The 4th Catalan Congress of Philosophy was held in Vilafranca del Penedès from 25 to 28 November, organised by the Catalan Society of Philosophy, a subsidiary of the IEC, in collaboration with the Society of Philosophy of Valencia and the Philosophical Association of the Balearic Islands. The Ferrater Mora Chair collaborated in the organisation of this congress and its director, Prof. Joan Vergés, was a member of its Scientific Committee. The Ferrater Mora Chair collaborated in the organisation of this congress and its director, Prof. Joan Vergés, was a member of its Scientific Committee.

The congress aimed to debate the problems posed by philosophy and included a total of one hundred and sixty-five speakers and lecturers, including specialists from all over the Catalan cultural territory and congress participants from Mexico, Portugal, Italy and France. The inaugural session was held on Wednesday, 25 November, in the Aula Magna of the old Oenological Station of Vilafranca del Penedès, with the participation of Dídac Ramírez, rector of the University of Barcelona; Josep Monserrat, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of the UB and president of the Catalan Society of Philosophy, a subsidiary of the IEC, and Pere Regull, mayor of Vilafranca del Penedès.

The congress included three framework lectures on contemporary philosophy, different round tables covering all areas of philosophy and six specific symposia, three of which focused on three philosophers - Francesc Xavier Llorens i Barba, Jacques Derrida and René Descartes - and three on thematic themes, dedicated to German idealism, ethics and politics, and gustatòria aesthetics. In addition, during the congress, high school students from the Penedès participated in a workshop on neuroscience and creativity; in fact, the role of philosophy in compulsory education is one of the topics that received specific treatment at the congress. As a result, Prof. Xavier Serra, a collaborator of the Chair in its annual philosophy conference for secondary school students, gave a presentation explaining precisely this project of dissemination of philosophy through the conferences organised jointly with the Ferrater Mora Chair.

The conference also included a number of complementary activities, including a concert-class in which the music of Friedrich Nietzsche and Theodor Adorno was married (with premieres of previously unpublished music), a theatrical performance of Francesc Pujols’ Hyparxiology, and the presentation of some new publications (such as Aristotle’s De Anima in Catalan, by the Bernat Metge Foundation, and the latest volume of the Ferrater Mora Chair’s collection of Catalan thought).