Tickets

Clare Chambers, reader of political philosophy at the University of Cambridge, is the author of Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-free State; Sex, Culture and Justice: The Limits of Choice; Teach Yourself Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction; and numerous articles on feminist and liberal political philosophy. She is currently carrying out research for her latest project, entitled Intact: The Unmodified Body. During her visit to Segovia she will speak with Ludovic Assémat, Director of Arts at the British Council, about the social conventions by which we live, within the framework of the British Council’s It’s Time to Talk programme.

Archipel des Passions is a combined effort that reads like a small treatise on passions. The authors, Charlotte Casiraghi and Robert Maggiori, deal with emotions, their logic, or at times their confusion. Charlotte 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. Robert Maggiori, philosopher and literary critic (Libération), author of numerous works, is also a founding member and president of the jury of Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco’s Philosophy Awards. Both authors present their book in conversation with their Spanish editor Leopoldo Kulesz.

Spanish philosopher and essayist Fernando Savater, renowned for his extensive work on Basque terrorism and winner of the Octavio Paz Prize, is joined by Polish historian Adam Michnik, director of Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, a political activist who has been granted numerous civic and professional recognitions including being named a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. They agree that the time has come to join forces, to rekindle the spirit of the European ideal and face the threat of radical nationalism. These two icons of liberal thought and defenders of Europe share their concerns with Maite Pagazaurtundúa MEP, the former president of the Fundación Víctimas del Terrorismo, who provides her very personal view of the destructive impact extreme nationalism can have when it is nourished by extortion and violence.

World renowned Spanish philosopher, essayist and laureate of the Octavio Paz Prize, Fernando Savater, together with Joseph Cohen, French philosopher, professor at University College Dublin (Ireland) and founding member of the Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, will discuss the emergence of a most uncanny guest in contemporary Europe: nihilism. From whence does this obscure phenomenon arise and in accordance to which forces does it progressively dismantle and disassemble the very European ideal of humanism? In what manner are we as Europeans capable of confronting the multiple threats of nihilism affecting our very political history? Fernando Savater and Joseph Cohen will philosophically diagnose the source and analyse the numerous effects of nihilism in Europe today as well as sketch possibilities from which we Europeans may perhaps overcome the perils and problems currently proliferating in our societies on the national, European and international planes. In the face of our contemporary nihilism, what can we hope for the future? Towards what kind of future are we Europeans heading?

Joseph Cohen Photo ©: Mat Jacob

Writer Theodor Kallifatides was born in Greece in 1938 and emigrated to Sweden in 1964, where he began his literary career. He has published more than forty works comprising fiction, essays and poetry, which have been translated into several languages and have received multiple awards over the decades. At seventy-seven, suffering from writer’s block, he makes the difficult decision to sell his Stockholm studio and travels to his native Greece with the hope of rediscovering the easy flow of language. He gathers his observations and emotions in Another Life and explores the relationship between a meaningful life and meaningful work, and how to reconcile himself with ageing. Kallifatides exchanges impressions about life in exile and the impact on identity with translator, writer and journalist Monika Zgustova, who was born in Prague and settled in Barcelona four decades ago. Zgustova has sixty translations from Czech and Russian, for which she has received the City of Barcelona Award and the Angel Crespo Prize. She is also author of six novels, with the latest, Un revólver para salir de noche (‘A handgun to go out at night’) due to be published this autumn. Her work of fiction revolves around exile, the loss of identity and the intimate life of people in times of totalitarianism.

The Worst Part, Memories of Love by Fernando Savater is a hymn of praise to his wife Sara and also to life. The philosopher, one of the most highly regarded and best-selling authors in the Spanish language, reminisces about his life together with the companion and reader of his books, the strong woman who never gave up on anything and who always fought for everything. When she died, Savater wanted only to cry and did not think he would write again. His love for her has engendered this book and provides a new lease on life: he confesses, “And thus I appreciated life more, because she made the world more beautiful”. Savater talks to cultural journalist Jesús Vigorra.