Permanent Seminar Rationality, Critique and Dialogue from Antiquity to the Contemporary Era
Rationality – as the specific way to think within philosophy and the sciences – has its primary origins in Ancient Greece, having grown into Modernity through critique and dialogue. Under various figures, reason and critical thinking are the undeniable crux of the argumentation, justification, and affirmation of theses and theories in public forums. Even critiques of rationality must always have a fundamental component of self-criticism. However, a single point of analysis and controversy remains: what is reason, what shapes does it assume, how is it expressed, what is its relationship with other practices and skills such as language, beliefs, rhetoric, art, emotions, willpower, strength, power, or violence, among others?
The Permanent Seminar Rationality, Critique, and Dialogue from Antiquity to Modernity, launched in 2025, is promoted by the Secondary Project Rationality and Hermeneutics at the Centre for Classical and Humanistic Studies (CECH). It is coordinated by Maria Luísa Portocarrero, Diogo Ferrer, and Gonçalo Marcelo, picking up where the Critical History of Reason from Antiquity to Modernity (2015-2025) Seminar left off.
The seminar welcomes sessions in different formats (workshops, symposia, conferences, and more), involving the CECH team, its Professors and Visiting Researchers (nationally and internationally renowned specialists) as well as other guests, with special emphasis on the participation of young researchers. Sessions are open to faculty members, researchers, students, and the wider public. Some of the texts borne from the work and discussions undertaken are foreseen to be published by the Coimbra University Press.
The seminar functions alongside the Project Seminar of Philosophy – ProFil, where young researchers and doctoral students present and discuss their ongoing projects and topics, as well as larger-scale events such as colloquia and international congresses, regularly organised as part of the Secondary Project.
For more information and to express interest in participating in the seminar, please contact goncalomarcelo@gmail.com.