Freedom and Democracy in Free Fall

The Eranos Foundation is pleased to invite you to a conference on the theme of ‘Freedom and democracy in free fall’, organised in collaboration with the Cantonal Library of Locarno, on Thursday, January 22, 2026, at 6 p.m., in the lecture hall of the Cantonal Library of Locarno.

Concern for freedom and democracy is perhaps the last privilege of a community of spirit in decline, after a whole history from which we come has made it an ideal in the most diverse fields of life. Does the defence of these values not risk becoming an abstract exercise, typical of intellectuals who are now distant from the daily urgencies and frenetic pace that dominate our lives? Perhaps it is still only the legacy of a way of life that made autonomy a way of giving meaning to oneself and the world, imagining it as the condition for inner and outer emancipation? Who can assure us, in fact, that one day we will not look at freedom and democracy with the same disenchantment – or cynicism – with which we now regard honour, loyalty, memory and glory? Or that we will not be forced to sacrifice them in order to cope with extreme emergencies generated by our own process of civilisation and its now dysfunctional rationality?

Fabio Merlini, philosopher, President of the Eranos Foundation and Director of the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET) in Italian-speaking Switzerland, will be joined by Beatrice Magni, Professor of Political Philosophy
at the University of Milan and Co-Director of the magazine “Biblioteca della Libertà”. The discussion will be moderated by Stefano Vassere, Director of the Cantonal Libraries.