Why an International, Interdisciplinary Summer School on the Whole Breadth of Reason

The aim of the ASSET Summer School 2011 was focussing on\r\nhuman reason in ways that are “sensitive to the truth”, examining\r\nthe complex links between rationality and freedom, economics\r\nand politics, exploring how best to develop and foster reasonable\r\npractices in the economy and in politics in a “wider” interdisciplinary\r\nperspective. Academics, researchers, professionals,\r\njournalists were called to reflect upon the full breadth of human\r\nexperience, mind and heart, courageously overcoming narrow\r\ndisciplinary perspectives.\r\nThe ASSET Summer School was organized as a residential,\r\nfull time initiative involving academics, postgraduate students,\r\nPh.D. students and Post-Docs; practitioners, policy makers, and\r\nentrepreneurs. Morning lectures, held by invited speakers, were\r\nfollowed by debate with discussants and participants; afternoon panels were devoted to the in-depth discussion of morning lectures,\r\npresentation and discussion of participants’ papers, selected\r\non the basis of an international Call for Papers.\r\nWe explicitly aimed at fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue,\r\nunderlining one particularly suggestive dimension of the notion\r\nof reason (in Latin: ratio), namely meaning “relation”.