International Cortona-Week
The International Cortona week is the extension and development of the classic
Cortona-week. Pier Luigi Luisi, the founder of the Cortona-week, left the
direction of the meeting in 2010, in the occasion of the 25.th anniversary (the
first Cortona week took place in 1985). Since then, prof. Luisi devoted his
attention to the development of the International Cortona-week.
The basic idea is to export the experiment to all other best academic centres of
Europe, Americas, Asia, and constitute an international network of Cortona-weeks
which synergy and international interactions with each other.
Two of these conferences have already taken place, one in Cortona in June 2009
for (mostly) American students with the financial help of the Fetzer Institute
(see www.cortonaweek.it);
the other, the Cortona-India, in Hyderabad in November 2010, (see
www.cortona-india.org). Both conferences had the subtitle “Science and
Spirituality”.
This deadline conveys the information that the aim of the Cortona week is the
creation of a novel generation of scientists (in all branches of natural and
humanistic directions) who have acquired a more active sensibility for
spiritual, ethical as well as ecological values. Spirituality does not
necessarily mean religion, it is prior to religion and indicates broadly the
values related to inner growth and to the implementation of ecological, ethical
and social principles, and is something which is generally missing in our
academic education system. And in fact, one general problem faced by several
countries in the world is the lack of a leadership endowed with the proper
equilibrium between an interdisciplinary scientific/technical preparation from
the one hand and ethical/spiritual values from the other.
The other main character –as exemplified in the Cortona-India- is to rediscover
the basic cultural and spiritual traditions of the host country-be India or
Brazil or China: this at the aim to promote a synergy between these ancient,
original traditions and the new economic and technological world of
today--traditions which are threatened of disappearance in this fast-moving
world of globalization and consumerism. Participant of 15-18 different
nationalities were present in Cortona India as well as in Cortona-Fetzer,
contributing to the formation of the network of friendships and scientific
collaborations beyond any border and language barrier.
Other editions of Cortona International? A few are in preparation,
(Cortona-China, Cortona-Brazil, Cortona-Italy) the main problem for the
practical implementation being-not surprisingly-the financial one (each
Cortona-week needs about 200,000 US $). Here, in fact, is where the help and
advice of web readers is welcome.
If you have ideas on this point, please contact prof. Luisi at
luisi@mat.ethz.ch.