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Writer and academic Juan Manuel de Prada delivered an inspiring lecture at the 11th Felipe Segovia Symposium, held at Camilo José Cela University (UCJC), where he reflected on the role of truth, goodness and beauty in education. The author of The Masks of the Hero and A Thousand Eyes Hide the Night advocated for an education that “shapes complete human beings, not mere professionals,” and warned of the risk of a university model “turned into a certificate-dispensing office.”
De Prada recalled with emotion his meeting with Felipe Segovia, founder of the Institución Educativa SEK, “whom I met — he said — thanks to my mentor Camilo José Cela, when this university was just being born.” He stated that returning to UCJC twenty-five years later is “a joy and an honor,” as he can see that the institution “keeps its founding spirit alive and continues to nourish the human community with enduring ideas and values.”
In his talk, the writer warned against “the imposition of purely utilitarian criteria in the transmission of knowledge,” which, in his view, has sidelined the humanities and “killed the desire for knowledge that Aristotle considered the noblest human aspiration.” “Our era,” he added, “has turned education into a commercial process that produces skilled technicians who are morally neutral.” In contrast, he called for the recovery of an education inspired by the classical trilemma verum, bonum et pulchrum—truth, goodness and beauty—which he described as “the eternal beacon of a truly holistic education.”
For De Prada, the search for truth is the university’s foremost duty: “In an age of post-truth and manipulative algorithms, forming critical minds is an act of resistance.” Truth, he affirmed, “frees the individual from ignorance and tyranny,” and only a truthful education “can create free, responsible people who are capable of delving into the heart of things.”
The author also underscored the importance of goodness as the moral compass of knowledge: “Moral education is the antidote to the selfishness and corruption that plague our societies. The superior person is the one who practices what they preach.” He concluded this reflection by highlighting the value of beauty as nourishment for the soul: “Without beauty, education becomes arid and dehumanised. Beauty elevates the spirit, awakens sensitivity and humanises knowledge.”
Finally, De Prada championed the role of the humanities as “a bridge between the past and the present” and as a guarantee of intellectual freedom: “When a young person does not know their history or their language, they are being deprived of the right to know who they are.” With his customary clarity, he concluded that “only a university that seeks truth, cherishes beauty and recognises goodness will be able to respond to the challenges of our time and stand as a true temple of knowledge.”
