Science and Culture Symposium Course. Breaking Boundaries: Censorship and the Age of Stupidity

Seminar course | 27 May 24 | 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM | Training room | free entry

summary
“Censorship and the Kingdom of Stupidity”: The second part of the title refers to two famous works. The first, attributed to Francisco de Mello Franco, was composed around 1785; The second, with a title taken from the first, was written by Jorge de Sena and published in 1961.

None of these works explicitly addresses censorship. But if we look at it from afar, its omnipresence becomes apparent. It will therefore be our starting point for contemplating the manifestations of stupidity, without forgetting its supposed opposite, which is intelligence, in the areas of control and fighting free human expression, whether at the institutional or individual level, that is, at the individual level. Sgt.

This session, in fact, is part of the preparation for the meeting about the latter's stupidity. It should be noted, finally, that we do not intend to enter into a global approach to this phenomenon, but will limit ourselves to the long Portuguese modernity (15th to 20th centuries), without avoiding escaping into the present day where artificiality and stupidity also work, which inspired us with this formula by Avital Ronel (2002): “It is also stupidity that drains knowledge and erodes history.”

About the author
Hervé Baudry is a researcher at CHAM-NOVA, and works in the field of literary censorship, in particular fine censorship.

He was responsible for the “Clean Libraries” exhibition. Censorship of Printed Books in the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Centuries” at the National Library (February-April 2022).

Upcoming sessions
June 24 | “Alienatio Mentis” and the Limits of Reason in Medieval Literature in Portugal | Bruno Barreiros
July 22 | The aesthetic problem in J. W. Leibniz | Sofia Araujo
September 23 | The science of the soul in Isaac Cardoso’s book “Free Philosophy” (1673) | Luciana Braga
October 21 | Feminine object and orthography: The dynamics of lack in the object relationship Joanna Lamas

coordination: Adelino Cardoso and Nuno Miguel Proenca