Oviedo (EFE).- The Italian philosopher, writer and professor Nuccio Ordine has been distinguished this Thursday with the Princess Award for Communication and Humanities 2023 for his defense of humanist values and for his commitment to an education far from the tendency to pragmatism that instills in students the pleasure of knowledge.
The jury has highlighted that this benchmark in the study of classical literature and one of the greatest experts on the figure of the Neapolitan thinker Giordano Bruno and on the Renaissance establishes a dialogue with contemporary society “to transmit, especially to the youngest, that The importance of knowing is found in the learning process itself.
The essayist has expressed the great honor of being distinguished with this award, since he considers Spain and Latin America a second homeland where he has found “brothers in arms” in his battle “to defend the school and the university from mercantilist drift.”
“At a time when those who teach are considered obsolete because the modern school and university would only be made up of computers and blackboards connected to the Internet,” Ordine has dedicated the “prestigious” award “to those who teach and quietly change the life of his students.
Combative with current utilitarianism
At 64, this professor of Italian Literature at the University of Calabria is considered one of the most prominent voices in contemporary philosophy for his vindication of humanism and knowledge, to build a better society, in the face of the utilitarianism that dominates the world today.
An exceptional disseminator, he has placed some of his numerous works on best-seller lists, such as “The Usefulness of the Useless”, a bestseller translated into 32 countries and 20 languages and which synthesizes his thought: “In a society in which Only what produces benefit is considered useful, we do not realize that all that knowledge considered useless, because it does not produce benefit, is fundamental for humanity”.
Born on July 18, 1958 in Diamante (Italy), a small town of just over 5,000 inhabitants where there was no school and a teacher taught him at home, Ordine has always claimed that his origins have not prevented him become one of the most illustrious scholars of literature and philosophy.
Ordine has taught as a visiting professor at prestigious universities such as Yale (USA), the Sorbonne (Paris), the CESR de Tours (France), the IEA in Paris, the Warburg Institute (England) and the Max Planck Society of Berlin.
The classics to understand the present
In addition to “The utility of the useless” (2013), he has published numerous books such as “El umbral de la sombra” (2006) and “Clásicos para la vida. A small ideal library ”(2017), a work in which she vindicates classics such as Cervantes, Shakespeare and Plato to understand current issues, from the inequality of women to the independence movement; “I would recommend Puigdemont and Rajoy to read Montesquieu,” said the author in an interview with EFE in 2017.
Doctor “honoris causa” from the Comillas Pontifical University, Ordine is a Knight of Honor of the French Legion (2002), Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2010) and Honorary Member of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2010).
Critical of mistreatment of philosophy
Throughout his career, he has analyzed the rise of nationalist and far-right parties, stressing that they only seek to “take advantage of the indignation and suffering of the wealthy classes to foment the war of some poor people, those who have paid the price.” crisis, against other poor people, the migrants”.
Also, in this line, it has considered that the coronavirus pandemic was the consequence of a neoliberal policy that “has neglected and put at risk the two pillars of human dignity, the right to health and the right to knowledge” and that has shown to humanity that “the idea that ruled the world is not true, that individualism that ensures that men are separate islands.”
The thinker has also reflected on the “mistreatment” that philosophy suffers in the classroom and even the debate about whether it is a subject that, like ancient languages, is useful or not.
The candidacy of Ordine, the third Italian recognized with this award after the philosopher and writer Umberto Eco in 2000 and the journalist Indro Montanelli (along with Julián Marías Aguilera) in 1996, was proposed by the director of Acantilado Editorial, Sandra Ollo Razquín.
This has been the second of the eight awards convened annually by the Princess of Asturias Foundation to fail, after last week the award for the Arts was awarded to the American actress Meryl Streep. EFE