Meeting the "Other" in Times of Crisis: Maffettone's Mediterranean Dialogues

In this paper, I recall Sebastiano Maffettone’s major contribution to promoting dialogue with Arab intellectuals in Italy. Starting with lectures, conferences, congresses and publications Maffettone has indeed been a pioneer in the diffusion of contemporary Arab philosophy in Italy among a readership other than specialist. In the second part of the paper I will present some of the major topics discussed during various encounters organized with some Arab scholars and philosophers, among them Adonis, Muhamma Talbi, Sadik Jalal al-Azm, Hasan Hanafy, Fahmiyya Sharafeddin.