#  AI and Aristotle: Insights from the Lyceum Project 

 



    ![colorful chalky blocks](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/mahindra/files/medicineculturalagents.jpg?itok=sGNGeTdw) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 14, 2026** 

 06:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Barker Center, Thompson Room**  



 

 



 

## [PEDAGOGIES FOR LIFE](/pedagogies-for-life)

## Speakers: Evangelos Karkaletsis, Demokritos University, Athens; Alexandra Mitsotaki, World Human Forum; Sergio Imparato, Harvard University; Maria Dagioglou, Demokritos University, Athens; Diego von Vacano, Texas A&M

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly part of our lives, it forces us to confront questions about its place and purpose. What kind of live do we want technology to serve? How can we make sure it remains in the service of humanity? What activities should be outsourced to technology and what, if any, should remain distinctively human? With its attention to human flourishing, his reflections on intelligence and virtue, and his philosophy of ends, Aristotle’s ethical and political thought can give us very valuable tools in this discussion. This realization is at the heart of the Lyceum Project, a yearly interdisciplinary initiative inspired by Aristotle’s Lyceum and bringing together philosophers, scientists, technologists, policymakers, artists, and civil-society leaders in Athens, every June. This panel will explore the origins and development of the project. It will consider why a renewed dialogue between Aristotle and contemporary technology is valuable, and how Aristotl’s ideas might help us think differently about the development, governance, and human purposes of AI.

The panel will be introduced by Doris Sommer and Naomi Weiss and moderated by Nicolas Prevelakis.

### About the speakers

**Evangelos Karkaletsis** is the Director of the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications at NCSR Demokritos, and a member of the High Level Advisory Committee on AI to the Greek Prime Minister. Also member of the National Commission for Bioethics & Technoethics and the Expert Group on AI Incidents at OECD.AI. Previously Member of the National Council for Research and Innovation (ESETEK) and Head of the Software & Knowledge Engineering Lab (SKEL The AI Lab) at IIT. Coordinator, scientific and technical manager of many European and national projects and organiser of numerous scientific international conferences, workshops and summer schools. Responsible for the Institute’s educational activities for more than 10 years, initiated the joint PhD scholarship programme with several Universities abroad, launched the new MSc in Data Science and MSc in Artificial Intelligence programmes for NCSR Demokritos, and set up the new educational programme for primary and secondary schools. Research interests are in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, content analysis, big data management, knowledge representation, human-machine interaction.

**Alexandra Mitsotaki** holds a degree in Political Studies at the Institute of Political Studies of Paris and a post graduate degree on Development issues. She worked at OECD where she specialized further in poverty issues in the developing world. She is a profound believer in civil society mobilization and in citizen responsibility and their capacity to hold governments accountable at all of levels of civic engagement. In 1998 she founded the Greek affiliate of ActionAid, the international organisation against poverty and injustice. ActionAid Hellas, which she still chairs, has become the biggest Greek NGO. Since 2009 she chairs the Hellenic Cultural Center in Paris, with the aim of establishing a tool of cultural diplomacy for Greece in the Francophone world. Reacting to the financial crisis in Greece, in 2014 she co founded and chairs, Action Finance Initiative, the first microcredit organization in Greece with partners ActionAid Hellas and Adie France. She teaches seminars on Political Economy of Development at the Institute of Political Studies of Paris as a guest speaker.

**Sergio Imparato** is a Lecturer in Government and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Government at Harvard University. He also teaches at Harvard Extension School, Harvard Summer School, and Harvard's Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department. Dr. Imparato's research and teaching focus on applied ethics, classical political thought, and grand strategy in International Relations. His primary field of research explores the intersection of ethics, technology, and policy, with a particular emphasis on the ethical implications of emerging technologies in healthcare, artificial intelligence, and the metaverse. Dr. Imparato is interested in how these advancements shape our understanding of human relationships, societal norms and the future of governance. His secondary field of research focuses on the development of ideological frameworks in U.S. Grand Strategy, focusing on how normative considerations influence American foreign policy and global power dynamics. Through this line of work, he seeks to uncover the impact of historical value-systems on contemporary foreign policy decisions.

**Maria Dagioglou** is a post-doc researcher at the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, since 2014. She leads the Roboskel group, the robotics activity of SKEL, the AI lab. Her research interests include the design and development of AI methods, as well as the understanding of human behavior, for safe, transparent and fluent human-AI and human-robot collaboration. She studied Electrical and Computer Engineering (Democritus University of Thrace, GR). She holds a MSc in Biomedical Engineering (TU Delft, NL) and a PhD in Psychology (University of Birmingham, UK). Between 2018-2021, she was a Stavros Niarchos Foundation industrial Post-Doc fellow working on robotics applications for Human-Robot Collaboration at shared workspaces. Maria has extensive experience in the implementation of multi-disciplinary national and EU projects, including experience in coordinating roles and interdisciplinary research management. She lectures on topics related to human factors in AI ethics and human-robot interaction, in the context of two interdepartamental Masters of Science of IIT (MSc in AI, MSc in Data Science). She is actively involved in initiatives related to AI ethics, including being a member of the High-level Expert Group of Artificial Intelligence appointed by the National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics and being IEEE CertifAIEd AI Ethics Lead Assessor. She was the special secretary of the Hellenic Artificial Intelligence Society (EETN) between 2023-2024.

**Diego von Vacano** received his doctorate in Politics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in economics and public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School. He studied in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University. Before that, he attended Franco Boliviano School in La Paz, Bolivia. Most recently, Dr von Vacano was at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He was affiliated with the Environmental Change and Security Program and the Latin American Program, where he finished a book on Latin American energy politics entitled Power over Energy: Lithium, Bolivia, and Green Geopolitics (Oxford UP, expected 2026). He is currently focused on critical minerals policy, politics, and ethics, especially in the “Lithium Triangle” of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile in relation to supply chains in the Americas.

*Co sponsored with Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, Demokritos University, the World Human Forum, and the Maliotis Cultural Center in Brookline MA.*



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Seminar ](/event-type/seminar)
- [ Pedagogies for Life ](/seminars/pedagogies-for-life)
 
 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)
 


 Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://mahindrahumanities.harvard.edu/node/1619741/event-feed.ics)  Copy link link