The Saló de Graus (conference hall) at the Faculty of Philosophy and Education Sciences hosts the 8th Conference of the Josep Lluís Blasco Chair for Philosophy and citizenship, on Tuesday, 12 March. The topics discussed this year were the discrediting of politics, its crisis and its disaffection. Experts Joan Romero, Manuel Jardí and Josep Ramoneda participated in the discussion. During the opening ceremony, the University of Valencia’s principal, Esteban Morcillo, defended the role and autonomy of public universities against the policies imposed by the government.
The principal stressed the importance of holding this conference and of the existence of the Josep Lluís Blasco Chair for Philosophy and Citizenship. “Right now, more than ever, we need philosophy, participation and citizenship. We need participation and commitment, two characteristics that defined our dear Josep Lluís Blasco”, the principal said.
Esteban Morcillo has criticised the “cutbacks” in “public policies and services, following a path dictated by agents outside the state political power. The policies imposed are ‘a morality play’, as Paul de Grawe, Honoris Causa Doctor by our University, said in his investiture”.
He also recalled “the situation of weakness of public universities, which survived even during the dictatorship”. “It is true that everything can be improved,” he said, “but not with external impositions but democratically. We cannot lose the model endorsed by the Constitution recognising our autonomy and our right to self-government”.
After the principal’s speech, Joan Romero, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Valencia and former general secretary of the socialist Party of Valencia, delivered the first presentation, called ‘Political corruption and democracy. Ten urgent steps to leave an exceptional situation’.
Then, at 11:30, journalist Manuel Jardí reflected on media desertion and social devastation. At 15:30 was the turn of philosopher and journalist Josep Ramoneda. Then, the three speaker gathered for a roundtable discussion about the general topic of the conference: the discrediting of politics. This activity closed the conference, one of the main proposals of the Josep Lluís Blasco Chair for Philosophy and Citizenship.
