AIS Conference during the 24th IJF in Cavallino (IT)

During the 24th IJF (International Youth Festival) of the Italian Esperanto Youth which will take place from April 19 to April 25, 2000, in Cavallino near Venice, the AIS (International Academy of the Sciences) San Marino will hold its 7th Italian Summer School. AIS classes will be integrated into the IJF's program. All registered IJF participants are entitled to attending the classes without extra fees.

The festival's general topic is

Ĉu esti aŭ ne esti Eŭropano
(To Be or not to Be European)
Visit the IEJ's web pages to get more information or for online registration.

Lecture Summaries

(all lectures in Eperanto / Internacia Lingvo)

Renato Corsetti: Is language known before birth or is it learned? From the Greeks over St. Augustine to Chomsky and further...

Throughout the documented history of linguistic studies two theories opposed each other: One stating that the ability to speak was instrinsic to humans and that all languages were identical on a "low level"; the other saying that the ability to speak a language was learned by infants during their first few years.

Many have worked on this subject, including several unsuspicious saints, still the problem has not been solved yet.

Reinhard Fössmeier: European Aspects of Computer Programming

Are there cultural or geographic aspects to computer programming? It may seem to be the least nationalized of occupations; after all, computers speak "neutral" languages such as FORTRAN, ALGOL, Pascal, Eifel, C, Java, HTML, etc. ("etc" is not a language, to the author's knowledge).

This course, however, intends to show to which degree computer programming is less closely related to machines than to humans, their minds, thinking, and philosophy. In a way it is even an expression of the human personality and so, at least theoretically, can have artistic aspects. So it is not surprising that it is influenced by culture, and that the question of (non-) European-ness arises. Who does not believe that human languages influence programming may know that even an Esperanto-based programming language has been proposed! So we approach the question: To which degree is Esperanto European... but let's leave this question to a separate lecture.

Carlo Minnaja: Nationalism in Europe

Course Topics: Definition of state, nation, nationalism -- from agricultural to industrial society -- how nationalism can exploit culture in a centralized state -- nationality and representative government; examples from social democracy -- states and ethnic minorities after the end of World War I; Wilson and Zamenhof -- nationalization of the masses: the Italian example -- spoken language as a vehicle of natioalism -- linguistic affiliation: Kafka and the linguistic environment in Prague.