Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches 9 Developmental Biology that shines brightly in the scientific universe and illustrates the value of the spirit of collaboration, of team work, of the faithful transmission of knowledge and of shared teaching. The profound humanism manifest in their research supposes a lofty example for young researchers and makes them exceptionally worthy of the Award that we bestow on them today. The Award for Literature has been conferred on the extraordinary Israeli writer Amos Oz, a great defender of peace in the world. His literary work is based above all on the narrative, though also on the short story, memoirs, poetry and essays. To open his books is to find oneself entrapped in the atmospheres he knows how to create so well, in the tales he tells us, in the diverse characters he gives life to through genuine literature and deeply moving thought. He has contributed to converting modern Hebrew into a language of culture and occupies his place within the universal literary tradition because he understands so well that literature, art —all the arts— are fields without frontiers, rivers whose waters surge from highly diverse sources and from all centuries. Light and shadow, passion and humour, tragedy and poetry, pain and joy, reality and dreaming are the forces that illuminate his books and which move his readers. Amos Oz, all of whose writings are autobiographical, is an author intensely committed to his most immediate reality, that of his country, Israel, and what its history and present-day situation represent. Founder of the Peace Now Movement, Oz believes that “where there is life there has to be compromise, a meeting place.” He tells us that fanaticism is the most perverse of plagues, a blind force that obliges one to renounce being oneself. And to avoid this, Oz reminds us, through pages full of imagination and profound beauty, that one’s own belief cannot be imposed, neither by force of arms nor with violence. The scientific journals Nature and Science have received the Award for Communication and Humanities. Created in the 19th century, the most prestigious scientists have published their discoveries, advances, analyses and studies in their pages. Thanks to these journals, we have been informed —as the Jury has pointed out— of “knowledge of the highest degree”, since they have provided a channel for the most important research studies, the results of which they have known how to transmit to the international community in the most rigorous way. In the present day, the media face the challenge of serving society via truthful, rigorous information that must at all times be of the highest quality. What is more, public opinion often encounters serious difficulties in understanding the consequences of scientific discoveries, which on occasions, when they are not used prudently, may become sterile or incomprehensible if not explained in language that is accessible to non-specialists. For this reason, we must afford great value to the work of journals like Nature and Science , which have managed to interest —at one and the same time— research professionals and the public at large, bringing, as the Jury has stated, “science closer to life”. Nature and Science perfectly exemplify the secure direction that an advanced society may —and must— follow: drawing attention to the highest level of scientific knowledge, of knowledge per se , while at the same time disseminating it in themost rigorous, in-depthmanner andmaking it universal. The Award for Social Sciences has been conferred on the eminent Anglo-German sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf. Committed to freedom and democracy, a great defender of Europe and of the fundaments that sustain its union, Dahrendorf has highlighted the historical importance and transcendence of the splendid European project for the world. Ralf Dahrendorf holds that the principles of democracy continue to be essential for any liberal order and that its parliamentary and representative institutions signify a major conquest in the history of humanity. He also confers great importance on the process of applying democracy to a supranational organization—as is the European Union—with the aim of avoiding the difficulties with which people express their will when many relevant decisions have been transferred to European institutions. “We never forget those who need the encouragement and strength that comes from solidarity, the victims of terrorism, fanaticism, poverty and injustice.”