Raimond Gaita

Raimund Gaita (later styled as Raimond Gaita) was born in Dortmund, Westphalia, Germany, on 14 May 1946, to a Yugoslav-born Romanian father, Romulus Gaiță (28 December 1922 – May 1996) and a German mother, Christine ("Christel") Anna Dörr (16 November 1928 – 1958).[1] In Germany, from 1942 to 1945, Romulus was employed as a smith and metal worker.[1] The Gaita family migrated to Australia in April 1950, just before Raimond turned four.[2] He attended St. Patrick's College, Ballarat (Victoria), Melbourne High School (Victoria), the University of Melbourne (BA Hons, MA) and the University of Leeds (PhD).

The story of his childhood and the lives of his family members and close friends is told in his memoir Romulus, My Father, which was made into a film starring Eric Bana (Romulus), Franka Potente (Christine), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Raimond) and Marton Csokas (Hora). In a later book, After Romulus, a collection of essays, "he reflects on the writing of the Romulus, My Father, the making of the film, his relationship to the desolate beauty of the central Victorian landscape, the philosophies that underpinned his father's relationship to the world and, most movingly, the presence and absence of his mother and his unassuaged longing for her". (from the publisher)

He is married to Yael Gaita, who was born in Tel Aviv and until 2008 was a teacher at King David School, Melbourne, where she taught Hebrew. Gaita has two children, Katerina and Eva and two stepchildren, Dahlia and Michelle.

His Website is: raimondgaita.com.au

Romulus My Father won the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction in the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards for Contribution to Public Debate, the Braille Book of the Year, the National Biography Award. It was nominated by the New Statesman, London, as one of the best books of 1999 and, in 2000, by The Australian Financial Review as one of the ten best books of the decade. In 2007 it was made into an award-winning feature film of the same name.[3]

A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice was nominated by The Economist as one of the best books of 2000.

The Philosopher's Dog was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, 2003 and The Age Book of the Year, 2003. It was nominated by the Kansas City Star as one of the ten best books of 2005.

In 2009, the University of Antwerp awarded Gaita the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa "for his exceptional contribution to contemporary moral philosophy and for his singular contribution the role of the intellectual in today's academic world". In 2011, Routledge published Christopher Cordner (ed.) Philosophy, Ethics, and a Common Humanity: Essays in Honour of Raimond Gaita. Also in 2011, Flinders University held a conference in Gaita's honour: A Sense for Humanity: The Ethical Thought of Raimond Gaita, which was published as a book of the same title in 2014 by Monash University Press.

• J. Franklin (2003), Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia, Macleay Press, ch. 16.
• Rush, Emma (Summer 2015). "A Gaitian account of environmental ethics". Environmental Ethics. 37 (2): 187–206. doi:10.5840/enviroethics201537217.

• YouTube videos
• Raimond Gaita – Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at King's College London
• Professor Raimond Gaita interviewed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• Raimond Gaita interviewed about Torture on Philosophy Bites
• Gaita and Robert Connolly discuss Romulus, My Father (the film)
• Video: Raimond Gaita lecture on Plato