Members of the Foundation for Philosophical Orientation traveled to Europe to attend two conferences this past July, one in Sarzana, Italy, and one in Sils-Maria, Switzerland.
In the beautiful small city of Sarzana, the Italian classicist, translator, theater director and actor Angelo Tonelli annually organizes the “MythosLogos” festival, which focuses on authentic performances of ancient Greek tragedies, rituals, and art and explores the mythical dimension of ancient Greek thought. Angelo Tonelli invited FPO to introduce the philosophy of orientation and the FPO to the Italian audience in Sarzana. On July 20, 2023, our advisory council member Enrico Müller and executive director Reinhard G. Mueller presented in the Italian summer heat in the courtyard of the Roman Catholic Church “San Francesco,” which, according to the tradition, was founded by Saint Francis of Assisi himself and its monastery was built in the 13th century. To an intrigued audience, which included the mayor of the city of Sarzana, Christina Ponzanelli, Reinhard explained the basics the philosophy of orientation and the FPO and Enrico spoke about “The Myth of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedrus, or: Why the Good Lover is a Good Philosopher.” Reinhard and Enrico presented in English, and Angelo Tonelli read the Italian translation that was prepared by our former doctoral dissertation fellow Olga Faccani. You can find the recording of Reinhard’s speech here and Enrico’s speech here.
After this performance, FPO members also attended the “Nietzsche Workshop” from July 24 to July 28 in Sils-Maria. The Swiss town is in the mountainous region of Graubünden, a picturesque area that Nietzsche loved, where he spent multiple summers staying in what is today called “the Nietzsche-Haus” to work and prepare his books for publication. Sils-Maria is very special to FPO because it is the place where the founding documents of our foundation were signed in the summer of 2018 (check out our story here). The annual Nietzsche Workshops are co-organized by our HFPO advisory council member Timon Boehm. This year’s conference theme was “Nietzsche’s Venice”; it featured speeches by Werner Stegmaier on “‘Fredericus Nux Crux Lux Dux etc’: The Eternal Feminine in Venice” and Enrico Müller on “In the Shadow of Venice: Reflections on the Relationship Friedrich Nietzsche – Peter Gast” in German. Reinhard G. Mueller and Frederic Beeskow likewise attended the conference. In December 2022, the FPO also funded the restoration of Nietzsche’s room in the Nietzsche Haus: learn more here.
Reinhard G. Mueller and Werner Stegmaier in front of the Nietzsche Commemorative Plaque where his poem “Oh mankind, pray!” is engraved into a large rock