The Ortega-Marañón Foundation in Madrid and the Goethe-Institut present the round table discussion “Between Reason and Noise: The Role of the Intellectual Today” on July 6. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Ortega-Marañón Foundation headquarters (C. de Fortuny, 53, Madrid). Free admission – registration required via Eventbrite.
Jürgen Habermas embodied the figure of the engaged intellectual who does not retreat into academia, but actively participates in the debates of his time. From his earliest works, he maintained that intellectuals have a responsibility in the public sphere: to exercise rational critique in the face of power and manipulation. To this end, they should not present themselves as unquestionable experts, but as citizens who appeal to the best argument: according to Habermas, intellectuals do not possess any special authority; what is decisive is solely the force of the best argument.
In times of polarization and media noise, their proposal underscores that public criticism is an essential form of democratic responsibility.
Within this framework, the conversation will revolve around the role intellectuals can play today in the face of media simplification and the logic of confrontation, as well as the limits of their responsibility in controversial debates.
Participants include Astrid Wagner, philosopher and deputy director of the Institute of Philosophy at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC); Javier Gomá, philosopher and leading figure in civic thought; and Fernando Vallespín, professor of Political Science and contemporary essayist.