Investing in science to improve schools and businesses: the Leonardo Foundation focuses on polytechnic culture
Investing in science. Teaching science. Reading the documents of the new course of the Leonardo Foundation, chaired by Luciano Floridi (after the long presidency of Luciano Violante), several considerations come to mind. Here, the aim is to bring the scientific method to bear on the economy, the environment, health, nutrition and all the other difficult, ambitious and controversial challenges of our restless times, and therefore to work hard to heal the rift that, in the course of the twentieth century, separated “the two cultures”, that is, humanistic knowledge from scientific knowledge, thus slowing down Italy’s progress and economic growth. In short, how to strengthen that “polytechnic culture” which, in the splendour of Humanism and the Renaissance, deeply shaped “Italian identity” and gave to the civilisation of the world the example of figures who were both artists and scientists (Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti are only the most important of the many names we could mention).
Floridi is a philosopher with an interest in epistemology and ethics in the world of information technology, who has taught at Oxford and leads the Digital Ethics Centre at Yale University in the US. And now he has stepped up his involvement in Italy to support a series of science education and research programmes in Italian schools and universities. The Leonardo Foundation is an instrument for this, also in conjunction with the Treccani Foundation‘s projects.
“A scuola di Stem” (At the school of Stem) is the cornerstone of the project (STEM being a well-known acronym made up of the initials of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), which was unveiled recently in the Sala della Lupa in Montecitorio by Floridi, Roberto Cingolani, CEO of Leonardo, and Helga Cossu, Director General of the Leonardo Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to “contribute to the renewal of teaching in schools”, to “facilitate the understanding of social complexity through STEM subjects”, to develop effective communication strategies towards the new generations thanks to an original platform of the Outreach Project, to reduce the generation gap with regard to scientific topics and to “develop scientific research projects through courses, scholarships, international exchanges, events and exhibitions”.
An ambitious project, of course. But fundamentally important. One which relies on the integration of different disciplines, knowledge, correlations between information, strengthening and relaunching research.
The development of the digital world and the tools made available by the spread of AI are helping, even if they pose new and dramatic challenges, both epistemological and above all in terms of values and meaning, to scientists, politicians, economic operators and the whole of civil society.
On the other hand, the great questions linked to scientific developments have long since led to the moral knot of choices (think of one of the finest pieces of twentieth-century theatre, Michael Frayn’s drama “Copenhagen”, which centres on the difficult dialogue between two great physicists, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, on the ethical responsibilities of scientists in the face of the development of atomic energy as a tool of war).
As a scientist and businessman, Cingolani is well aware of the humanistic relevance of scientific knowledge. And it is clear that the “greater democracy in knowledge processes” favoured by the digital world also raises social and political questions about the greater “complexity in the reliability of information” (the relationship with sources is lost and the processes of verifying the accuracy of data and facts are complicated, often degraded to “factoids”).
Floridi’s appointment is a step in the right direction: as a wise philosopher, he understands the ethical and social challenges that the rapid and turbulent processes of scientific and technological evolution pose for the whole of humanity. Challenges of understanding and of judgment. Also of governability and not just standardisation and regulation (as the EU does, technologically secondary to the great strength of the high-tech giants in the US and China, but also in India). In short, to use expressions dear to Floridi, from nomos, the system of rules, to paideia, human formation in the broadest sense.
Hence “a scuola di Stem”. And here it is also possible to find virtuous relationships with initiatives that insist on technological diffusion and corporate culture, on the relationship between science, technological applications and economic competitiveness. For example, “A scuola d’impresa” (At the school of business), the educational activities promoted by Museimpresa and curated by companies registered with the association, brings together museums and historical archives of the manufacturing world.
Perhaps, however, there is one more step to take. Not only to fill the gap in scientific culture and make it more accessible, especially to girls who have long been cut off from mathematics, physics and engineering by the false dichotomy between humanism and science. But above all, work on a new and better integration. A “polytechnic culture”, in fact.
A few years ago, Assolombarda (with the encouragement of the then president Gianfelice Rocca) created a new acronym, adding the “a” of art to the initials Stem to form Steam. Thus encompassing literature and philosophy, history and knowledge of the processes of artistic creativity, from theatre to music, from sculpture to painting and many other expressions of the representation of beauty. This is a path to think about, a path to follow, a path already well trodden by the best Made in Italy corporate culture, linked to the synergies between beauty and quality, innovation and a sense of history, the roots of the material cultures of the regions and an international outlook: the underlying reasons for the improved economic competitiveness of the country’s system.
This is an awareness that has been fostered for some time by the universities that are most sensitive to innovation and the multidisciplinary dimension that is essential to face the issues raised by the development of the “knowledge economy”. In fact, they also study philosophy at the two polytechnics in Milan and Turin. It is in particular the evolution of the structures and functions of the algorithms of creative AI that calls for the increasing integration of the knowledge and skills of cyberscientists and philosophers, physicists and sociologists, statisticians and economists, lawyers and writers.
And so, Stem is becoming Steam. “Two cultures” coming together again as one, with all their variables and complex interactions. Diversity in search of synthesis and to be practised as a strength. And to build economic value along the path of moral and civil values. Following the lesson of the “clear night” of science by another extraordinary Italian humanist: Galileo Galilei.
(Photo Getty Images)
Investing in science. Teaching science. Reading the documents of the new course of the Leonardo Foundation, chaired by Luciano Floridi (after the long presidency of Luciano Violante), several considerations come to mind. Here, the aim is to bring the scientific method to bear on the economy, the environment, health, nutrition and all the other difficult, ambitious and controversial challenges of our restless times, and therefore to work hard to heal the rift that, in the course of the twentieth century, separated “the two cultures”, that is, humanistic knowledge from scientific knowledge, thus slowing down Italy’s progress and economic growth. In short, how to strengthen that “polytechnic culture” which, in the splendour of Humanism and the Renaissance, deeply shaped “Italian identity” and gave to the civilisation of the world the example of figures who were both artists and scientists (Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti are only the most important of the many names we could mention).
Floridi is a philosopher with an interest in epistemology and ethics in the world of information technology, who has taught at Oxford and leads the Digital Ethics Centre at Yale University in the US. And now he has stepped up his involvement in Italy to support a series of science education and research programmes in Italian schools and universities. The Leonardo Foundation is an instrument for this, also in conjunction with the Treccani Foundation‘s projects.
“A scuola di Stem” (At the school of Stem) is the cornerstone of the project (STEM being a well-known acronym made up of the initials of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), which was unveiled recently in the Sala della Lupa in Montecitorio by Floridi, Roberto Cingolani, CEO of Leonardo, and Helga Cossu, Director General of the Leonardo Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to “contribute to the renewal of teaching in schools”, to “facilitate the understanding of social complexity through STEM subjects”, to develop effective communication strategies towards the new generations thanks to an original platform of the Outreach Project, to reduce the generation gap with regard to scientific topics and to “develop scientific research projects through courses, scholarships, international exchanges, events and exhibitions”.
An ambitious project, of course. But fundamentally important. One which relies on the integration of different disciplines, knowledge, correlations between information, strengthening and relaunching research.
The development of the digital world and the tools made available by the spread of AI are helping, even if they pose new and dramatic challenges, both epistemological and above all in terms of values and meaning, to scientists, politicians, economic operators and the whole of civil society.
On the other hand, the great questions linked to scientific developments have long since led to the moral knot of choices (think of one of the finest pieces of twentieth-century theatre, Michael Frayn’s drama “Copenhagen”, which centres on the difficult dialogue between two great physicists, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, on the ethical responsibilities of scientists in the face of the development of atomic energy as a tool of war).
As a scientist and businessman, Cingolani is well aware of the humanistic relevance of scientific knowledge. And it is clear that the “greater democracy in knowledge processes” favoured by the digital world also raises social and political questions about the greater “complexity in the reliability of information” (the relationship with sources is lost and the processes of verifying the accuracy of data and facts are complicated, often degraded to “factoids”).
Floridi’s appointment is a step in the right direction: as a wise philosopher, he understands the ethical and social challenges that the rapid and turbulent processes of scientific and technological evolution pose for the whole of humanity. Challenges of understanding and of judgment. Also of governability and not just standardisation and regulation (as the EU does, technologically secondary to the great strength of the high-tech giants in the US and China, but also in India). In short, to use expressions dear to Floridi, from nomos, the system of rules, to paideia, human formation in the broadest sense.
Hence “a scuola di Stem”. And here it is also possible to find virtuous relationships with initiatives that insist on technological diffusion and corporate culture, on the relationship between science, technological applications and economic competitiveness. For example, “A scuola d’impresa” (At the school of business), the educational activities promoted by Museimpresa and curated by companies registered with the association, brings together museums and historical archives of the manufacturing world.
Perhaps, however, there is one more step to take. Not only to fill the gap in scientific culture and make it more accessible, especially to girls who have long been cut off from mathematics, physics and engineering by the false dichotomy between humanism and science. But above all, work on a new and better integration. A “polytechnic culture”, in fact.
A few years ago, Assolombarda (with the encouragement of the then president Gianfelice Rocca) created a new acronym, adding the “a” of art to the initials Stem to form Steam. Thus encompassing literature and philosophy, history and knowledge of the processes of artistic creativity, from theatre to music, from sculpture to painting and many other expressions of the representation of beauty. This is a path to think about, a path to follow, a path already well trodden by the best Made in Italy corporate culture, linked to the synergies between beauty and quality, innovation and a sense of history, the roots of the material cultures of the regions and an international outlook: the underlying reasons for the improved economic competitiveness of the country’s system.
This is an awareness that has been fostered for some time by the universities that are most sensitive to innovation and the multidisciplinary dimension that is essential to face the issues raised by the development of the “knowledge economy”. In fact, they also study philosophy at the two polytechnics in Milan and Turin. It is in particular the evolution of the structures and functions of the algorithms of creative AI that calls for the increasing integration of the knowledge and skills of cyberscientists and philosophers, physicists and sociologists, statisticians and economists, lawyers and writers.
And so, Stem is becoming Steam. “Two cultures” coming together again as one, with all their variables and complex interactions. Diversity in search of synthesis and to be practised as a strength. And to build economic value along the path of moral and civil values. Following the lesson of the “clear night” of science by another extraordinary Italian humanist: Galileo Galilei.
(Photo Getty Images)