Círculo Maura: Contemporary Thought Seminar

Círculo Maura is an initiative of New Direction and Fundación Disenso cantered on reflecting on the great works of Western political thought. It is a space for dialogue and discussion on great books that have shaped Western civilization.

This programme is not designed to simply look at philosophical systems, or overanalyse these works line by line looking for the origins of their ideas in history. Rather students will be directly challenged by the texts, being able to identify the possible relevance of the issues addressed. For this reason, each session is not only dedicated to a work, but will look at an assigned theme that seeks to provoke careful and profound reflection on some of the questions that Western citizens are confronted with today.

Of course, historical context is important, and ideas come in and out of fashion. The books studied in this course are precisely those which, which have a lasting relevance that extends well beyond their time. Students will be able to enter into conversation with the best minds that the history of philosophy represents, and address the contemporary relevance of the topics covered. Following in a Socratic dialogue, we will discuss these ideas that form the foundation of ideological thinking. In short, it will be a matter of raising our perspective on the great political questions.

For this reason, and in order to highlight the timelessness of the works, the course concentrates on philosophical texts from before the French Revolution and the birth of many modern ideologies. The Círculo Maura aims to cover political issues 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 the human questions that, in one way or another, are essential to understand politics in depth. The course will also focus on customs, 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.

The first training cycle of Círculo Maura will begin in April 2024 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, Pascal's Pensées, Thomas Hobbes' 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 at the headquarters of Fundación Disenso and will be strictly face-to-face. The registration fee for this first cycle is 250 € and includes the delivery of all the books to be studied in the seminars.

The program will be directed by Guillermo Graiño, PhD in political science from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and PhD in philosophy from the Scuola di Alti Studi of the Fondazione San Carlo di Modena. Professor of Political Theory at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria and director of its Center for Democracy Studies, he has also been visiting professor at LUISS Guido Carlo (2018) and Villanova University (2016). He is a member of the CSIC research group 'La filosofía política de la ciudad: Ideas, formas y espacios de lo urbano'. He has also been a visiting researcher at the University of Toronto and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Due to the limited number of places, to participate in the selection process it is necessary to send the following documents to circulomaura@fundaciondisenso.org and admin@newdirection.online before 18th April 2024:

• Application form (available here).
• Curriculum vitae.
• A video explaining the motivations for joining the program (maximum 1 minute).

Applications will be evaluated by a selection committee composed of members of Fundación Disenso and New Direction, the professors who will coordinate the sessions and members of the institutional team.

Notification of the committee's decision will be sent to all candidates in April 2024.