Rocco Pezzimenti. Dante and the global order

ORGANIZER: Società Dante Alighieri Locarno

Muralto. Congress Palace.

Thursday, 15 May 2025, 6:00 pm.

Free admission.

• Dante Alighieri Society Locarno website

The political vocabulary is often quite limited and, in many cases, ambiguous. Words change meaning depending on geographical context and historical period, which makes understanding their original sense challenging. This is why it is crucial to interpret political terms within their historical context. This holds true for Dante’s political thought, where terms such as Imperium, Regnum, Res publica, statutes, peace, liberty, civil disobedience, resistance, and many others carried meanings very different from those they hold in the modern world. While some of these terms have acquired negative connotations today, in Dante’s time they had a positive value. By rediscovering these meanings, we can still appreciate the originality and depth of Dante’s political ideas.

Rocco Pezzimenti
He was director of the Department of Economic, Political and Modern Language Sciences at Lumsa University, where, after teaching at various institutions, he currently teaches Political Philosophy. His research has focused particularly on issues related to "open societies," the Catholic movement, and the relationship between politics and religion in the 19th and 20th centuries. He served as editor of the journal Incipit and is currently co-director of Res Publica as well as editor of Metalogicon. He is the author of numerous publications, some of which have been translated into English and Spanish. Recent works include: De Veritate. Five Research Perspectives, featuring letters by N. Rescher, R. Rorty, and H. Putnam (Armando Editore, Rome, 2023); The Anchors of Democracy: New Division of Powers, Representation, Sense of Limit (Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2020); Superstructure and Structure: Essay on the Genesis of Economic Development (Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2020); and The Path of Freedom: History of the Open Society from the Ancient World to Modernity, including letters by K. R. Popper, I. Berlin, and H. Putnam (Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino Editore, 2019).

With the support of the Fondazione Magna Charta and the Fondazione cultura nel Locarnese.