Dr. Antoni Bosch-Veciana, a lecturer from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Universitat Ramon Llull, gave the opening address at the 6th edition of the UNIV Forum, which was held at the UIC's Faculty of Humanities. The subject of this year's event, which is organized by Rome's Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria (ICU), is Friendship: a New Model of Citizenship.
During his opening address for the event, which was held on the UIC’s Barcelona and Sant Cugat campuses on Thursday, 16 and Thursday, 23 October 2014 (respectively), Dr. Bosch-Veciana invited those present to think about friendship as Aristotle understood it: “A friendship in which there is no obligation, but there is necessity”.
“Aristotle defined friendship as the act of moving outside oneself and towards another; of giving oneself to another and respecting them. However, if one negates the other, that is bad”, the lecturer from the Universitat Ramon Llull affirmed. “The acid test for a real friendship is being able to talk to your friend about whatever you want, without feeling cornered at any time”, he continued.
Dr. Bosch-Veciana then asked the 50 attendees to consider this thought: “When you are capable of sitting in silence with your friend, without saying anything, then he or she is truly your friend. Knowing when to talk and when not to talk: that is friendship. A friend is someone you can be sure will never betray you”.
The UNIV Forum is a multidisciplinary event that provides a place for permanent dialogue and a meeting point for communication and university debate. It tackles a different subject every year. Several months before each edition, the local stages of the forum take place at different universities in each country; this year, for the sixth consecutive occasion, the local stage for Catalonia is being held at the UIC. The final meeting, which will feature the best addresses from the preliminary stages, will be held in Rome during Holy Week.
