Conferences
Cristian Pirvulescu: Politics - Does It Still Have a Meaning?
16 lei
On Sunday, 22nd of February 2015, at 11:00 a.m., at Sala Atelier of The National Theatre, Cristian Pîrvulescu will deliver a conference on the topic Politics - Does It Still Have a Meaning?. Ticket price: 16 lei.
About the conference
In a time when the daily political scandal seems to have irreversibly compromised politics does this still have a meaning? Can justice be a substitute of politics in a time when the rule of law has become a daily leit-motif? What is left of the separation of powers in the State and how can the rule of law function today?
It is not quite clear who and when first used the expression "Fiat justitia, pereat mundus", but the idea that justice should prevail over ethics, mores, feelings and especially politics is well-known since ancient times. Hence the question: how can the act of justice be ethically justified and what is its role in society?
Should justice be independent? This philosophical dilemma is expressed by the conflict between the utilitarian vision (justice should provide maximum of utility, namely, to maximize hapiness and to minimize suffering, in the way John Stuart Mill understood this) and the absolute vision -as we could call it - (justice should be eternal, universal, immutable, implacable, impersonal etc.) Consequently, what type of ethics is procedural justice - the one that in common parlance we call justice - subject to? To the utilitarian one, namely to the idea that justice is a function of the State and it has a practical utility, or to the one against or non-utilitarian, namely to the idea that justice is the embodiment of supreme Justice. But who can decide what and how is supreme Justice?
Returning on the banks of the Dâmboviţa river to the Romanian society, we might say, paraphrasing Caragiale: "Let there be justice, but let us know it, too." "We ", that is they, the politicians obsessed with polls, who are in a permanent election campaign, living in a permanent today. Let there be justice? Of course! To achieve what?
About Cristian Pîrvulescu
Cristian Pîrvulescu is a politologist, a political commentator and an activist for democracy and human rights.
As a professor at the Faculty of Political Science of the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, where he has been working since 1992, he teaches Political Science (Fundamental Concepts in Political Science, Political Institutions, Comparative Politics). Since 2005 he is the Dean of the faculty.
He actively takes part in civic and political debates in mass-media and he also publishes political commentaries in the written media.
He is the honorary president of the Pro Democracy Association whose president he was from 1999 to 2013.
Since 2007 he is a member of the European Economic and Social Committee .
Translated by Toma (Grama) Aureliana
MTTLC, University of Bucharest
