Liberal Humanism and Humane Economy. Luigi Einaudi’s Open Society

This essay offers a reinterpretation of Luigi Einaudi’s thought through the categories of liberal humanism and humane economy, with the aim of clarifying the deep connection between his vision of man, liberty and open society. Far from being a conservative anchored in the past, Einaudi emerges here as a thinker profoundly open to the future, animated by confidence in man’s capacity to always begin anew and renew himself. The article explores several central themes in Einaudi’s thought: the oikos as the anthropological and narrative foundation of a good society  – a space of ethical and symbolic formation; the anthropological conception grounded in the primacy of liberty and the defense of individual dignity; the conception of economics as a humanistic and moral science aiming at fostering a humane economy; the minimal conditions for an open society – a society on a human scale, attentive to diversity and pluralism, sustained by good institutions, good rulers and free and responsible people striving to resist evil. The essay shows that Einaudi’s legacy continues to offer valuable conceptual and normative resources for thinking about an open society, conceived not merely as an institutional structure, but as a moral task entrusted to the liberty and responsibility of each generation.