotti is currently a member of the SUNY Distinguished Academy Visiting Scholars Program.