Mediterranean Spirit Professorship – Paul Valery
Paul Valery was a citizen of the Mediterranean, by origin and conviction. He defended the idea that the Mediterranean, a place of vibrant and unhindered freethinking, has a civilizing role which has to be protected. Today, growing numbers of political analysts, economists, philosophers and sociologists find new arguments in his writings to support a global and sustainable vision of “the Mediterranean experience”, in opposition to the theory of inevitable conflicts between distressed, clashing civilizations. This “inner sea – security zone” is one of separation as well as communication, a “fermented essence” in its multiple paradoxes, open to all possibilities.
As multiple and mobile as the Mediterranean spirit, this research chair is intended to stimulate new exchanges of ideas, languages, traditions and knowledge, and to contribute to the preservation of a humanitarian heritage, the vital substance of an inquisitive intellectual community, based on the complex equilibrium between thought and action. Since antiquity, the Mediterranean has been a space of circulation and renewed skills, and this professorship calls upon noteworthy Mediterranean intellectuals to redefine the dynamic diversity of intellectual, artistic and social heritage, in a humanist tradition.
2014-2016 | Fundazione di l’Università di Corsica | “Sites, Identities, sPaces and Activities” Laboratory (CNRS / Università di Corsica) | Under the high patronage of the Inter-Ministerial Delegation for the Mediterranean
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