IJGG Journal

A very interesting section is dedicated to Freud.who in 1925 at 69 wrote An autobiografic study, in 1927, The future an illusion, in 1929 Civilizationa and its discontents. Furthermore, In 1935 started writing Moses and Monotheism completed before death in 1939. And much more Dadoun stresse the fact that in 1936 Freud (80 years old) and very ill because on intractable maxillary cancer wrote to the American poetess Hilda Dolittle“. At my age life is not easy, but spring is magnificent so is love”.

Our society ages upwards and downwards

Our society is aging both upwards and downwards. It is aging upwards because the number of people living longer due to better living conditions has increased. However, life expectancy can progress more slowly than life expectancy in good health. It also entails high social costs. Our society is aging downwards as well, since birth rates have decreased. Couples are choosing to have fewer children to improve their own quality of life and to provide more opportunities for their children.

Migrants help but are not the final solution, although all countries need them. However, migrants will be unable to solve the problem because, when they arrive in the European Union, they immediately adopt our lifestyles. However, in Italy, in the last two years, 300,000 migrants have been granted citizenship, which compensates for the decline in birth rates.

Building intergenerational harmony

Different generations have varying expectations, which can lead to social conflicts. The entire community may be unable to withstand these tensions, and in extreme cases, this can lead to its downfall. Therefore, overcoming generational interests is essential to ensure seniors have satisfactory living conditions.

In an aging society, the economic burden of supporting the elderly poses a significant challenge. To sustain growth, it is essential to prioritize the well-being of older adults alongside the expectations of younger generations. Conversely, a society that grants wellbeing only to productive groups would be unfair.

Jean-Hervé Lorenzi and his circle of economists from Aix-enProvence emphasize that, nowadays, a quarter—soon almost a third—of a person’s life is spent after the age of sixty. It is therefore essential to develop activities, prevention strategies, and lifelong learning tailored to this new phase of life—something that has never happened before. The structure of our society is complex, as it is built upon four generations living together [21].

“The Aging Society / La société du Vieillissement”

“Our first recommendation consists in a simple commitment: every person, during their retired life, according to their health conditions, their skills and their retirement age, must maintain an activity whose scope is not limited to an associative activity, but assumes that he can remain in active life.”

 “Hence the idea of establishing socialization pathways. We believe that all basic and higher education institutions should have dedicated departments to facilitate these socialization paths, in order to meet the needs of millions of pensioners. The benefits of this solution are at least twofold: it helps individuals ward off the fear of incompetence that erodes confidence, and it provides additional training that enables them to feel more comfortable and fulfilled in this new phase of life.”

“One can easily imagine that these initiatives could, in part, be carried out by retirees themselves. This intergenerational interaction would help eliminate, in the minds of everyone, especially those with fewer skills, the feeling that they have never been able to fully express their talents” [21].

Escape the error of Faust

Faust sold his soul in exchange for eternal youth. He is an individualist who shows little concern for the society in which he lives. By seeking a personal solution to the problem of death, he makes a significant mistake. In the future, we should avoid granting a few privileged individuals the exclusive benefits that come at the expense of the many [21].

Some solutions

There are several solutions for financing social needs: (i) delay retirement, (ii) put the homes of the elderly on the market with a state guarantee, (iii) provide all citizens with state insurance, and (iv) offer specific insurance coverage for degenerative diseases. The funds allocated for this personal insurance could be reimbursed if no degenerative disease develops by the time individuals reach eighty or older. Additionally, everyone should be encouraged to participate in social work as a means of fostering community engagement and support [21].

Universities

“Universities are the places where we do things that will be discussed in the media twenty years from now” stated Umberto Eco to the students of the University of Bologna on the day he celebrated his 70th birthday. We have to be aware that our universities have the talents and the skills to maximise the effects of education. However, at the time when the economy of knowledge flourishes, we have to support them more than in the past. In “post-pandemic university” a crucial effort is required to achieve a diffuse status of excellency, not just for few and not just in a few places and not just in a few disciplines. In addition, students should be empowered to give solutions for the present but receive a dual education for the short and long period of time. There they should also learn how to achieve another peak of development in their field after having achieved a peak. This means that they will also learn how to walk the valley between peaks that have downward and upward routes [22].

Retired professors ambulant gigantic libraries and living withnesses of what happened before their advent in science

In the introduction to Little Science Big Science (1963) Derek de Solla Price analysed what was ‘Big Science’ in comparison with the former state of ‘Little Science’.

“Because the science we have now so vastly exceeds all that has gone before, the national expenditures of manpower and money on it have suddenly made science a major segment of our national economy. The large-scale character of modern science, new and shining and all-powerful, is so apparent that the happy term “Big Science” has been coined to describe it. Big Science is so new that many of us can remember its beginnings. Big Science is so large that many of us begin to worry about the sheer mass of the monster we have created. Big Science is so different from the former state of affairs that we can look back, perhaps nostalgically, at the Little Science that was once our way of life”.

In the Prologue he stated something relevant to retired professors.

“We can say that 80 to 90 percent of all the scientists that have ever lived are alive now. Alternatively, any young scientist, starting now and looking back at the end of his career upon a normal life span, will find that 80 to 90 percent of all scientific work achieved by the end of the period will have taken place before his very eyes, and that only 10 to 20 percent will antedate his experience”.

That is to say that retired scientists are ambulant gigantic libraries and they are living witnesses of the What happened before their advent in science is not critical for further development.

Terence Kealy reviewing the fate of the book for Nature (2000; 406:279) noticed that “Price showed, science demonstrates diminishing returns. The rate of scientific growth is about twice that of economic growth, which means that you have to do four times as much science to get twice as rich. One day, as science’s exponential demands on national incomes become excessive, the rates of scientific - and therefore economic growth - will slow”. Professor Emeritus, Professor Emerita, Professors Emeriti

In the Merriam Webster Dictionary emeritus (noun), plural emeriti “a person retired from professional life but permitted to retain as an honorary title the rank of the last office held.

As adjecive “holding after retirement an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service”, “retired from an office or position.

Professor emeritus—converted to emeriti after a plural: professors emeriti

In Britannica Dictionary Emeritus: “retired with an honorary title from an office or position especially in a university”.

According to the Treccani dictionary, “Emeritus indicates a person who, despite having finished his service in a certain role, maintains the title and honors associated with that role, and sometimes even the salary. In particular, the term is often used to indicate a university professor who has concluded his active service but retains the title of professor emeritus and some academic privileges.

The term derives from the Latin verb “emerēri”, which means “to deserve well” or “to finish one’s service”.

Originally, in ancient Rome, it indicated the soldier who had completed his military service and received discharge with related awards.

Extensively, it can indicate a person of great professional or scientific value, but its most common use refers to people who have concluded their active service in a certain role, maintaining the title and honors.

Examples:

Professor Emeritus:a university professor who, despite having finished his active service, maintains the title and honors of the role.

Bishop Emeritus:A bishop who has completed his term but retains the title of bishop emeritus.

Councilor Emeritus:An honorary position that may be conferred upon a councillor who has completed his term.

In short, “emeritus” means a person who, while no longer in active service, is recognized for the value of his work and retains the title and honors of the role previously held.

In the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary Emeritus is used before or after a title to show that a person, usually a university teacher, keeps the title as an honour, although he or she has stopped working he earliest known use of the word ”emeritus” is in the early 1700s. The erearliest evidence for”emeritus “s from 1711, in the writing of Bernard Mandeville, physician and political philosopher. The form”Emerita” is used for women

After the publications of the books of proceedings of the Naples international Conference on the Human Capital of Age  in 2016 [23-26], Vincenzo Bonavita and Natale De Santo asked to Aldo Masullo, emeritus professor of moral Philosophy, politician, former member of the Italian and European Parliament to eìelaborate on the meaning of “emeritus” since great conductors, instrumentalists, composers, never become emeritus, just as those who in Naples work at the Hospital of Dolls or the artists making with imagination, sense of modernity and skills nativity terracotta statues in San Gregorio Armenio Street do not become emeritus.

His conclusion was that “emeritus(a) is anyone who lifelong has done a job, a profession or a trade at high quality level teaching it by example, and in old age is available to discuss with younger people how to further its goals as well as the modalities to improve that job” [14].

Professors emeriti,those who have the wisdom, the transgressors, those who, look for the beyond and the unknown For Adolfo Russo emeriti are “those who have reached an even higher vision of reality, combining different skills with the maturity of an outlook that comes from the experience of life, from the dialogue ofthe various schools of thought and from the awareness that only a life lived intensely can offer.

In Italian we have a distinction between the verb “sapere” and verb“conoscere” whereas you use just ‘to know’ for both. For us “sapere” is much more than “conoscere”: it is having the flavor of life in a world begging for meaning.“Denken heißt immer überschreiten”. I am reminded of the words that a great German thinker Ernst Bloch [28], who died in Tübingen in 1977 used to repeat: “Denken heißt immer überschreiten”, meaning “to think is to always go further”. Words that the disciples wanted to remain engraved on the headstone of his tomb. To think is to transgress, in the Latin sense of “transgredior”, to go beyond borders, to go beyond limits. After all, the man of thought, the wise, is always a “transgressor”. A mind that knows how to go beyond the acquired data, beyond the conventions, beyond the established schemes. And perhaps the best compliment you can pay to a professor emeritus is to call him a “transgressor”. In fact, wisdom is never a definitively conquered goal, but a direction of travel, the desire to go further, perhaps to meet the “Beyond” [27].

Professors emeriti have great responsibilities towards the territory where they have worked and or live.

 “It is useful to recall, in this regard, that universities are called to carry out atriple, classic mission: research, teaching, social impact. We know that little is usually invested in the latter field. You could be the innovators that the territory needs, thanks to the third mission. You can provide solid basic skills, make your scientific skills available, as a function of a sustainable and inclusive society, which has the creativity of good ideas, which is able to launch start-ups with new job opportunities, enriching the entrepreneurial and social aspects of the territory” [27].

“The responsibility of universities towards the territories in which they operate constitutes an objective that cannot be renounced and which can be applied to every activity. The cultural, ethical and social values that the university is able to induce are precious elements for the growth of the community. Without them,the global development of a country’s civic awareness cannot be achieved. Obviously, intermediation structures, the social involvement of institutions, public utility projects, scientific dissemination initiatives and animation are required, making the community an active component and participant in these innovative paths.

A vast cultural heritage currently underused or frozen in your minds plced at service of the needs of citizenship. An unforgivable waste of culture and civilization. Among the many strands of commitment, one could start with a project that has, as its objective the construction of an inter-ethnic city” [27].

Professors Emeriti in USA

In USA, emeritus professors continue to work in the departments where they have worked lifelong, they can apply for privaste and public grants and act as principal investigators. In USA chronological age is not a factor to withdraw from a job and the value and the role of older investigators for the scientific enterprise of the country is fully understood and appreciated. University tenures are not age limited, although there is evidence that old scientsts prevailed over young scientists in obtasining grants from the National Institutes of Health in the years 19802010: This is ceratinly a case for oncerrn. But as expected from a country where merit has a priority all efforts are made in porder to allocate correctly the applications for public grants. A change toward forbidding applications of older scientists as principasl investigastoirs is not into discussion [29].

In USA there is no compulsory age to retire. This kind of discrimination has been abolished. However, university, research, economics have not collapsed.  Aging Thoughtfully has discussed the pros and the cons of this change [30]. For Marta Nussbaum “like all American academics of my generation, I have been rescued from a horrible fate by the sheer accidentof time.  At sixty-nine I am still happily teaching and writng, with no plans for retiring because the United States has done away with compulsory retirement. So I had never had to anticipate compulsory retirement or think myself as a persons who would be on the shelf at sixty-five, whether i liked or not. It is no accident, then, that it seems weird and horrible to me to see members of my age cohort in philosophy turned out to pasture just because they happen to be employed in Europe or Asia, even though they are a few years younger than I am. Some have been dismissed not only from department and office but also from university housing, forced therefore to relocate, sometimes to distsnt isolating suburbs, too far awary to interst with scholarly pals or graduate students, or for any of them to see much of former colleagues”.

Professor Nussbaum is very critical about the fact that “before the end of the compulsory retirement in US universities, judgements about who should retire were made with all sorts of irrilevant factors such as fads and socisl prejudices. In the Harvard of my graduate school days, when the university was permitted to decree that some some retired at sixty-fivre, some at sixty-eight, some at seventy, choises were cospicously not made in accordance with academic productivity or beneficial contribuitions to the accademic community. They were more often made in keeping with fads, alumni connections, end even baneful prejudices such as class and I am sadly convinced antiSemitism. They were not based on gender simply because there were no tenured women. In short, unequal treatment, problematic in general, is especially problematic when it gives incentives to institutions to distort the academic enterprise in ways that track existing hierarchies that are periphral to the academic mission”. “The emeritus status might conceivably be redesigned to be less stigmatizing, as when, in our law school, retired professors keep an office are welcome at workshops and roundtables lunches, and teach if they want to. But nobody has thought this through a convincing way across the wide span of the profession”.

Are old scientist detrimental to the progress of science?

If one analyzes the 10 greatest discoveries in the years 1453— 1953 departing from Vesal (De humani corporis fabris) to Maurice Wilkins (the double helix), if we include William Harvey, Antony Leeuwenhoeck, Edward Jenner, Crawford Long. Wilhelm Roentgen, Ross Harrison, Nikolai Anichkov, Alexander Fleming, it becomes evident that their mean age at the time of discoveries was 32.4 years. However, Vesal, Long, Anichkov were just twenty years old, whereeas Maurice Wilkins floruit at 38 years of age. That is to affirm that young people bring the innovation in the scientific enterpise, however a team made of just young people lacks diversity which is indispensable to stimulate creativity. In a team the lack of diversity (only young scientists or only old scientists does not make a difference) reduces the quality and the quantity of the output. The best results are obtained when young people work together with old people who bring the expereince, this renders possible the birth of epochal ideas when the coordination of the team is made by a young scientist. When the coordination is in the hands of old scientists the outcome is not granted since old scientists tend to enroll old scientists [31].

Rita Levi Montalcini(1909-2012) did not agree [32] with Simone de Beauvior and Norberto Bobbio wo looked at ageing people with repugnance. For her in old age the brain acquires no wrinkles. She provided a short list of politicians, scientists, thinkers including Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), (Galileo Galilei (15641642), Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), David Ben Gurion (18861973), Pablo Picasso (1871-1973).

Scientists do not improve with age

Martin Reese College, and Director of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University in the book On the future: Prospects for Humanity [33] stated that “It is a conventional wisdom that scientists do not improve with age-that they “burn out”. However he takes he occasion to stress that the physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a famous put-down for scientists past thirty. “Still so young, and already so unknown”. Rees thinks that “There seems to be three destinies. for us. First a diminishing focus on research - sometimes compensated by energetic efforts in other directions, sometimes just a decline into torpor. A second pathway followed by some of the greatest scientists is an unwise and overconfident diversification into other fields. They think that they are doing science, they want to understand the world and the cosmos, but they no longer get satisfaction from researching in the traditional piecemeal way: they over-reach themselves. The third way - the most admirable - is to continue to do what one is competent at, accepting that there may be some new techniques that the young can assimilate more easily than the old and that one can probably at best aspire to be on a plateau rather than scaling the heights.” Nomination of Professors emeriti in Europe

Coming back to those ambulant libraries, we know that the majority of universities nominate emeriti and have rules for awarding the title. However, there are discrepancies between what is allowed by law and what emeriti achieve individually. That is to say that emeriti receive by practice - not by law - benefits that are in excess of those granted by university constitutions. This indicates that the personal charisma of emeriti matters.

Professors Emeriti in France

“In France the title is conferred by the Administrative Council for 1-5 years and may be renewed based on productivity. They may direct seminars, dissertations, participate in the examination committees. The main goal of the emeritus status is to allow professors to continue to coordinate and drive to an end all dissertations they have been assigned to. They are considered volunteers, working at no cost to the state -”Ils sont considérés comme des collaborateurs bénévoles du service public” - thus a status of professors emeriti is not taken into consideration“ [34].

Professors Emeriti in Germany

In Germany the title was cancelled by national law in 1976. However retired professors have a number of academic rights such as teaching (venia legendi) and participation in examinations and research. But all depends on the successor to their chair and/or on the relevant faculty, but this happens rarely [35]. Recently the retirement age was increased by 2-3 years and, more importantly, a number of states and institutions have programmes for ‘emeriti of Excellence’ without age limits in order to preserve the National Capital of Age in the country that is ranked fifth in the World Figures of the Economist for aged countries in 2019.

The role of emeriti and retired professors in medicine

University professors, at least in Europe, are requested to retire at fixed ages, independent of their wishes or intellectual abilities. By contrast, in the USA, age alone cannot legally be a reason for imposing retirement. After retirement, in many universities some professors achieve the status of emeritus(a) which in some instances is an honorary title, but usually allows continued research and teaching. However, the nomination of emeritus(a) professors is not granted to everybody, and specific studies on these academic policies are still lacking and is the goal of this study.

A study in universities of countries of low, intermediate and high economy countries

Recent data showed that in the departments of medicine of 99 universities of high, medium and low economy countries, emeriti and retired professor could (i) apply and receive donations in 42.5%; (ii) they were allowed to keep their offices (57.6%); (iii) and a laboratory with full email, and telephone/fax facilities (41.4%); (iv) parking was allowed in 7.1%; (v) in 35% of the universities emeriti participated in departmental meetings but right to vote was allowed in a few cases; (vi) in 30% teaching (face to face, tutorials, seminars) was allowed in normal as well as in Ph. D and Masters courses ; (vii) in 41.2%, emeriti continued to do research and had published at least one impact factor paper or one book in the previous 12 months--many had produced more than 7 items, a few more than 10 [36].

Retired and emeriti pediatricians in Europe

The European Pediatric Association in 2016 [37, 38] studied the contribution of retired and emeriti paediatricians to the activities of postgraduate schools of paediatrics in 28 European countries. The inquiry answered two questions: 1. Is the older generation of paediatric professors (emeriti) an under-utilised resource that could mitigate the present problems of child health care services in Europe? 2. Could retired paediatric professors thereby serve as a standby option in countries with a crisis in child health care services? The study was made in 18 of the 28 European Union (EU) countries; 8 East European countries, including Russia and Turkey, plus Israel and Switzerland. The questionnaires were answered mainly by presidents of national paediatric societies. The results of the analysis on rights and duties of an emeritus were very heterogeneous from country to country; and within countries, from university to university. A total of 24 of the 28 countries had fixed ages for retirement (10 countries at 65 years, 7 at 67 or 68 years, 7 at 70 years). Four countries had a flexible age limit with the option for females to stop working at the earliest at 55 years and for males at 60 years. Five of 28 countries did not establish the status of emeritus in their university. The results led to the conclusion that emeriti were not well integrated into the academic life of half of the 28 European countries studied. There was a trend for retired professors to be more often involved in postgraduate, rather than undergraduate teaching. Thirteen of 28 countries reported that a wide range, 10-80%, of retired professors were still active in research. Of the 28 countries, 11 reported that retired professors were still active in clinical care. More important was the conclusion of the study which pointed out that professors of paediatrics emeriti, and retired, should be seen as a reserve of competence to be utilised for practising paediatrics in those countries where such services do not exist. It was hypothesised following the suggestion of J.G. Hall [39] that medical faculties should develop career pathways for senior academic paediatricians and that the Council of Europe and the European Commission should start an initiative empowering emeriti in paediatrics in Europe to act as promoters for the well-being of children [37, 38].

Professors Emeriti in European Union: the examples of the University Ca’ Foscari and of the University of Calabria

The European Union (EU) protects the creativity of emeriti professors and allows them to coordinate and direct projects which are financed by EU. However, the permission to sign and direct a project proposal must be firstlygranted by the institution where the professors emeriti(ae) work.

By studying the constitutions of various Italian universities, I have learned that each of them has particular characteristics (i) in terms of rules for appointment, as well as (ii) in terms of opportunities for professors emeriti to conduct research and teaching. Such possibilities are very limited and differ from university to university.Ideally it might be appropriate to have, for the whole country, identical rules for the effective participation of emeriti in research and mentoring. This possibility should be explored in order to develop a European plan allowing emeriti to utilize their talents, and creativity if they are willing to participate in the making of new knowledge, provided that they have enough physical resources to continue to work.

There are two universities that protect and promote the role of emeriti that deserve particular mention. Their constitutions are exemplary and should be taken as models to be adopted by Europe as a whole; they are; the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice [40] and that of the University of Calabria at Rende [41].

The University of Ca’ Foscari, the first Italian school devoted to commerce, was founded on August 6, 1868. Structured on 8 departments and 3 schools, Ca’ Foscari meets the needs of 21,000 students served by 1,100 investigators and professors. Its constitution states [2] that professors emeriti and honorary professors can continue to work [40] as outlined in (Table 4).

Table 4: Activities of Professors Emerii [40] at the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice.

The University of Calabria at Rende (Province of Cosenza), founded in 1972, is structured on 14 departments. It is a university for 30,000 students served by 1200 investigators and professors. This university id age friendly [41] as outlined in (Table 5).

Table 5: Activities allowed to emeriti at the Univesity of Calabria at Rende [41].

Both Ca’ Foscari and University of Calabria of these Universities allow full participation of professors emeriti allowing them teaching official and supplementary courses and, at the same time, let them be responsible for projects financed by private and public activities. In other words, both constitutions allow the unity of research and mentoring that is the main pillar of strength on which universities rest.

These two successful models offer the possibility of solving the problem of insufficient effective participation of emeriti in research teams. Young researchers and emeriti scientists should sit together, with the former taking the helm. At present, it is difficult to adopt, in Europe, the model of the U.S., where the retirement age limit has been removedThe European Association of Professors Emeriti should strive for the practical use of the two well-functioning models than to try to establish a uniform rule for the appointment of emeriti(ae) binding for all countries, which is in contrast to the multifaceted history of Europe, the so-called “creative Europe of

bell towers”.

Professors emeriti as entrepreneurs

Peter L. Berger, professor emeritus of sociology at Boston University, in Adventures of an accidental sociologist,declared himself proud of his appointment as senior associate professor. This ambiguous title allows him to continue to coordinate a series of special projects and to have a place to pause and ponder big ideas while keeping in practice for the last sonata, even though it may generate the unpleasant feeling that life is coming to an end [42].

There are many reasons to retire. Many miss the contact with

student and many more the sense of satisfaction generated by a work of excellence done in a stimulating environmen that may cause depression. Returning to profession and also economical problems may have a role [43].

With the aim of continuing to strengthen age-inclusive initiatives across Central Connecticut State University, the present study used a survey methodology to explore the interest and ability of retired and emeritus faculty to remain engaged with the university. In a study recruiting 38 emeriti, men age 73, 50% women 50% had somre conncetion to the university department, and faculty. The majority expressed interest to participate in a retired/emeriti professors associations and many more in short, time limited opportunities to remain engaged with students. Semester long ac tivities were seen less interesting [44].

Raymond Saner, emeritus professor of Economics at the University of Basel in a recent pape outlined the role of professors emeriti as entrpreneurs. A paper with vision [45].

Professors Emeriti “can contribute to the 20230 Agenda for Sustainable Developmen by leveraging their knowledge and experience to address global challenges” …“To maximize the potential of professors emeriti it is crucial to provide institutional support that encourages their engagment in entrepeneurial and community focussed activities”.

Professors Emeriti could (i).”Provide human capital, if supported, in countries suffering from low human development and facing chronic kowledge and skill deficiencies “, (ii). “strenghten the science, technology and innovation capacity for least developed countryies”. (iii).”by knowledge sharing and cooperation for access to science technology and innovation and (iiii)  by enhanced Sustainable Developmeet Goals capacity in developing countries”.

Saner concludes that emeriti “as social entrepreneurs by using internet and communication technology , could contribute to the realization of these targets”.

The ideal work for professor emeritiEmeriti: teaching  building sand castles”

Nicholas A. Christakis, Professor of Social and Natural Sciences and of Medicine at Yale has explained his attraction to the towers made of minute silica crystals.

“Some people like to build sand castles, and some like to tear them apart. There can be much joy in the latter. But it is the former that interests me. You can take a bunch of minute silica crystals, pounded for thousands of years by the waves, use your hands, and make an ornate tower. Tiny physical forces govern how each particle interacts with its neighbours, keeping the castle together; at least until a force majeure of a foot appears. But, having built the castle, this is the part that I like the most: you step back and look at it. Across the expanse of beach, here is something new, something not present before among the endless sand grains, something raised from the ground, something that reflects the scientific principle of holism”. He is aware that “The properties arise because of the connections between the parts. I think grasping this insight is crucial for a proper scientific perspective on the world. You could know everything about isolated neurons and not be able to say how memory works, or where desire originates. It is also the case that the whole has a complexity that rises faster than the number of its parts” (Christakis, www.edge.org).

A personal View

For the past 11 years, I have worked alongside many others to inspire emeritus professors in Europe to recognize their cultural role, to join the European Association of Professors Emeriti, and to declare their willingness to serve in a new capacity within the European Union.

I organized, alongside Professors Vincenzo Bomavita and Luigi Santini in Naples, an International Conference on The Human Capital of Age (September 14-16, 2016), and published its proceedings [24-26]. Additionally, I worked to promote the European Association of Professors Emeriti (EAPE), founded in Athens two weeks later, serving as Vice President and President. I also organized the 2022 Second International EAPE Conference in Naples, which was honored with Patronage and a Medal from the President of the Italian Republic.

Furthermore, I initiated and led activities for the European Association of Professors Emeriti (EAPE) in observance of the World Day of Older Persons that derved medals of the President of the Italian Republic Hon. Prof: Sergio Mattarella in the years 2023 and 2024. I also served as a member of the presidential committee organizing committee for the 2025 Naples EAPE International Conference on One Health, which featured a roundtable discussion on The Role of Professors Emeriti in Europe. This session included distinguished speakers from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, and Canada. The above events were made possible through the dedicated efforts of hundreds of passionate and committed emeriti. However, in absolute terms, these efforts have not significantly improved the status of emeriti across Europe. Some emeriti continue to work and have workplaces at universities, but much depends on their personal abilities and the networks or institutions they have established. This situation persists even in the absence of specific rules regarding the nomination or recognition of emeriti.

Obviously, there are both limitations and strengths in this work. The limitations can be understood in the context of Saul Bellow’s perspective. Saul Bellow (1915–2005) wrote in his novel Herzog (1964): “When the need for illusion is profound, a great deal of intelligence can be employed in not understanding” [46].

An additional limitation has been represented (si parva licet componere magnis) by indifference, the capital sin as underlined by Elie Wiesel (1928–2016).

However, there are strengths. One has been recently emphasized by the renowned architect Renzo Piano—the man who opens think-tanks (ateliers) in every place where he initiates a new construction—in a debate with Richard Axel [47], which suits the emeritus status.

 “When you reach a certain age, you understand that each of us is the sum of the friends we have had, the films we have seen, the books we have read, and the love we have felt. That is what we really are. A poet I greatly admire, Jorge Luis Borges, said that we are suspended between memory and oblivion. And it is in that space ideas are born that are not only ours, therefore, but we have seen or experienced them somewhere; even if we thought we had forgotten them, they were in one of the 86 billion neurons. To that memory, you add something, and an idea is born”.

The second strength is something that is frequently highlighted in European media. We live and work in Europe, the continent where thought, art, and science flourished; where banks were founded; where modern physics developed; where universities have maintained constant relevance and influence—even before their pivotal role in the economy was fully recognized. Europe also saw the shaping of the European Union during the final days of World War II, driven by the prevailing zeitgeist. The European Union is the place with the highest percentage of people who have had access to higher education, particularly among those aged 2534, and where women tend to do better than men.

Higher education is a key to democracy, social justice, equal opportunities, and wisdom. It can also contribute to intergenerational harmony, which is a prerequisite for the elderly to remain active and to make full use of their talents;in other words, to be recognized and accepted for their merit. Just for their merit.

References

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2. Coppa F (2021) Milano: Feltrinelli.
3. Erri De Luca Ines de la Fressange (2024) Milano: Feltrinelli.
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