While he was reading philosophy in Turin, he met Gianni Vattimo and Umberto Eco, who all became prominent scholars of Pareyson's school.
From 1966 to 1969 he was connected to the avant-garde Situationist International movement founded by Guy Debord with whom he kept on friendly terms for several years.
[1] The breadth, insight and many-faced contributions of Perniola's thought has earned him the reputation of being one of the most impressive figures on the contemporary philosophical scene.
[2] His book Miracoli e traumi della comunicazione (2009) (Miracles and Traumas of Communication) gained many awards amongst which the prestigious Premio De Sanctis.
[3] His wide-ranging activities involved formulating innovative philosophical theories, writing books, teaching aesthetics, and lecturing worldwide.
[4] In his first main work, Il metaromanzo (The Metanovel 1966), which is his doctoral dissertation, Perniola argues that the modern novel from Henry James to Samuel Beckett has a self-referential character.
The Italian Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Eugenio Montale, praised Perniola for this original critique of novels.
His first major work belonging to this anti-academic side is L’alienazione artistica (Artistic Alienation 1971), in which he draws on Marxist thought that inspired him at that time.
[7] His second book I situazionisti (The situationists 1972; republished with the same title by Castelvecchi, Rome, 1998) exemplified his interest in the avant-garde and the work of Guy Debord.
As the former interrelations between metaphysics and church, dialectics and state, science and profession have been deconstructed, philosophy and culture provide a way to overcome nihilism and populism which characterize today's society.
Sexuality, Death, World (2001) is a composite volume in English containing sections of two works published in Italian in the 1980s, i.e. La società dei simulacri (The Society of Simulacra 1980) and Transiti.
Perniola's work explores the role of eros, desire, and sexuality in today's experience of the aesthetic and the impact of technology.
The most surprising feature is Perniola's ability to combine a rigorous re-interpretation of the philosophical tradition with a meditation on the “sexy”.
The Egyptian Moment in Society and Art, London-New York, Verso, 1995), in which he analyzes other forms of sensibility that take place between man and things.
As products of high technology increasingly assume organic properties, humanity turns into a thing, in the sense that it deliberately sees itself as an object.
Perniola's volume highlights the relationship between the historical, political, and anthropological traits rooted in Italian society and the critical discourse arising around them.
Furthermore, he argues that knowledge and culture should continue to be granted a privileged position in our societies, and they should challenge the arrogance of the establishments, the insolence of the publishers, the vulgarity of mass media, and the plutocratic roguery.
His last book of fiction is Del terrorismo come una delle belle arti (On Terrorism as one of Fine Arts, 2016) (http://www.psychomedia.it/jep/number3-4/contpern.htm) (https://web.archive.org/web/20051230194426/http://www.sirreadalot.org/religion/religion/ritualR.htm)