Public Engagement

Cattedra Rotelli

Presentation

The Faculty of Philosophy of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan launched in 2017 a series of lectures in memory of Professor Giuseppe Rotelli, the founder of Gruppo ospedaliero San Donato, who passed away in 2013. Each year the lectures are devoted to issues of relevance for contemporary societies that are tackled by internationally distinguished personalities from different philosophical areas.

Each international guest provides five or six lessons open to anyone interested. Each speaker is asked to present his or her thought on the issue chosen, as already outlined in previous publications, but also to provide some original development. After each lesson, there is a discussant – chosen among the members of the Faculty of Philosophy or among the research centres’ members – and a junior discussant – chosen among the students – to discuss the issues raised during the speaker’s talk.

Editions

  • François Jullien (Chaire sur l’Altérité, Fondation maison des sciences de l’homme) – April 3-11, 2017. Title: Altérités.
  • Rae Helen Langton (Newnham College, Cambridge) – March 19-23, 2018. Title: Speech Acts and the Accommodation of Injustice.
  • Julian Nida-Rümelin (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich) – March 18-22, 2019. Title: Perspectives and Limitations of Cosmopolitan Humanism.
  • Philip Pettit (Princeton University e Australian National University) – June 15-20, 2020. Title: How Language Powers the Mind.
  • Seyla Benhabib (Columbia University, Yale University) – November 2-6, 2021. Title: The Seduction of Sovereignty. A Democratic and Cosmopolitan Critique.
  • Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – March 14-18, 2022. Title: Spinoza as Moral Philosopher.
  • Jean-Luc Marion (Université Paris-Sorbonne) – March 8-10, 2023. Title: Reconsidering Descartes’ Cartesianism.
  • Nancy Fraser (New School for Social Research, New York) – May 8-10, 2024. Title: Three Faces of Capitalist Labor: Uncovering the Hidden Ties among Gender, Race, and Class.

Editorial Activities

Since the first edition of the project, an editorial initiative has also been launched to publish the lectures and promote their dissemination. The volumes of the Rotelli lectures are hosted by the “Minima Volti” series of Mimesis Edizioni. The chosen format follows the dialogical style typical of the lectures: the original manuscript of the speaker is accompanied by critical comments by both members of the Faculty and external authors who are experts in the topics dealt with. At present, the published books are:

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