For the third consecutive year and in collaboration with The Aspen Institute, the Aspen Seminar on Values and Society was held in Italy. Since 1951, this series of seminars, conducted in English, has been the widely-acclaimed cornerstone program of the Aspen Institute tradition in the United States. This latest event in the series involved Italian and overseas participants who, through an analysis and discussion of texts by classical and contemporary authors, debated the major universal values and their relationship with the issues of today. The seminar focused on five issues: human nature and society, the differences between and within societies, social conflicts, the limitations of rules, and leadership models. 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 Alberto Martinelli, Full Professor of Political Sciences at the University of Milan. The seminar generated a debate over the fundamental and shared values of diverse cultures aimed at distilling the key elements for the exercise of modern and informed leadership.
A discussion of readings from classical authors including Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, Machiavelli, Bacon and Rousseau, prompted an exploration of the bases for an innovative methodological and conceptual approach. An analysis of texts by contemporary authors such as Martin Luther King, Václav Havel and Paul Rusesabagina, sparked debate on the challenges of the present day and highlighted aspects of their growing interdependence. Finally, the performance by the participants of an extract from Sophocles’ Antigone provided an opportunity to sum up and reflect on the conflict between natural law and State laws that is of particular relevance today.