Gerardo Marotta (1927-2017) was an Italian lawyer and philosopher, President of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies. He received the Magna Grecia International Award at the First Magna Grecia International Symposium held in 1987 in Rome, in the “Sala della Protomoteca” of the Italian Parliament.

He studied Law at the University of Naples, discussing a thesis on the philosophy of law on State conception in classical German philosophy, but always cultivating, alongside the study of law, a deep interest in philosophy, history, literature and all expressions of art. He was one of the young scholars who gathered around the Italian Institute for Historical Studies founded by Benedetto Croce in 1946. During his university studies, Marotta, who was both founder and soul of the "Cultura Nuova" Association in the years 1946-1953, promoted the organization of conferences, seminars and debates which were attended by some of the most influential people of the Italian cultural landscape: artists, writers, philosophers, historians, jurists and scientists converged in Naples to give life to unprecedented meetings attended by an audience of passionate and attentive young people who, in the resurgence of national culture, paved the way for the rebirth of Italy from the catastrophe of the Second World War. In those years, thanks to the "Cultura Nuova" association, conferences and philosophical and literary debates were organized in Naples with Antonio Banfi, Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, Roberto Pane, Aldo Capitini, Natalino Sapegno, Vasco Pratolini, Domenico Rea, Luigi Incoronato, Vittorio Viviani, Nicolas Guillen, Dario Puccini and many other poets and writers. In those years, he promoted painting and sculpture exhibitions, including a major exhibition by painter Renato Guttuso, the first one by sculptor Augusto Perez and other young artists.

At the beginning of the fifties, Marotta, in collaboration with students, researchers and assistant professors, organized seminars and study groups in various Faculties including the Seminar of Legal Studies inaugurated by Vezio Crisafulli, the Seminar of Biological Studies inaugurated by Giuseppe Montalenti, the Seminar of Architecture inaugurated by Luigi Piccinato, the Seminar of Historical Studies "Gruppo di Studi Antonio Gramsci" directed by Guido Piegari, Nino Cortese, Domenico De Marco and Giuseppe Palomba. He also promoted an annual series of seminars, including those on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799, on the Italian Risorgimento and the “Questione Meridionale”, on the Giolittian decade and on many historical and historiography issues.

On May 27, 1975, at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Gerardo Marotta, together with Enrico Cerulli, Elena Croce, Pietro Piovani and Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, founded the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies. When the Institute was established, he was appointed President for life, for which he made available a library of three hundred thousand volumes, gathered during thirty years of passionate and tireless research and dedication to culture. In the following decades, thanks to his utmost commitment, the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies has come to the attention of the world, becoming the site of cultural events, study and research initiatives among the most prestigious in Europe, as well as a permanent point of reference for international culture.

The intense collaboration with the Italian Universities of Padova, Torino, Genova and Urbino, together with the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the National Institute of the Renaissance, the Academy of Sciences of Torino and, on an international level, with the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, the Warburg Institute in London, CERN in Geneva, the Hegel-Archiv in Bochum, the Universities of Warwick,   Hamburg, Tübingen, Sorbonne, Berlin, Vienna and Valladolid, the Laudau Institute in Moscow and dozens of other foreign institutions have conferred on the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies great international prestige. On June 22, 1993, at a session of the European Parliament, a delegation of the same Institute, made up of philosophers and scientists from all over the world, presented a proposal for philosophy and another one for humanistic research that the European Parliament made its own.

The honorary citizenships conferred on Gerardo Marotta by numerous municipalities were a sign of recognition of the cultural and civil commitment promoted in the creation of Higher Education courses, conferences, historical and educational exhibitions held in hundreds of municipalities in Southern Italy.

Among his awards, he was bestowed with honorary degrees in Philosophy by the University of Bielefeld, the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Sorbonne in Paris and the Second University of Naples, and in Pedagogy by the University of Urbino.

In 1988, he received the Gold Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic for meritorious contributions to culture and the Diploma of Honour of the European Parliament for his work in support of European culture.

As the philosopher Eugenio Garin wrote:

"Fully immersed in the theme of contemporary debate, Gerardo Marotta has thus been able to promote, spur, connect and make known in the true Neapolitan and Italian life what was most important in today's thought. Overcoming obstacles and barriers of all kinds, a driven man who has been able to make all driven people work together."

"People, think of the world!" is the cry of Gerardo Marotta, "a civil cry that invites us to be protagonists of a revolution aimed at rediscovering the value of the State as a common good and not as a private interest".

He passed away in his hometown in January 2017.