Marcello Pera (; born 28 January 1943) is an Italian philosopher and politician. He was the President of the Italian Senate from 2001 to 2006. Career Pera, who was born in Lucca,⁣ graduated in accounting, and he worked for the Banca Toscana and for the Camera di Commercio in Lucca. He went on to study philosophy at the University of Pisa, concentrating on the works of Karl Popper and his open society theory, and advocating these principles during the difficult 1970s, the anni di piombo. His academic career began 1976 at the University of Pisa. He then went on to pursue research activities internationally: Fulbright scholar, University of Pittsburgh, 1984; Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990; visiting fellow, Centre for the Philosophy of Natural Sciences, London School of Economics, 1995–96. He taught theoretical philosophy from 1989 to 1992 at the University of Catania. In 1992 he became full professor of philosophy at the University of Pisa. Marcello Pera has written for the newspapers Corriere della Sera, Il Messaggero, and La Stampa, and to the news magazines L'Espresso and Panorama. Pera has become a leading opponent of post-modernism and cultural relativism and on this subject he resonates with religious thinkers. Opposing cultural relativism, he declared, "There are good reasons for deeming that some institutions are better than others. And I deny that such a judgement must necessarily lead to a clash." Opposing the postmodern denial of the possibility of ascertaining objective facts, he says, "Against deconstructionism, I do not deny that facts do not exist without interpretation. I refute Nietzsche's thesis that "there are no facts, only interpretations" (F. Nietzsche, Afterthoughts); or Derrida's "there is nothing beyond the text" (J. Derrida, Of Grammatology)." In the Senate He was elected as a Senator for Forza Italia in 1996 and 2001. During the XIV Legislature, he was President of the Senate from May 30, 2001 to April 27, 2006. He was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 and 2008. Dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI An atheist, Pera co-authored a book with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, titled Senza radici ("Without Roots"), and is the author of the introduction to the book originally titled L'Europa di Benedetto nella crisi delle culture, or in short, The Europe of Benedict, written by Ratzinger shortly before he became the pope. It has been reprinted as Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures. Pera's 2008 book Perché dobbiamo dirci