Rather than see love as a natural form of affection, Kottman sees love as a practice that changes over time through which new social realities are brought into being—including the rise of feminism and the emergence of bourgeois family life, the struggles for abortion rights and birth control and the erosion of a gender-based division of labor.
According to Kottman, "Shakespearean tragedy works through the loss of any 'given' — nature, or God, or “fate” — that might explain human societies, histories, actions, destinies, relationships and values.
"[1] Kottman is the editor of a book series at Stanford University Press, Square One: First Order Questions in the Humanities, is on the editorial board of Cultura della Modernità (Edizioni ETS, Italy), and the advisory boards of Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism and the Arts (Columbia University Press) and Corpus: Filosofie e sapere (Paparo Edizioni, Italy) Kottman holds the Abilitazione, Professore Ordinario in Filosofia, Estetica (Professor of Philosophy, Aesthetics) in Italy.
He has held Visiting Professorships at Fudan University in Shanghai (2019), the University del Piemonte Orientale, (2006); the University of Tokyo (2011–12); the Università degli studi di Verona; Instituto per gli studi filosofici, Naples; and the International Chair in Political Languages, Dipartimento di Politiche Pubbliche e Scelte Colletive (POLIS).
He has held a fellowship at Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Universität zu Köln], the New Institute in Hamburg, and is Full Professor of Philosophy (Aesthetics), Italy National Scientific Committee.