Visions & Cants (Educació 62) (Catalan Edition)

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He has gone on to enjoy a brilliant reputation until the present day. His distinction was a desire to initiate a philosophical revival, which at the time was in decline. Thus, inspired by the heavens, he introduced a new form of philosophy based on the art of discovering the truth: I speak of Ramon Llull, who long ago achieved fame for his new art.

Brucker, Historia critica philosophiae, Leipzig, Breitkopf, , vol. Periodus tertia, a restauratione literarum ad nostra tempora - Pars prima, de studio philosophiae emendandae sectario - Caput primum, de viris doctis qui de externo philosophiae habito emendando restituendoque solliciti fuerunt, p. Brucker Augsburg taught in Jena. Approximately twenty years earlier, in , a scholar from Mainz, Ivo Salzinger, who can be deemed to be the last heir of Renaissance Lullism, ordered Catalan International View.

The final result of the work initiated by the German-Catalan research group created by Salzinger is to be found in the earnest engagement of the Majorcan Antoni Pascual, in. By way of contrast, Llull was a highly influential figure in occult circles, as shown, e. At the time, students of esotericism had been completely banished from official academic and scientific circles, although they continued to greatly influence, in a covert manner, the affairs Catalan International View.

Catalan had been spoken throughout the Mediterranean, being an important vehicle for trade, not only of a commercial nature I have left for last -not because it is less important, but instead to emphasize its importance-, the continuity of the admiration for Llull and the continued interest in his thought and works in his homeland, Majorca, and in the context of Catalan culture at large.

In the nineteenth century, the majority of Lullists had ties to Catalonia or the Balearics, while there were few scholars of Llull in the rest of Europe and they were generally interested solely in collecting manuscripts of his works or of the alchemical works attributed to him. It was to be his birthplace where interest in Llull was once more revived: It is in this context that the project was launched, to publish the writings of Llull in Catalan.

It was a significant publishing project that was systematically pursued in the early twentieth century with the collaboration of Mateu Obrador Obres In the past, Catalan had been spoken throughout the Mediterranean, being an important vehicle for trade, not only of a commercial nature. Pring-Mill called it in the s. The separation of the two branches of Lullian studies seriously limited an understanding of the overall meaning of his work, in spite of the fact that it favoured a deeper and specialized study of specific areas of his work.

In fact, his vision was essentially unitary and uni-. This concept was a complete novelty in the culture of his time, as it reveals the miraculous story of the origin of his Ars. According to the Vita dictated by Llull himself, the illumination that he received while staying in contemplation on Puig de Randa Mountain [Majorca], made him intuit a language capable of directly displaying the structures of created reality and making them understandable to all peoples regardless of their language or culture.

Thanks to his yearning for universal diffusion, and to his deliberate pragmatism, throughout his whole life Llull accompanied the development of the combinatoria with the decision to write his works in several languages: Catalan, a living language, accessible to the layman; Latin, the universal language of culture; and Arabic, another living language and a means to communicate with the people he sought to address in his missionary work.

The first work he wrote following his illumination was the first version of the Ars, complete with all its visual devices:. It was not translated into Latin until later, when it was entitled Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem. Compendiosa since its contents are synthetically symbolised by means of the letters of the alphabet. Nevertheless, the Lullian atrobar refers neither to poetic imagery nor to literary rhetoric: The search for truth, to which all faiths aspire Christianity, Judaism and Islam , and in whose name these can mutually confront in peace, as Llull proposed in his Liber de gentili et tribus sapientibus [Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men, circa ], can therefore be pursued through the Ars combinatoria, his newly invented instrument.

In spite of the fact that the calm Catalan International View. This is characteristically shown in the Liber de fine , in which Llull mentions a list of his own books as an indispensable part of the equipment for the military order in charge of the Crusades. The Crusaders were supposed to have studied the books during their training, and use them to support their preaching activity, once such a possibility had been made possible through military means. For preachers, the learning of languages was as essential as studying the arts. Already in he had obtained by King James II of Majorca the permission to establish a language school for missionaries in Miramar, and as late as he petitioned the Council of Vienne for permission to initiate a similar project on a larger scale.

For preachers, the learning of languages was as essential as stuying the arts Unlike most Scholastic masters, Llull developed his thought during the course of a long active life, and his works were often written during his numerous travels to various Mediterranean countries. Aside from Barcelona and Montpellier, he also visited Italy on several occasions: Rome, where he tried to convince the Popes to adopt his Ars as a tool for reforming knowledge and convert the infidels.

He also visited Genoa, Naples and Pisa. He repeatedly visited Paris, where he presented his Ars to the masters at the university and to the court of Philip the Fair. His voyages took him to Cyprus, as well as to the Islamic countries of North Africa, Tunisia in particular, where he personally tried to use his debating technique with Muslim scholars.

In fact, he was convinced that if he could persuade scholars, the conversion of lay people would have followed naturally. It did not happen, however, though he continued trying until the end, as evidenced by the story -fiction, but with a ring of truth- of his martyrdom by stoning in the city of Bejaia. This thorough understanding has once again become possible today, since the divisions between literary studies and philosophical and theological studies of Ramon Llull have started to be removed. Naturally, this does not mean rejecting specialized studies, but rather reflects the recognition that every additional step in the understanding of such a multifaceted, and yet so firmly focused author, can and should be made through an increasing integration of specialistic disciplinary contri-.

And, as is usually the case, this possibility arises from the intensification of the critical editions and study of Lullian texts: The image of Ramon Llull which derives from this hermeneutic renewal is the portrait of a layman deeply engaged in a new kind of philosophical research, inspired and devout, yet innovative and highly technical: In the field of Lullistic studies, she specializes in the study and publication of the pseudo-Lullian alchemical tradition, while also being dedicated to the study and the publication of original Lullian scientific works, and the definition of Ramon Llull as a vernacular philosopher.

The life of Ramon Llull is so improbable that it is tempting to see him as the Catalan Don Quixote, a literary character rather than a historical personage. He is in reality the Cervantes of Catalonia, or its Goethe, Dante, or Chaucer, the maker who inaugurates a literary language, and so founds a tradition. Llull would not have said, with the canny Don Quixote: And yet there are resemblances between the system or Art of Llull and of Bruno, possibly because.

Llull is a contemporary of Catalan Kabbalah, but their mutual affinities are difficult to disentangle, partly because each also had a relation to Sufi speculation. Catalonia is a distinct civilization, and its temperamental differences from Castile are initially bewildering to an amateur and outsider like myself.

But there are also diverse Catalonias: Llull was Majorcan, and Barcelona is not Majorca, though they now seem more akin than either is to Valencia, which has its own prideful literary traditions. The honor of Catalonia, like that of the Basque region and of Madrid, is to have fought so fiercely against militaristic and clerical Fascism.

To Catalans and Castilians alike, this may now seem archaic, but here in the United States it is not, since we currently are ruled by a theocratic and militaristic regime. Our leader is a semi-literate who asserts that Jesus Christ C. As I remarked, when last in Barcelona, to call this pious plutocrat a Fascist would be to flatter him.

I mention him here only to remark that he is a weak imitation of. Before Long was assassinated in , he prophesied: Our mindless leader now says that God has ordained him to bring democracy to Iraq. I would add that he was also the creator of Llullism, which is an Art distinct from Hermeticism and Kabbalah. It may be that all Catalan higher thinkers and writers are temperamentally Llullians just as in my own generation most of us were Freudians, whether we thought so or not. That statement must sound odd, particularly if one were a Catalan poet or intellectual who is more a skeptic than a Catholic believer.

Yet the devout Llull pragmatically was also Sufi and Kabbalist. He is a fascinating and difficult writer, whom I tend to read most often in Latin, since he translated his own Catalan into what was then the universal language. On influence, Llull is a Neoplatonist but with a highly individual Influence in Llull, as in Plotinus or Proclus, is a metaphysics of emanations, of transmitted resemblances from the Divine down to the human. But only likeness, not essence, is thus communicated. So far, Llull agreed, but the Catalan sage has a metaphysics of language entirely his own. Unlike Aquinas, Llull is almost a pragmatist: His Art looks around it, among the people, as well as backwards to Plato and Aristotle.

Llull after all asserted that he received direct revelations from God. It was from these visions that he derived the preternatural strength that sent him forth into Muslim marketplaces, where he was nearly stoned to death. Yet it was his Art of Arts that made logically necessary his drive towards voluntary universal conversion of all Muslims and all Jews.

Llull gambled everything upon improving rhetorical communication between God and the human, and his great insight was that perfect communication depended upon a united humankind. For almost all of us, nowadays, this is an unacceptable way of thinking through our possible relationship to God. To start apprehending Llull, you need to see that, in our terms, he was more a poet than a metaphysician or a theologian.

His pragmatic faculty is what we now call the imagination. That he did this so selflessly doubtless stems from his personal mysticism, but there is little that is conventional or traditional in his visionary life. In that regard the orthodox Ramon Llull resembles the great heretics: There are excellent scholars of Llull, including Anthony Bonner, Frances Yates, and Mark Johnston, but I have discovered only a few insights of a literary, critical kind devoted to him. I am not a Llull scholar, or more than an amateur in Catalan literature and history, though I am a general literary crit-.

Still, my lifelong subject is influence, particularly literary influence, and I seek always to better understand the matter of genius, and the originality that must attend it. But everything Llull appropriated, he transfused into the Art entirely his own. First, however, we must wipe the slate clean of modern concepts which, rather than clarifying, can cause confusion. This has its origin in a view of history which sees it as a source of lessons for the present, as a series of models of behaviour for society which, therefore, must be taught to the young.

Even today it is more a privilege of advanced societies, imbued with relativised values. But this is still more a privilege of these modern societies capable of looking favourably on diverse options, which in other times and other societies simply did not exist as possibilities. I believe it is better to look at medieval society through another aspect: The popular images of the Middle Ages, of an armed man dressed in armour sitting on a horse, itself also protected -the clear predecessor. Since just before the year , many European landscapes were covered with thousands and thousands of castles, and the societies that best knew how to exploit the new military tactics were the most successful, such as for example the Normans, with their conquests of England, the south of Italy, Sicily and part of the Holy Land.

In fact, the best symbol of the new military exploits was the crusades. Within this panorama of violence, there were bloodier moments, such as -to mention events closer to home- the conquest of Minorca, and others more benevolent, such as that of Valencia. But we must not fool ourselves; even in times more favourable to coexistence, violence did not completely or permanently disappear, it was always dormant as a latent possibility. In a fundamentally theocratic world, it was difficult to accept other beliefs as right.

With religions which guaranteed that they held the key to eternal happiness, one of them had to be right; it was not possible for two or three with contrasting dogmas to be right simultaneosuly, or for them to have interchangeable eleCatalan International View. No, in such a world, the only interreligious contacts possible were through controversy, in the form of disputations, preaching or polemic writings.

In the Mediterranean area, the literature of controversy was highly cultivated, using all the languages present. As an example, suffice it to say that there was a literature of written Christian apologetics in Arabic -especially in the Middle East- and when Llull declared himself christianus arabicus he was consciously introducing himself into that tradition, in order to be able to dispute with Muslims in their own language and translate works into Arabic. However, within these apologetics there were at least three subspecies. Basically it was to reaffirm our faith, to placate us and reassure us that it was not wrong.

Another tried to refute the beliefs of the adversary. It is an obsessive attack on Judaism, in which he has followed the trail not only of the Old Testament but also the Talmud, with the aim of supporting his arguments against a faith he clearly hates. Clearly, this is what Llull wished to do but had problems putting it into practice. Traditionally, he had resorted to the arguments about the Bible, of which the Muslims accepted some important Catalan International View.

However, such a disputation only produced hermeneutic discussions that did not get anywhere. One of the protagonists argued: As Harvey Hames has said, in reality they were not really arguing, for example, as to whether the Messiah had already come, but academically about hermeneutic questions. Moreover, they were not talking about the faith or the customs of the people who practiced those religions, but about books.

Therefore, each side of such a disputation could return home thinking he had won, because he had correctly explained his interpretation. His solution produced a series of remarkable innovations in the matter of interreligious debate. First, he based his arguments not on texts but on facts, religious or scientific facts that everyone could accept; for example, that there was one God the three Mediterranean religions were monotheist ; that this God necessarily had to have a set of attributes: It was on these bases -and without textual discussions- that Ramon Llull.

However, with questions of the Divinity he could not do so, in the classic sense of proving the causes that had created it, because there are no causes for God, there is nothing superior or anterior that would have created him. For this reason he decided to do the opposite; that is, to prove the articles not by the causes but rather by what they implied. The second innovation is how he does it, and for this I will set out a general summary and an explanation of some evidence, both taken from the Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men that Llull wrote as a model of interreligious disputation.

It is a work he wrote at the start of his career, which he possibly conceived as a school text book for missionaries in Miramar, and which for practically his whole career he did not tire of recommending to his readers. I will analyse it in some detail because the entire plot is remarkable. In another part of the same forest three wise men arrive, a Jew, a Christian and a Saracen, who have come from the city to talk together. They ask her name and what these five trees, with things surprisingly written on the flowers, represent.

She answers that she is called Intelligence, and then offers a description and explanation of the five trees. On the third tree we find the divine attributes combined with sins, on the fourth the virtues combined with each other, and on the fifth the virtues combined with the sins. Of the first tree, for example, a condition is that we always attribute to God the greatest nobility in essence, in virtues and in works. The second is that the flowers do not contradict each other, and there is the same number of each.

The conditions of the other trees give a kind of spiritual and moral classification, in which the positive concepts here the divine attributes and the virtues must agree with each other and oppose the negative the sins. Llull adds that it is necessary to affirm anything that best shows these concordances or contrarieties.

Making people love, Catalan International View. As one can see, here there is nothing that was not acceptable to any monotheist religion. They are not dogmas that must be imposed on the adversary; they are no more than completely neutral rules of the game for the debate to come. Finally, these conditions as rules of the game mean that many quotations from the Book of the Gentile in later works do not refer to the work in general, but specifically to them.

Next, the Lady of Intelligence leaves, and one of the wise men, after lamenting the rancour and hatred produced by religious differences, says: This being the case, do you think it would be a good idea for us to sit beneath these trees, beside this lovely fountain, and discuss what we believe, according to what the flowers and the conditions of these flowers signify?

It is an extremely clear programmatic declaration. The others agree, and just when The Gentile is astonished at such a greeting, because he has never heard talk of this God or the resurrection. When the three wise men learn of his need, they offer to provide proof of the existence of God and of the resurrection, something they decide to do according to what the Lady of Intelligence has taught them. All of this is in the Prologue, and then the First Book is devoted to this proof. After listening to them, the Gentile is amazed at how he has been able to spend his life until then in darkness, and even more at how he has now been able to know God and his own salvation.

He implores the wise men not only to accompany him, but more than anything to instruct him in how he can undertake this conversion of his family and countrymen. Thus far it is a kind of rose-coloured spiritual novel. Not a word about the differences between religions, not even in all of the speeches of the Prologue and the First Book has Llull bothered to specify which of the three wise men was speaking. Everything has happened in an idealised world of harmony and mutual understanding.

But now things take a turn. If it is a question of converting the people so that they are saved, each of the three wise men in-. The Gentile, frightened, exclaims: Are the three of you not a single religion and belief? This confuses the poor Gentile. The wise men agree to his request and decide to do so as in the First Book; that is, according to how the Lady of Intelligence had shown them. Moreover, they decide that the order of the speeches will be by order of age: They also make a very important agreement to avoid confrontations: With this begins the body of the book, in three long chapters, in each of which a wise man demonstrates the articles of his faith, with arguments developed according to the conditions that the Lady of Intelligence had shown them.

To see how, let us take just one example. Ramon Llull did something very surprising in the interreligious discussion of the Middle Ages, and possibly of all time What Llull has done here is to take the creation of the world as a hypothesis, and show that it simply coincides more with the two concepts of the flower; that is, the greatness and power of God, and therefore satisfies more the first condition of the first tree than the contrary hypothesis of an eternal world would.

He says nothing at all of the causes of creation, but rather only speaks of the implications, which he contrasts with the two concepts of the flower in question, and this according to a condition of the tree. In other cases he shows how the negation of a hypothesis leads to a reductio ad absurdum, or, put another simpler way, he only speaks of what would happen if it were not true.

Even more important is the fact that Llull has constructed the text without saying a word about who is right or who is wrong, and without citing any text or authority. He has presented a purely abstract argument which stands or falls under its own weight. So abstract that it does not even occur to us to ask which of the three wise men is presenting it.

It is the Jew, and we find that Ramon Llull has done something very surprising in the interreligious discussion of the Middle Ages, and possibly of all time. He has constructed the argument not on a doctrinal base that one of the opponents could use against the other two, but based on a technique that all three can use equally. And this technique was his Art, of which the Book of the Gentile offers a toned-down version. This explains the importance that Llull attributed to it, given that it provides a tool of discussion that the adversaries cannot undervalue.

When they have finished, the Gentile summarises all that the wise men have explained to him, and they are very happy to see that he has really understood them.

Then, with tears in his eyes, the Gentile makes an excited and exciting prayer to the Lord that they have taught him, a remarkable At the end, just when the Gentile wants to announce which of the faiths he has chosen, comes perhaps the biggest surprise of an already surprising book: This ending has provoked many comments. It is clear that Llull intends to surprise and give an impression of impartiality, to strengthen the idea of a technique that in itself is not imposed on any of the three sides. A technique, moreover, which it would be necessary to continue practising in order to perfect its use, in the same way that at the end of many works Llull recommends that the reader should continue to use and adapt what he has just learned to other purposes.

Perhaps he also does so because until now the three have worked to convince an outsider, the Gentile. Now it would be necessary to undertake a slightly different task: The key question, however, which has been discussed at length in the. How can he justify a passage like that of the Book of the Beloved and the Lover, where he says: The answer is yes, and that the trick is precisely in those ten conditions which he always cites when he cites the Book of the Gentile. In order to understand how this works, it is enough to look at one of them, the first condition of the first tree.

And with proof of these two dogmas, we have the key, as Eusebi Colomer has said, both to Lullian theology and to his writings of religious persuasion. With this we have seen how Ramon Llull has constructed an ingenious and highly innovative edifice, and how he has operated a kind of short circuit in all the problems of the interreligious controversy and of the hostile attitudes of one group against another. He has found a dirty slate of insulting graffiti, of defences and attacks, of hermeneutic discussions that can never end, and with a masterful stroke he has made it clean, with a methodological proposal to which it was difficult not to pay attention.

It was not the door of another dogma but simply of a new tactic. It has been rightly said that Lullian dialogue is not free from conflict. His stay in Bejaia in and the defiant attitude that Ramon adopted there, as well as multiple passages gleaned from all his work, show that confrontation forms part of the range of possibilities with which Llull confronted the contact with the religions other than Catholic.

When Llull dictated his biography to the monks of the Carthusian Monastery of Vauvert, in , and after having written not one but many books against the errors of the infidels, this conviction continued as fundamental to his missionary strategies. In the dissemination of this vision, in which it is clear that various aspects should be examined and revised, a determining role has been played here by a work written in the first years of his output, the Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men.

Once the gentile declares that he is convinced and consoled by this belief, at the end of the first book of the work, the wise men tell him that it is not, however, so simple, as they belong to different religions. Then, the gentile listens to the explanations that each of the wise men gives of his own beliefs in the three following books. While one of them sets out his reasons, the other two remain in silence and never interrupt or refute the affirmations made; thus, the only one who asks questions to clarify aspects which remain unclear is the gentile -who, in principle, we.

Finally, after the wise men have explained to him the main articles of their respective religions, they refuse to hear which of the three the gentile has decided to adopt in order to continue their discussions on religious issues with the same cordiality and friendliness they have shown throughout the work. The respectful attitude of the wise men and, above all, the apparently open ending of the book have contributed, as mentioned, to creating an image of Llull as tolerant and ready to accept the belief of the other if he is capable of demonstrating it, that is, justifying with necessary reasons.

Only from a superficial reading of the work, however, can it be suggested that Ramon considers all three religions equally valid. One only has to read the names, so politically incorrect, that he gives them in a text such as the Doctrina pueril, written shortly before the Book of the Gentile, where he dedicates whole chapters to the old law and to Mohammad. In the passages of these chapters, with a markedly controversial tone, his scorn for determined basic aspects of the Hebrew and Muslim religions is made explicit, such as the hope of the Jewish people in the coming of the Messiah and the condition of prophet Catalan International View.

Let us return, however, to the Book of the Gentile. The amiability of the outward forms of this work, rather more complex than the Doctrina pueril and in which Llull largely uses his own formulations and argumentations of his Art, must not confuse us. Cordiality in any case does not mean doctrinal tolerance.

And any attentive reader who has followed and correctly understood the reasoning developed by the three wise men in the respective books can have no doubt about which of the three religions is finally chosen by the gentile. In the end, Llull seeks to persuade the readers, by making an effort to understand the arguments set out, to follow the same path as the gentile, and realise that only one of the three is the true one. In other words, Ramon does not offer the readers an explicit solution to the problem put forward at the end of the first book but obliges them to try to understand the reasoning of the wise men and evaluate how far this reasoning is correct so that they themselves reach the desired conclusion which, as we will see, can be but one.

Llull frequently focuses his efforts on proving the needs of the central dogmas of Christianity -the Trinity and the Incarnation of Jesus Christ-, which serve to individualise it with respect to other religions. When speaking of the coming of the Messiah, in the second book of the work, the Jewish wise man justifies the situation of subordination and of captivity that his people suffered in the 13th century for their love of God; God, in his turn, would take pity on them and send them a Messiah, so that they would be freed from captivity and worship the divinity as they should; if not, the goodness of God would not be perfect in terms of greatness, power and love.

In the first place, he asks him how long they have been in this captivity, and the wise man responds that it has been more than 1, years, which puts us around the year 70 AD, the moment of the fall of Jerusalem. The wise man adds, moreover, that this is the third captivity they have had to suffer and that, although they know the cause of the first two -that of Babylonia and Egypt-, they do not know the reason for the present one. The comments by the gentile, who the wise man no longer responds to, suggest a possible cause for the captivity.

It could be, affirms the character, that the Jews have committed a sin, without being aware of it, by having acted against the goodness of God, and that they cannot liberate themselves from their captivity until they recognise this fault and ask for forgiveness. Clearly, the gentile, who we must sup-. In accordance with this then, the reader must understand that the Jews can only be liberated from their captivity when they recognize that the crucifixion of Christ was an act against divine goodness and, consequently, when they convert to Christianity.

Much the same happens when justifying the condition of prophet attributed by the Muslim wise man to Mohammad, in the fourth book. The Jewish and Christian wise men still remain silent while the gentile asks various questions that, although being formulated from the respect that any disciple must show the master, serve to warn the reader. And the response that the gentile makes in this case to the Saracen about Mohammad goes precisely in this direction; that is, emphasising a logical inconsistency in the reasoning of the.

And this, according to figure A of the Art, is impossible. The Book of the Gentile is a complex and difficult text, which Llull wrote thinking about a public capable of understanding the mechanism of the Art and, therefore, with a sufficiently rooted philosophical and theological training to understand the subtleties. Nothing to do with the Doctrina pueril, aimed at readers with a far more inferior training and incapable of correctly evaluating the arguments of the three wise men -something which explains that Llull, in the Doctrina, heavily simplifies the positions and, therefore, avoids any doctrinal confusion.

Although this analysis of the Book of the Gentile waters down the tolerant and dialoguing image that today we tend to associate with Ramon, it is only through a profound and attentive knowledge of the meaning of his work that we can correctly evaluate his contribution. This does not, of course, undermine the fact that Ramon was one of the medieval authors who took contact with the other most seriously and who made most effort to establish points of dialogue.

But he did so with marked cards. It is a stadium fit for the twenty-first century that excels in its inclusive spirit of openness.

The grandstand of the current Camp Nou held a ceremony bursting with symbolism. President Bartomeu spoke of a historic day: The renovation project will convert the current stadium into a New Camp Nou: The proposal intends to turn the canopy towards the street, flowing outwards, forming an overhang which in turn will cover the public areas. The New Camp Nou will be one of its kind in the world. In the New Camp Nou every seat in the stadium will have excellent sightlines. The first tier will be steeper, incorporating a design with an innovative, parabolic shape.

The second tier retains the perfect structure and visibility of the current stadium, but with improved comfort, accessibility and services, as does the third level, which will completely encircle the grandstand. The very top of the stadium will be ringed by a walkway with degree views, which will be connected to both the stadium and the city.

The whole forms a spacious setting, with the absence of vehicles, changes in levels or barriers. The building work will be carried out without interrupting matches in the stadium. The construction will take place in various phases ending during. Mannarelli, are working alongside the institutions and teams of architects to develop urban plans and architectural projects, in coordination with the Barcelona city council and the Catalan government, local residents and various organizations.

The Social Area of FC Barcelona will also oversee, in conjunction with leading companies in the sector, the migration process by which members who have seats in the current stadium will be assigned seats in the New Camp Nou. Club members, supporters and members of the public from Barcelona and around the world can visit this public exhibition. It is a unique opportunity to see the architectural model of a stadium that is truly one of a kind. An inveterate traveller, she combines her creative side as a sculptor and artistic creator with her collaboration with organizations involved with international analysis and cooperation for development.

The most recent plan was drafted 25 years ago, and therefore fails to meet current needs. In this context, there was a genuine attempt to create a new framework within which to direct the urban model towards a balanced development of the municipalities in which the Circuit is located: Meanwhile, the planning integrates the development of the area surrounding the Circuit, while respecting certain environmental and landscape criteria, and providing the infrastructure and connections that will enable economic activity and for each piece of land to be used as intended.

The urbanistic criteria that have been selected to replace the existing ones are based on the following requirements: The process of drafting the PDU began in at a time of low urban development pressure. The urban framework has been revised in order to meet the new demands and needs of a world-class installation at the highest level, rethinking and adapting aspects already contained in the existing special plan while including new ones, taking into consideration the likely social, environmental and economic impact.

A thorough job has been done as part of the process of drawing up the plan, carrying out an analysis of the territory and systematically combining all the elements, creating a hub of economic activity and ensuring the sustainable development of the surrounding towns. Plan PDU relating to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in order to ensure orderly economic and industrial development of the territory.

The Urban Master Plan covers an area of This is the area which has already begun to produce the initial results: The team has an excellent track record and is internationally respected in the world of motoring. It has partnered with the Chinese company BAIC BJEV to jointly expand at the international level in creating both electric vehicles for general usage and sports and competition vehicles.

This has been one of the Catalan International View. The Can Riba-Can Ninou area This would mean it will more comfortably absorb extra demand generated by the Circuit with the activities that take place there, not only during races, but the rest of the year. Keeping in mind that the Circuit de Barcelona-. The Can Guitet sector The Palou Sud area These complementary activities are necessary to further enhance the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and its surroundings as a centre for activities related to the automotive world.

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The Circuit takes its environmental impact seriously. It demonstrates its commitment to continuous improvement of its environmental performance with its ISO certification. The Circuit takes its environmental responsibilities seriously, since it regularly hosts large events and carries out activities on a daily basis. In this respect, the environment has been a priority in the drafting of the PDU.

In short, the Urban Master Plan has firstly provided a solution to a problem involving the area, which was in need of a new organisational plan in order to provide it with economic visibility. This will promote economic regeneration around the Circuit as key in-. Industrial uses, sport and services for these four areas of activity will undoubtedly bring technological innovation, with the promotion of talent and entrepreneurship, as well as the creation of start-ups.

With a distinguished career in the sporting world, he has worked for companies such as TopFun and Octagon Esedos. He is also councillor for Sant Feliu de Codines. This vigourous 94 year-old has led a courageuous, defiant life, which has yet to be told. The answer is simple: The battalion was engaged in resupplying the frontline in the mountains with food and ammunition. Upon his release he refused to fight for France against Nazism.

The situation was bleak, however, as a result of the repression by the Franco regime which he tried to resist: What offence had he committed exactly? Following his trial, the Spanish Federation of Mountaineering expelled. This left him unable to obtain a passport or travel document. They never issued me with another document. He did not hesitate to disobey them and travel to the Alps. He climbed the summit of the Matterhorn and Montblanc in thanks to the help of an acquaintance who worked for the police in Barcelona.

He travelled to over countries in total and climbed. After winning the Ultra Trail World Tour, the Spanish Federation threatened to strip her of her title if she took to the podium with the estelada [the flag which represents Catalan independence], while also forbidding her from carrying the Catalan flag.

Visions & Cants (Edicions 62)

We clearly have a long way to go. In spite of having been in politics for over 30 years, the economist Jordi Baiget Balaguer, has always stayed in the background, preferring to be on the sidelines. A few months ago President Puigdemont appointed Baiget Minister of the Department of Business and Knowledge in a parliament that is expected to have a short term. In his new post Baiget has been charged with the creation and consolidation of certain structures which will enable Catalonia to become a new state within the European Union. What has this change been like on the personal level, moving from a more discrete role to being at the forefront of Government?

I took on this position while being fully aware of both the honour of serving my country and the responsibility it brings with it, especially at this particular moment in time. What role does the department you head play in the Government of Catalonia as a whole? Our mission is to help consolidate economic growth in order to create more stable and better-paid jobs.

This is our challenge and we wish to help by supporting and stimulating economic activity. And to achieve this by connecting businesses to knowledge Overcoming the current economic crisis required a change in the existing economic model: It is therefore of vital importance we engage with the productive economy and bring it closer to the world of knowledge. Proof of this is the fact that we have an enormous capacity to attract foreign students: We are also leaders in research and innovation, with more than 60 centres of investigation and a consolidated network of infrastructure, technology centres and science parks which employ some 25, researchers and 45, other staff in the research, development and innovation sectors.

Business and Knowledge brings them together, facilitating exchange and creating synergies between the two worlds that must necessarily be in contact as a way to encourage growth and economic and social progress. It helps in building a new economic model that will ultimately result in us becoming a more prosperous nation. Firstly, we believe that industry ought to be the backbone of our economy: Such a commitment will allow us to consolidate our economic recovery while we move forward in setting up a model of sustainable economic growth with resilience to change, while generating stable, quality employment.

We must not forget that this only makes sense if we build an economy that serves the people, not vice versa. In other words, if we ensure that growth is focused on ensuring better welfare and quality of life for all our citizens. Firstly, out of tradition: Catalonia has always been a country with an industrial vocation. But secondly, and more importantly, effectiveness: So much so that at the European level the consensus opinion is that reindustrialization is the fairest way out of recession, creating jobs and maintaining or even improving the standards of the welfare state of each society.

Therefore, in Catalonia, industry is once again key. The challenge is to create an environment that is favourable to the development of industry. This starts with dialogue. Industry needs to feel accepted at the territorial level and we need to ensure it is taxed more favourably, with access to better infrastructure and better energy prices. When it comes to GDP, however, tourism has a big role to play in the Catalan economy And without doubt this is another important component of our economy.

With such figures it is clear that tourism has an enormous strategic value. As a result, we wish to remain a top tourist destination. And in order to do so we wish to emphasize the quality and variety we have to offer. Looking towards the future, our challenge is to move forward in the diversification of tourism, while reducing its seasonality: We ought to further emphasize our diversity when presenting Catalonia as a holiday destination.

Meanwhile, Catalonia wants to become an independent state and there are voices, especially from the Spanish state, saying that the secessionist process. Is this the case? This is crucial because investments have not only failed to decline, they have in fact increased. We are currently the European economy which attracts most foreign capital: In terms of the internationalization of our economy, we have never been better off and have never had such a positive outlook: There is strong growth: We have one of the most open economies in the European Union.

And what do you say about the supposed exodus of companies? Madrid has lost more com-. The numbers speak for themselves: Catalonia lost company headquarters in , And this is without taking into account that businesses from other Spanish regions also set up their main offices in Catalonia. An important part of the work that we will be carrying out over the coming months will focus on designing and proposing different tools to complete this process. In essence this will involve the fields of energy, design and the articulation of a Catalan energy system; the international trade in goods and services; intellectual property; market regulation and the university system.

But aside from specific actions, I would like to stress once again that our commitment should be made to ensuring our model of production is prosperous and sustainable: This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Josep Ferrater Mora, arguably the most important Catalan philosopher of the twentieth century and one of the most remarkable intellectuals to have lived in exile. Ferrater Mora studied Philosophy at the University of Barcelona between and At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he fought at the front on the Republican side, before being wounded and subsequently forced into exile in In he obtained a post at Bryn Mawr College Pennsylvania , where he taught philosophy until Throughout his distinguished career Ferrater Mora was a guest lecturer at many American and European universities and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by some of these institutions.

Although he always closely followed events in Spain, Ferrater Mora never again took up permanent residence here. Not in a tragic sense, however, which is typically the case.

Ferrater Mora was obsessed with always looking ahead he never wrote a memoir and disliked wallowing in the past and, like the philologist Joan Coromines, was able to capitalize on the opportunities the host country offered him. His work is proof of this. I would like to highlight two. There are philosophers who excel in having a unique way of thinking, but that do not give us much of an idea of the intellectual period in which they lived. There are others, however, who provide us with a useful image of the time in which they lived but who stand out for failing to have said anything original.

This is not the case with Ferrater Mora. His work allows us to Catalan International View. His work acts as both a voice and a testimony. Ferrater Mora has a unique philosophical insight that is characterized by being constantly alert to changes and developments occurring in the philosophical and scientific discussions of the moment. Indeed, Ferrater Mora has a unique philosophical insight. It is a thought that is characterized, among other things, by being constantly alert to changes and developments occurring in the philosophical and scientific discussions of the moment. This attention to developments and changes in the discipline is clearly evident in the evolution of his intellectual interests and how he approached them.

In the early phase of his philosophical output, Ferrater Mora aligned himself with the currents which dominated the European continent until the mid-twentieth century, phenomenology and existentialism in particular. During his exile in the US, however, he fully immersed himself in the so-called Anglo-Saxon analytical philosophy.

This concern for changes in knowledge and the way of doing philosophy, however, did not prevent Ferrater Mora from producing work containing his own original thoughts. This, essentially methodological approach was based on an assumption in which realities physical, organic, mental entities, human action, institutions and so on are. His Dictionary of Philosophy is of particular interest. A colossal work that was first published in Mexico in and eventually consisted of four volumes.

It is the most comprehensive dictionary on philosophical matters ever written by a single individual. Seven editions have so far been published, the most recent, in , being an expanded edition -at the hands of Josep M. Terricabras- and reprinted on numerous occasions. Even today, every self-respecting student of philosophy has a copy on their bookshelf. It is a vital addition to any university library. Ferrater Mora dedicated a sustained effort to his Dictionary throughout his career, spanning many decades.

It goes without saying that it was not his favourite work. It even came to be an unwanted obligation. What is undeniable is that the book was his life. A personality that some see as typically Catalan. It is of note that,. A colossal work that was first published in Mexico in What seems clear is that in general Catalans have a strong work ethic -specifically akin to an artisan. Catalans have the background of a craftsman. I was born on Princess Street, in a working-class neighbourhood.

Since December we have been bombarded by news reports on the climate and its future. This was topped by reports a few months ago that the Arctic ice sheet has once again reached an all-time minimum, in keeping with the fact that the northern hemisphere has once again experienced a particularly mild winter. It is known that the phenomenon substantially affects weather patterns in many parts of the world, causing effects such as drought in certain places while producing heavy rains and flooding in others.

We are clearly experiencing a change in environmental conditions associated with global warming. We must ask ourselves if everyone is sufficiently aware of this fact and whether enough is being done to remedy the situation. According to the evaluation of governments, the media and leading environmental organizations and social movements, it would seem that a major step forward has been taken in reducing the impact of global warming.

However, the positive appraisal was not unanimous. There are those in the world of science and social activism who also question the effectiveness of the Paris Agreement on two grounds: We must also take into account the vision of those who will put it into practice and the societies in which it must operate. There is no denying that the Paris Agreement represents a major shift compared to the Kyoto Protocol. In Kyoto climate change was managed in a more homogeneous manner, with developed countries being required to reduce their emissions while developing nations had no emissions obligations.

The world has changed a great deal since then and the sources of. The agreement uses a common methodology, opting for transparency, with countries making a commitment to regularly report back on their agreements and evaluating them in light of changes in global temperature. In the past, climate science led the debate on climate change.

Forum Samopomocy Prawnej Certare [w Fazie Testów]

Now however, there is essentially no need for debate. No rigorous arguments exist for questioning either the existence of Catalan International View. Nevertheless, debate does exist as to how we should act. A model emerged in Paris that was the result of a political agreement containing the basic, essential elements in order to achieve the objectives which had been outlined and accepted by all: No rigorous arguments exist for questioning either the existence of the problem or its cause.

One aspect that has always arisen in the negotiations is that the achievement of objectives in order to build a low-carbon economy and a society which is resilient to climate change is an issue that depends on management at various territorial levels.

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