The 17th Young Thinkers Philosophy Festival Kicks Off: Knowledge as a Ship Sailing Between History and Science

The 17th edition of the Philosophy Festival is kicking off, the culminating event of the Young Thinkers project, promoted by the University of Insubria and the Varese Regional School Office and curated by Professor Fabio Minazzi and Professor Stefania Barile with the invaluable collaboration of the “G. Ferraris” Scientific High School, the project’s hub school directed by Professor Marco Zago.

Three intense mornings in which philosophy becomes a living practice, engaging students of all levels in a lively dialogue between critical thinking, science, and civic engagement.

“The beating heart of the Festival lies in its collaborative nature: it is the result of a passionate co-design effort between the University and a dense network of schools,” explains Stefania Barile. The selection of educational activities and project themes is the result of constant dialogue with teachers, aimed at fostering informed civic engagement among students.”

As Fabio Minazzi also emphasized in the event’s presentation text, “human knowledge is not a safe harbor, but a ship we are forced to repair as it sails. The Festival, in fact, will explore the epochal shift from the metaphysics of absolute values to modern science, which replaces essence with function and relationship. Within this framework, philosophy becomes the tool for conceptually grasping the world and understanding the nature in which we operate.”

The 17th Philosophy Festival spans three mornings.

The first morning, titled “Philosophy, History, Economics, Finance, and Technology,” is reserved for middle and high schools and will take place Tuesday, May 19, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Aula Magna of the “G. Ferraris” Scientific High School in Varese (Via Sorrisole 6). The participants will be students from the first, second, and third grades of the “A. T. Maroni” Salesian Institute in Varese, the fourth grades of the “J.M. Keynes” High School in Gazzada Schianno, and the fifth grades of the “G. Ferraris” Scientific High School and the “A. Manzoni” High School in Varese. The Young Thinkers will discuss highly topical issues: from live demonstrations of ethical hacking to an analysis of Karl Marx’s thought through multimedia, as well as workshops on logic, economics, and ethical finance.

The second morning session, titled “Knowledge? A Fantastic Dialogue Between History and Science,” is coordinated by the elementary school teachers of the “Philosophizing with Children” project and will take place on Friday, May 22, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Gavirate Municipal Auditorium (Via Enrico Fermi 14). The protagonists will be students from the “San Benedetto” Elementary School in Voltorre and the “G. Carducci” Elementary School in Buguggiate, who will engage the audience in an extraordinary journey of observation and discovery, in which “philosophizing” becomes a way to learn to look beyond the visible.

The third morning, titled “Our Revolution: A Date at the Bridge of the Fantastic,” is coordinated by the teachers of the “Giovanissimi Pensatori Navigators” project and will take place on Friday, May 29, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Rescaldina Municipal Auditorium (Via Giacomo Matteotti 6). The protagonists will be the children from the “Don Pozzi” Preschool and the students from the “A. Manzoni” Elementary School in Rescaldina, who will explore the connection between imagination and history, metaphorically crossing temporal bridges between critical thinking and social justice.

The Festival will also be an opportunity to reward the students’ creativity with the presentation of the Gianfranco Brebbia “Giovani” Award, organized by Dr. Giovanna Brebbia, linked to the Film Competition on the contemporary reinterpretation of Marx.

(In the photo, from left: Marta Pedotti, Stefania Barile, Fabio Minazzi, Giovanna Brebbia, Graziella Segat and Francesca Sgambelluri)