The Aspen Seminar on Values and Society, conducted in English and held in collaboration with The Aspen Institute, followed the same format as the seminar held in Moltrasio (Como) on March 6-8, 2009. Aimed at a diverse group of participants, the event involved Aspen Junior Fellows, Friends of Aspen and young leaders from Italy and abroad. The debate was significantly enriched by the diversity of the geographic, personal and professional backgrounds of the participants.
On the basis of an analysis and discussion of twenty-one texts by classical and contemporary authors, the participants examined the major universal values and debated their relationship with the issues of today. The discussion progressed from an analysis of the relationship between human nature, the State and civil society (with a consideration of texts by Aristotle, Hobbes and Rousseau), to an examination of ethical issues and various leadership styles (with interpretations of texts by Plato and Martin Luther King). The future prospects of contemporary social and economic models were also discussed (with readings of texts by various authors including Hayek, de Soto, Said and Havel). Finally, the performance by the participants of an extract from Sophocles’ Antigone provided an innovative starting-point for an exploration of the conflict between natural law and State law, with a view to arriving at a complex balance between the exercise of leadership and the assertion of individual rights.
The discussion was prompted and guided by three moderators: Howard Zeiderman, President of the Touchstones Discussion Project, Leigh Hafrey, Senior Lecturer in Behavioral and Policy Sciences at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Giovanni Farese, Research Fellow at the LUISS Guido Carli University.