Charlotte Casiraghi brought her mission to popularise philosophy to Hay Festival Segovia on Saturday, presenting her new Spanish book, Archipel des passions (A Passion for Philosophy) alongside Professor Robert Maggiori.
"Philosophy allows us to have a different relationship with everyday life," she said. "Over time, it is an exercise in patience because, above all, it raises the question of finitude, of death. It is very difficult to summarize in a few words things that go further. It is very difficult to know what life and death really mean."
Archipel des Passions is a combined effort that reads like a small treatise on passions. The authors deal with emotions, their logic, or at times their confusion. Casiraghi, who read Philosophy at the Sorbonne, is co-founder of the ecological newspaper Ever Manifesto and founding member of Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, the institution she currently chairs. Maggiori, philosopher and literary critic (Libération), is also a founding member and president of the jury of Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco’s Philosophy Awards.
Encouraging people to move beyond an abstract image of philosophy, Casiraghi and Maggiori draw the lines between philosophical concepts and contemporary life to encourage a more positive public discourse.
"I hate the current discourse of hate," reflected Casiraghi. "It is one of the most difficult passions to understand or accept. It is something extremely complex, but philosophy can helps us analyse it."
Find our more about their new book here and explore the rest of the Hay Festival Segovia programme here.