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Pere Lluís Font, Award of Honor of the Catalan Letters
A career committed to teaching, translation and the defense of critical thinking from one's own language.
This 2025, the Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature has been awarded to Pere Lluís Font , a prominent figure in the field of thought who, over the decades, has worked to grow philosophy in Catalan. It is the first time that this recognition has gone to a philosopher, a fact that underlines the importance of his work within the country's culture. Beyond the award, what is valued is a solid and constant trajectory, built from teaching, translation and the promotion of critical thinking, always with the commitment to do so from the own language.
Born in 1934 in Pujalt, in Pallars Sobirà, Pere Lluís Font has dedicated a good part of his life to studying, transmitting and disseminating the thought of great European authors, always from Catalan. He has done so in a context in which the presence of one's own language in the academic field has not always been guaranteed or easy to defend. One of the most relevant initiatives in this regard was the creation, in the early eighties, of the collection Textos filosòfics, a publishing project that made it possible to offer the Catalan public almost a hundred fundamental titles of Western thought, with names such as Kant, Hume, Schopenhauer, Descartes and Kierkegaard. In recent years, Font has continued to be active in the field of translation, with works such as Pensaments i opuscles de Blaise Pascal, which received the National Translation Prize, and Poemes essencials de Sant Joan de la Creu, a clear example of his interest in the intersections between mysticism, philosophy and language.
© Omnium
This editorial work has gone hand in hand with a long and well-established teaching career, first at the University of Barcelona and later at the Autonomous University, where he taught history of philosophy and philosophy of religion. His time in the classroom not only trained students, but also contributed to consolidating the teaching of philosophical thought in Catalan, a task no small feat if we take into account the political and educational circumstances of the last fifty years.
The jury of the award, made up of Maria Campillo , Judith Carrera , Raül Garrigasait , Àngels Gregori , Marta Nadal , Jaume C. Pons Alorda , Clàudia Pujol , Enric Sòria and Salvador Sunyer , wanted to highlight not only the dimension and consistency of Pere Lluís Font's work, but also his role as a link between the so-called Barcelona school — abruptly broken by the Civil War — and the generations that came after. In this sense, his career is part of a line that defends the continuity of a philosophical thought rooted in the country and that is committed to exploring it and transmitting it from Catalan.
During the award ceremony, Xavier Antich , president of Òmnium Cultural, highlighted the importance of this trajectory, not only as individual recognition but as a collective tribute to teachers, thinkers and translators who have kept philosophy alive despite the obstacles. Antich also took the opportunity to claim critical thinking as a fundamental tool in the face of simplifying discourses and authoritarian tendencies.
© ACN/ Eli Don
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