From Erasmus to Kant: a dialogue for peace.

ORGANIZER: Società Dante Alighieri Locarno and Cantonal Library Locarno

Locarno. Palazzo Società Elettrica Sopracenerina.

Thursday, 16 October 2025, 6:00 pm.

Admission: free.

Recommended age: ages 14 and up.

• Dante Alighieri Society Locarno website
• Website Cantonal Library Locarno

A meeting with two of the most recognized and authoritative voices in contemporary Italian culture: philosopher Massimo Cacciari and philologist, critic, and literary historian Carlo Ossola, moderated by Stefano Vassere. Through analysis and comparison of the conceptions of peace held by some of the greatest modern thinkers, the conference aims to offer reflections and insights that can also help address today’s crises linked to ongoing conflicts.

Massimo Cacciari
Formerly a lecturer in Artistic Literature and later in Aesthetics at the University of Architecture in Venice, he became full professor of Aesthetics in 1985. From 1998 to 2005, he directed the Department of Philosophy at the Academy of Architecture in Lugano. In 2002, together with Don Luigi Verzè, he founded the Faculty of Philosophy at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, where he served as the first dean. Since 2012, he has been professor emeritus of Philosophy at the same university. He has delivered lectures, courses, and conferences at numerous European universities and institutions and has received several prestigious awards, including three honorary degrees. Cacciari co-founded and co-directed influential journals that shaped Italian political, cultural, and philosophical life between the 1960s and 1990s, such as Angelus Novus, Contropiano, Laboratorio politico, Centauro, and Paradox. His extensive publications include many translated works, some published exclusively abroad.

Carlo Ossola
A prominent literary critic and influential figure in academia and Italian and European culture, Ossola has authored numerous essays and significant scholarly works. He served as Professor of Italian Literature at the Universities of Geneva (1976–82), Padua (1982–88), and Turin (1988–99). Since 2000, he has been professor emeritus at the Collège de France in Paris, holding the chair of Modern Literatures of Neo-Latin Europe. From 2007 to 2016, he directed the Institute of Italian Studies at the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. He is President of the Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, co-director of the journals Lettere Italiane and Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei since 1995. His broad humanistic interests span Italian and European literature from its origins to the contemporary era, supported by extensive philological work, including editions of unpublished and rare texts.

Stefano Vassere
Director of the Cantonal Libraries and the Ticino Library System, he is also a professor of Language Theory at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Milan.

Supported by Fondazione Magna Charta and Fondazione cultura nel locarnese.