Confirmed rapporteurs for the Attigliano Park of Study and Reflection
Nuclear Physicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Florence and has published several of books and has conducted researches in several areas of Physics and History and Criticisms of Science. For several years, he has dealt with the problems of nuclear arms and international relations, participating actively in the Movement for Peace and Disarmament. He writes regularly in magazines engaged in this front. He has written several books on the nuclear issue including: “A volte ritornano: il nucleare”, “La proliferazione nucleare”, “Ieri oggi e soprattutto domani.” He is a member of the panel “Scientists Against War”. He supported for the campaign against the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in Europe and adhered to the World March for Peace and Non-Violence
Topic
Constructing Together the Bases and Method of a New Science for Global and Environmental Equity
ABSTRACT
Modern science is a product of Western society and has introjected the logic of exploitation of resources and human labor for profit. This logic is perpetrating the destruction of the environment and its resources, and promoting a kind of development which exacerbates social injustice, the oppression of man by another, damages, diseases and wars.
A science that can reverse these paradigms and these methods cannot be the result of a work of a community of experts detached from the human society. Certainly the current scientific community is not capable of being such, but the fact is, a great majority has subsumed to the interests of the ruling classes and its logic of domination and exploitation. If this logic will not change, the future of mankind, the natural environment and the planet are seriously at risk.
What remains is a way to reverse the trend, as long as we are in time. It is more necessary than ever that individuals held in the social fabric - above and beyond geographical boundaries and differences of all kinds - are able to portray the collective needs based on equality, justice and balance with the environment; and are able to build amongst them a new order, culture, knowledge and new practices.
It is difficult to predict what will be the bases and contents of a new science based on these foundations since in the entire past history, the needs of the masses such as the people's fundamental rights and the balance of nature, have been denied, subdued, physically or surreptitiously distorted by the global elite that holds power. Humanity must acquire the knowledge and power to impose as founding principles - respect and individual development, its health and equilibrium, and the recovery of a balanced relationship with nature and its resources. The knowledge and methods of new science must first adapt to the mechanisms and processes of nature, and not forcing them with the presumption of sorcerer's apprentices (and not eventually becoming Dr. Strangelove) who believe to be better than nature while causing more severe and irreparable reactions inevitably.
The challenge is enormous because the Moloch that dominates the world has gained unprecedented strength, and looks determined to continue to be such by all means. The only force we have is that of reason, and the fact is, there is no other way!Franco Berardi
He joined the 1968 Movement in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bologna where he studied Aesthetics with Luciano Anceschi and adhered to the extra-parliamentary group, Workers' Power, where he became a lead national figure.
In 1970 he published his first book, Contro il lavoro (published by Feltrinelli). In 1975 he founded the magazine A/traverso, the creative movement publication of Bologna in 1977. In 1976 he co-founded the free radio station, Radio Alice. He was arrested during the investigation against Workers Autonomy and to request for his release, Radio Alice organized a festival in Piazza Maggiore where over ten thousand people participated. Bifo was released shortly after and became the leader of the “creative wing” of the 1977 student protest in Bologna.
After the closure of the radio station by the police, a warrant was issued against Bifo for "incitement of class hatred through the radio”, and he escaped arrest by fleeing Bologna. He fled to Paris where he frequented with Felix Guattari and Michel Foucault and published the book Enfin le ciel est grave sur la terre (Published by Seuil).
In the eighties he came back briefly to Italy and then moved to New York where he worked with magazines Semiotext and Musica 80. He traveled widely in Mexico, India, China and Nepal. In that period, he dedicated himself to the growth of computer networks and predicted the future explosion of the net as a vast social and cultural phenomenon. In the late eighties he moved to California where he published several essays on cyberpunk. In 2000 he founded L’Ambiente di Rete" Rekombinant (The Net Environment” Rekombinant) together with Matteo Pasquinelli.
In 2002 he founded Orfeo TV, the first Italian street television. In 2005 his pamphlet that railed against the social policies of the new Mayor of Bologna, Sergio Cofferati, was given emphasis in the headlines of national newspapers. He currently works as a teacher at the Istituto Tecnico Industriale Aldini Valeriani in Bologna. He writes regularly to the daily newspaper Liberazione and the e-group Rekombinant.
Pietro Chistolini
Physicist. He is a researcher of the Instituto Superiore della Sanità di Roma. He is an author of numerous papers on physics and biomechanics in magazines, specialized publications and international conferences. He co-authored "Anthropic Principle" together with Prof. Salvatore Puledda.
Topic
Euclid and the Amoeba: Improbable dialogue about the foundations of geometry and space in the Western culture.
ABSTRACT
Taking into consideration the Euclidean geometry as a pretext, a quick roundup on some aspects that have strongly influenced Western civilization was undertaken.
Euclidean axioms and theorems are considered almost like sacred texts in the Western thought. The whole history of the West, particularly science, can be viewed as an attempt to geometrize and to mathematize the world. But perhaps what is even more interesting and, in some respect, surprising, may be the realization surrounding this millennia of history, that based on observation, tell us of a simple unicellular organism, the amoeba.
Stefano D’Errico
Stefano D'Errico (1953) participated in the student movement of 1968 and subsequently to several community experiences of that period. Active in the Roman anarchism, he worked for a long time with the magazine "A" and “Umanità Nova”. He is one of the founders of the Cooperative Bravetta 80, a pilot Capitoline experience, self-managed area of the "movement" against the institutionalization of drug addiction and the recovery of the urban underclass. He developed a long collective research in the field, as reported in AA. VV., and La diversità domata. Cultura della droga, integrazione e controllo nei servizi per tossicodipendenti (edited by R. De Angelis, Istituto Placido Martini - Officina Edizioni, Rome 1987).
He was among the leaders of the Base Committees of the School in 1990, D'Errico became the national secretary of the Italian Confederation of Base Unicobas first real example of interbranch trade unionism in Italy. In the 90s, he also contributed in the development of the cultural association "l’AltrascuolA" and was active in the field of upgrading of teachers, promotion of studies and conferences. He wrote the introduction of A scuola fra le culture del mondo (D. Rossi, Teti Editore, Milan 2000) and a book on trade unions, Tutti i contratti. Manuale per l’uso (U Book – Rubbettino, Catanzaro 2000).
Elfo Frassino
President of Conacreis. He is the Mayor of Vidracco, elected through the Damanhurian con te per il Paese Party List
Cinzia Mion
Psychologist and Educator of a.n.d.i.s.
Sergey Nizhnikov
Having graduated from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia with a degree in philology in 1989 and with a degree in philosophy in 1993, he holds a doctorate in the History of Philosophy with his thesis “The Metaphysics of Faith in Russian Philosophy”. He is now beginning his didactic activity at the same university, and since 2003 has been a lecturer in the History of Philosophy and Political Philosophy (one of his classes, among others, being entitled “Archetypes of Eastern and Western Philosophical Cultures”) in the History of Philosophy Department. He has received funding from the Ministry of Education, the Russian Foundation of Humanities, and the ISE-Center in Moscow to expand his research on cultural interaction and globalisation, and also on their philosophical and metaphysical aspects. He has published several scientific articles, mainly on the subject of spiritual and philosophical cognition, and on East-West intercultural dialogue. He is also a student of Kant’s works and of his metaphysics of faith. His work has been used at international congresses of philosophy in Turkey, the United States, Russia and South Korea. He is a member of the Russian Philosophical Society.
Topic:
Features of Spiritual Cognition in Different Cultures
It would seem hardly possible that similarities in spiritual cognition should exist, given the great variance in cultures and traditions. However, even the most cursory analysis reveals a substantial uniformity of spiritual cognition throughout human history. The concept of spirituality, though divided across the often contradictory branches of philosophy, religion and culture, yet yields an inner unity.
Spiritual cognition is the highest manifestation of human life – its essence. It is neither above nor outside of life, but is the very substance of Life, deployed exclusively toward the goal of its own transcendence. In other words, to realize itself, Life ascends to a spiritual level by the realization of humanity and, through this self-realization, moves closer to a qualitative leap in its own evolutionary development.
The phenomenon of spiritual cognition is not here contemplated as metaphysical (concerned with the spiritual/nonphysical), but as a process of self-cognition that results in the willfully determined deployment of human life-essence. A definitive categorization of human essence is the core around which all the thorny questions of spiritual cognition are deployed. From this conundrum, Humanism progresses by correlating human essence with existence.
Therefore, while appearing to form the superstructure governing the empirical life of a person, the speculative sphere of spiritual cognition is, in fact, its realization, its sense and its essence. Further, the conceptions of spiritual cognition are developed and perfectly charged in accordance with the fundamental character of any given individual and in keeping with their aptitude for speculation. Those of a philosophical bent tend to conceive of concepts through the avenues of methodically structured thought processes, while those more inclined toward religion conceptualize by means of symbolic images and faith. The sphere in which speculation is pursued has historically given rise to any number of problems. Though the metaphysical concepts of the philosophical school and the religious symbols of the believers often vie for their place as rightful members of the speculative arena, the focus of their main concepts belie an underlying Spiritual unity in striving to define the will of God or the nature of being or the essence of the perceived. It may be said with some conviction that the idiosyncratic differences existing between the schools of speculation point to underlying contradictions reflecting correlatives of individual life experience.
Spiritual cognition as the deployment of human essence results in the manifestation of the spiritual archetypes Truth, Good and Beauty as a synthesis of Art, Philosophy, Religion and Love.
There exists an essential difference in the characteristics of spiritual cognition as it relates to existence and transcendence. Transcendence goes beyond the boundaries of mundane existence, expanding consciousness to disclose the universal. Only in case when it seizes the individual existence, touching the essence of that existence.
Simply put, spiritual cognition is the individual relationship to life – to the I and to the world in which it exists. Through the recognition of purpose, each moment of an individual life takes on significance against the backdrop of Eternity. Though the relationship with life is necessarily imported from outside the individual, it is the essence of life itself, the universal nature of which may be disclosed through transcendence of its apparent limitations.Pat Patfoort
Belgian Flemish anthropologist born in 1949. She is a lecturer, trainer and an international level mediator dealing with conflict transformation and non-violent conflict management. She authored several books and articles translated into several languages. She is the co-founder and director of "De Vuurbloem" (The Fireflower), Center for Non-violent Conflict Management in Brugge, Belgium. She lectures in several universities and speaks in conferences around the world (in Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, USA, Russia and elsewhere).
Topic
Nonviolence education: not a utopia, but a concrete and effective choice
ABSTRACT
Nonviolence education is when we truly put our values, such as listening, respect, tolerance and love, both for others and for ourselves, into practise in our relationships with our children. When we don’t do this, it isn’t usually because we don’t want to, but rather because either we don’t realise we should be doing it, or because we don’t know how to do it.
The MmE (or major-minor Equivalence) method provides us with a way of achieving what we so deeply and passionately desire: constructing with and through our children a world where every man and woman can feel happy to be leading a fulfilling life.
Pat Patfoort, who devised the MmE method, and who has used and tested it all over the world for many decades, with several groups of people in varying situations, is coming to present this method to us, which she illustrates with many true-life examples, some of which stem from her own personal experiences.Federico Pistono
Director, Blogger and IT Expert. In 2002, at age 16, he won a scholarship to UWCAD International College where he received an education aimed on the sharing of ideas amongst different cultures, living away from home along with 200 students from 82 countries.
In 2007 he founded the "Grilli Biella (http://grillibiellesi.org), a non-profit volunteer association with civic engagement and the protection of the rights of citizens whose topics of interest are energy, information, waste, connectivity and protection of water as a right to life.
Since 2008 he works in a media firm in Verona, as director and web programmer, focusing on new media and the role of technology in the society.
In 2009 he received his degree in computer science from the University of Verona, Department of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, with a thesis on "Open Source Implementations of Encoding Algorithms for Video Distribution in the HTML5 Era”.
In 2009 he also won an international competition for blogging and journalism organized by the European Centre for Journalism and was sent to the COP15 in Copenhagen to cover the events on the conference on climate (http://federicopistono.org).
Since May 2009, he is the Italian coordinator of the Zeitgeist Movement (http://zeitgeistitalia.org), an international movement that defines itself as the "activist arm" of the Venus Project. The Venus Project is a non-profit organization that offers a feasible plan of action for social change which seeks a peaceful and sustainable civilization through the conscious use of the technology, calling for a complete redesign of our culture, where the old problems of war, poverty, hunger, debt and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but as totally unacceptable. In July 2010, just over a year after its foundation, the Zeitgeist Movement has over 420 thousand members worldwide.Topic
The Venus Project and Zeitgeist Movement
Emma Viviani
Emma A. Viviani graduated in Sociology at the University of Pisa, a specialist in issues of globalization and transculturalism. Since 1985 she has been involved in social services, public institutions and private-social organizations as an expert in relational systems.
Her action aims to deepen and activate group experiences in the field of social disadvantages of juvenile and family issues. Since 1996 she has been providing services at the Ser.T (servizio tossicodipendenza) in Viareggio (Province of Lucca) where she developed, together with the users, a path to recovery based on a strong activation of social relations, reaching to develop its own methodology based on self-projection of the inner and outer spaces of the person.
In 2005 she established the Associazione Araba Fenice, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of prisoners and ex-offenders with drug dependence problems. Being part of the National Association of Sociologists, she undertakes activities to promote cultural cooperation with the Tuscan Laboratory of Sociology, local authorities and Associazioni della Versilia, and collaborates with scientific journals and periodicals of sociology. She has numerous publications. She is the author of humorous texts and plays that won several awards at a national level. She co-authored the book Il Parco Sociale La Fenice a Viareggio (published by the Michelucci Foundation of Florence, 2007) following her other works, Laurea honoris casa, (Publisher Ibiskos 2008), and Una tribù all’ombra delle foglie di coca, (Publisher ETS, Pisa 2010).
We are preparing the interventions program based on confirmations we have received. This site will be updated regularly to obtain the final program as soon as possible.
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