Aspen Institute branches around the world organize seminars on value-based leadership for leaders to whom they offer the opportunity to discover new perspectives through dialogue and critical discussion. These seminars are intended for those who understand that you cannot lead others without first leading yourself. The two-day seminar gives participants the opportunity to return to the roots of European thought, to understand the tension between ideas and material needs competing in a globalizing world, and in the context of present-day Central Europe.<\/p>\n
The pilot project of the\u00a0Pato\u010dka Leadership Seminar<\/em> entitled\u00a0Central Europe as a Challenge: How to Lead Responsibly\u00a0<\/em>took place at Chateau Kot\u011bra in Ratbo\u0159 u Kol\u00edna from January 24 to 26.<\/p>\n The\u00a0first round of the\u00a0exclusive reading-based seminar was divided into four modules\u00a0chaired by our facilitators.\u00a0About 15 leaders from\u00a0politics, business, academia and the\u00a0arts debated texts by philosophers, sociologists or politicians, focusing on\u00a0the values of\u00a0leadership.<\/p>\n Filip Karf\u00edk, professor of ancient philosophy in Fribourg, opened the discussion with a reading of Koyr\u00e9\u2019s\u00a0Imperfect Cities\u00a0<\/em>looking at\u00a0Plato\u2019s concepts of justice and classification of government models that\u00a0alternate in cycles, claiming that the perfect city is not attainable in Plato\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n The second module\u00a0chaired by\u00a0Michael \u017dantovsk\u00fd<\/a>, executive director of the V\u00e1clav Havel Library, was based on texts by Tom\u00e1\u0161 Garrigue Masaryk, Leszek Kolakowski, Jan Pato\u010dka, V\u00e1clav Havel and Margaret Thatcher. The main topics of discussion were ethics, morality, and modernity.<\/p>\n