Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

4 O viedo | C ampoamor T heatre | 24 th O ctober 2014 In his book T he Names of Christ , the Augustinian friar known as Fray Luis de León provides us with some thoughts on how to establish peace among men and nations. Fray Luis begins with St Augustine’s definition: peace is the tranquillity that precedes order. Peace thus consists of two elements: order and serenity. Order, in the sense that all things must keep their proper place; each one should pay others the respect and courtesy that is due to them. Peace also demands serenity; that is to say, concord, consent, overt or tacit acceptance: “order by and in itself, without rest does not bring peace; nor do rest and serenity, if order is absent.” In other words, peace —to be truly so— supposes justice, without which it would be no more than the mere absence of war or, more exactly, it would be a sort of war that has yet to be openly declared. The requirement of serenity —of acceptance and consent— breaks the impasse that the mere need for order may entail. When the current order is no longer accepted, another form of organization is needed to restore serenity. It hence follows that order in itself is not an absolute value that must be maintained at all costs; it is only valid insofar as it is accompanied by serenity and deserves the freely given endorsement of all parties. Order and serenity are thus in a dialectical relationship; order without serenity degenerates into armed peace, tyranny, despotism; serenity without order leads to immoral, reprehensible situations. True peace requires that order and serenity walk hand in hand. Joseph Pérez — Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2014 Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences on 24/10/2014.