Liberato Santoro-Brienza was born near Minturno, in Italy, on the 29th of January 1944. He was educated in his native country, pursued university studies mainly in Rome and Urbino, and lectured in philosophy at University College Dublin, from 1972 until his early retirement in 2001. In the early 1990s he specialized in psychoanalytic studies.

During those years, he was repeatedly invited as Visiting Professor at various Universities in Europe and the USA, and held a Contract Chair of Philosophy at the University of Ferrara. After retirement from UCD, he moved to New Zealand, with a period of residence in Australia. He was awarded a Fellowship in Philosophy by the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, and was offered an Honorary Research Chair in Philosophy by the University of Auckland. He has been an active member of AICA and a co-founding member of the Irish branch.

The main areas of his intellectual and academic interests are the following: history of ideas, aesthetics, semiotics, psychoanalysis. On themes in these areas he has published a few books and a number of articles

Liberato was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and nominated Professor of Philosophy, serving on its Academic Committee, in October 2007.