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New Direction & Fundación Disenso

Círculo Maura

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The Círculo Maura is an initiative of New Direction and Fundación Disenso to reflect on the great works of Western political thought. A space for dialogue and discussion about the great books that have shaped our civilization throughout history.

Círculo Maura intends to cover political problems in a broad sense, and its objective will not be exclusively to discuss “good government”, order, freedom, the State or the possibility of justice in international relations, but on all those human questions that, in one way or another, it is essential to attend to understand politics in all its depth. In this way, custom, the role of philosophy in emancipation, the relationship between the people and moral innovation, the problem of common sense and the creation of factions, or the question of progress and civilization will also be protagonists of the course.

The first training cycle of the Círculo Maura will begin in April 2023 and will last five months (excluding the month of August), with two sessions per month. It will include the study and analysis of works such as The Clouds by Aristophanes, The Republic by Plato, History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, Politics by Aristotle, The Prince by Machiavelli, Relectio de iure belli by Francisco de Vitoria, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de la Boétie, Thoughts of Pascal , Thomas Hobbes 's Leviathan , John Locke 's Second Treatise on Civil Government, Shaftesbury 's Sensus communis , Montesquieu 's Persian Letters , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men.

The sessions will take place in Spanish at the headquarters of the Disenso Foundation and will be strictly face-to-face. The registration for this first cycle is €150, and includes the delivery of all the books to be studied in the seminars.

The program will be directed by Guillermo Graiño, a doctor in political science from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a doctor in philosophy from the Scuola di Alti Studi of the Fondazione San Carlo di Modena . Professor of Political Theory at the Francisco de Vitoria University and director of its Center for Democracy Studies, he has also been visiting professor at LUISS Guido Carli (2018) and Villanova University (2016). He is a member of the CSIC research group 'The political philosophy of the city: Ideas, forms and urban spaces'. He has also been a visiting researcher at the University of Toronto and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Schedule

May 3rd, 2023

Introduction

May 10th, 2023

Clouds by Aristophanes

May 24th, 2023

Book VII of Plato's Republic

June 7th, 2023

Book V of the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

June 21st, 2023

Books II and II of Aristotle's Politics

July 5th, 2023

The Prince by Maquiavelo

July 19th, 2023

Relectio de Iure Belli, by Francisco de Vitoria

September 6th, 2023

Discourse on voluntary servitude by Étienne de la Boétie

September 20th, 2023

Thoughts by Pascal

October 4th, 2023

Part I of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

October 18th, 2023

Second Treatise on Civil Government by John Locke

November 1st, 2023

Sensus communis by Shaftesbury

November 15th, 2023

Persian letters of Montesquieu

November 29th, 2023

Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality among men by Jean Jacques Rousseau