The Aspen University Fellows Dialogue is inspired by the Aspen Leadership Seminars, the central and recognized success program of The Aspen Institute’s tradition in the United States, which for over seventy-five years has served as a model of advanced learning, debate, and reflection.
Through the examination and discussion of texts by classical and contemporary authors, the debate has developed along two strands. The first concerns a contemporary rethinking of the question Paul Valéry posed in 1919: what is the European spirit? What was it yesterday, and what is it today? Europe generated philosophical-scientific thought, its structures, and its dreams, but it is now lagging behind China and the United States. Is the European spirit in contradiction with the world it created? What path have other major world powers, starting with China, taken? How should one respond to Thomas Mann’s question of whether “the classical-humanist Mediterranean tradition is a constituent part of humanity and therefore humanly eternal, or merely the spiritual and accessory form of an era of the liberal bourgeoisie and may therefore vanish with it”? Beyond self-referential temptations, the discussion focuses on what unites Europeans, what outcome that “daily plebiscite” of being a nation might have, and what project or vision could revive Europe, which some today see as “trapped between wonderful memories and boundless hopes” (Valéry).
The second strand of the seminar focused on exploring the “new world” generated by the prospects of artificial intelligence and scientific progress in frontier areas, such as health and space. From the world of the recent past (the advent of electronics, personal computers) we have moved to the world of the near future (the evolution of AI, new frontiers of life, new forms of governance, the capacity for autonomous thinking not conditioned by information bubbles, and perspectives on security and defense). How was the mundus novus technologicus imagined just forty years ago (with the advent of the personal computer)? How is it being realized today? And is the European spirit still useful in this journey? The asymmetry with other regions of the world remains a key challenge when trying to balance regulation based on European humanist values, the free development of creativity, and the advancement of business applications that push toward yet unexplored frontiers, including ethical ones.
Generation Z, which experiences Europe through the Erasmus program and “liquid” work, and will face in the future the fragility of welfare systems, demographic crises, and the speed of change, must identify new resources and goals to maintain long-term shared prosperity. Amid new conflicts, hot and cold wars, the dream of “perpetual peace” that Europe has pursued as its primary objective is no longer guaranteed. In de-globalization and the new multilateralism, Europe remains peripheral. These are challenges that must be addressed, including by fostering substantial investment in lifelong learning for young people, and by affirming the critical and autonomous spirit necessary to build a European model revitalized by new programs and a renewed pragmatism.