He studied Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion at the Sapienza University of Rome, a two-year scholarship from the Italian government. His degree thesis was on the Metaphysics of Language. After the military coup of 11 September 1973, he got on "very badly...I received reprimands; they did not promote me for a long time and they suppressed the philosophy department of which I was director (at the Santiago North Headquarters of the University of Chile)."