Denia Festival of the Humanities
The Festival de les Humanitats celebrates its first edition from October 27 to 29, 2022 in the Alicante town of Dénia, where the They will bring together influential thinkers and experts in economics, neuroscience, medicine, anthropology, philosophy, history, geography, humanistic thought, ethics and culture, among many other scientific and artistic disciplines.
The wise men of the 21st century will reflect on the concerns of human beings in today's world and on the changes that will occur in the near future, in different debate sessions that will encourage dialogue between science, technology and the humanities.
The relevance and quality of the speakers participating in this multidisciplinary meeting aim to make this festival a European benchmark in the field of the humanities. Philosophy, history, geography, humanistic thought, ethics and culture, among many other scientific and artistic disciplines.
Mutations: what awaits us in the near future?
In one way or another, societies have always wondered about their condition, about their future, about how to make the human experience progress. Not in vain, as Yuval Noah Harari says, the human being is "the only one capable of creating fictions and believing them" and, to put it in the manner of Montesquieu, what differentiates him from the rest of the living is "reason and freedom". " (or, at least the idea that has been made of them).
Four centuries ago, when the development of modern science began, which would acquire an exponential force unthinkable at that time, the idea of progress was born that gave rise to the Enlightenment project, perhaps the noblest ideal that the humanity has thought (Kant) and that later produced enormous economic and technological transformations, with obvious consequences in the lives of humans, in the state of the planet itself and in the organization of societies. As a result of this great mutation, in little more than a century, from the mid-19th to the end of the 20th, life expectancy in many countries has doubled.
globalization and the passage from the industrial economy to the financial and post-financial one. In this context, questions about man overflow schemes, communication systems mutate rapidly, world government evolves towards new rules that are far from being codified, the passage from industrial to financial and post-financial capitalism changes economic coordinates, commonplaces about freedom and equality overwhelmed by the shadows of a new time, dystopian visions dominate the gaze on the future, vulgarized through the digital universe, powers are concentrated... And what about humans? Is it possible to think of the world giving centrality to our condition or must we consider the times in which the human being was intended to be the measure of all things to be over? Does scientific and technological progress cover the idea of progress of humanity? Is scientific and technological progress human progress?
An appointment for reflection
- Who are we? What we want? Where are we going? With these concerns as the driving force and after the experience of the pandemic that has renewed awareness of our fragility and the state of uncertainty that characterizes us, we propose an annual meeting for reflection aimed at citizens, individuals and corporate, which pose and demand a critical look that allows us to understand the keys to the world in which we live. And act -individually and collectively- accordingly.
- In order to spread the ideas and debates of the moment, in the midst of the confusion generated by the digital commotion, and to help citizens make them their own, Dénia intends to be the scene of an annual Humanities Festival. By convening representative figures of thought, science, economy and the arts, the Festival seeks to share ideas and experiences, in spaces and formats aimed at a wide audience, who feel challenged by the desire think, create, imagine and live together.
- The idea will be developed from the different genres of humanistic culture: lectures and debates, but also exhibitions and other forms of artistic creation. It will feature prominent figures of humanistic, economic and scientific thought, but also actors and creators from various disciplines, ensuring that ideas are deployed through different formats.
Festival Objectives
- Become a space for thought, reflection and dialogue on the human condition, between different cultures and ways of seeing the world.
- Allow civil society to participate in an open forum for training and debate with leading experts in the field of humanistic thought.
- Value and promote the humanities as a field of knowledge, especially among the youngest, to train citizens with critical thinking.
- Promote formation in values and knowledge of the roots and history of human beings.
- Turn Dénia into a reference for thought, reflection and the humanities in the Mediterranean.
- Consolidate itself as an annual event with representative figures of thought, science, economics, theater, the audiovisual universe and the plastic arts to share ideas and experiences.
