Spanish writer Irene Vallejo champions curiosity as an antidote to fear

Santo Domingo.- The Spanish writer Irene Vallejo, invested this Tuesday as a doctor honoris causa by the Universidad APEC, Santo Domingo, claimed in her speech the value of curiosity which, she said, “acts as an antidote against fear“, while defending the importance of humanistic culture.

“History documents how many times fear ends up undermining the values that its defenders intend to safeguard. Curiosity acts as an antidote to that fear,” he/she pointed out.

In his presentation, Vallejo stated that “those who throughout history have reaffirmed their independence always had to strive to overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of their desire to know. The limits of curiosity border on the frontiers of despair.” The writer explained that “every time a child is born, a lighthouse appears that radiates curiosity and the world seems interesting again“, but warned that as they grow up, this is stifled and “only a small fraction of that luminous capacity” is preserved. “Somehow we are putting on blinders and raising walls that keep our curiosity at bay,” he explained to the audience that attended the ceremony of Unapec, a private university institution founded in 1964. In addition, the author of ‘The Infinite in a Reed’ (2019) defended the importance of reading the classics and the humanities “that contribute to the world an uninterested, long-term search for answers that we still ignore or for omitted realities, without submitting to the toll of immediate utility, vaguely intuiting or not even their future application.”

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“Our studies, work, and aspirations are demanded immediate utility, and any effort that is not quickly profitable seems like naivety or the whim of dreamers. These ideas mortally wound teaching and research,” he affirmed. Vallejo also defended the importance of education in a speech full of references to classical authors and scientific studies. Furthermore, he explained that the scientific discoveries that have transformed the world “were born from passionate curiosity and the desire to extend the limits of knowledge”, and maintained that reading provides “an inner compass” that allows one to “interpret new information, unexpected facts and disconcerting aspects”. He continued that “if we do not possess that inner compass, we run the risk of becoming increasingly suggestible people, moved by doubtful, even false information, which we will not know how to challenge or, worse still, by data whose nature we do not even care about.” In that sense, it was pointed out that currently “in this strange political era, many people distrust the nuances of experts and instead give credence to those who make resounding statements.” “The agitated television discussions and social media, always burning, act as echo chambers for the most drastic voices. Converted into hunters of certainties in two hundred and eighty characters, we listen less and less to those who doubt. That brings us back to our Socrates, who became famous for his humble maxim: I only know that I know nothing,” he reflected.