Honourable President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Honourable Professor Eduardo Lourenço

It is with great pleasure that I take part in this International Conference which places an essential question: "Which values for this age?"

Times are really propitious for initiatives such as this one. Frequent mention is made of a general crisis in the matter of sense which would offend the systems and values on which our societies were built.

From ages such as this, Oliveira Martins said:

“… a system is succeeded by another system and, in the intervals of the successively dominating doctrines, there always are pauses of obscure materialism.”

Are we living one of such pauses? But, if so, we know that it is exactly at the time of obscure materialism that more is demanded from men to confer new sense to the values of all ages and, at the same time, to glimpse new values.

Unfortunately Professor Fernando Gil, the inspring mind of this Conference, is no longer with us, but the example he left us is still alive. The example of a man of convictions who, prisoner of an extraordinary lucidity, dedicated his life to an incessant search for the conditions of the possible truth.

Fernando Gil identified a task which, in his own words, was desperately urgent: discover the values of this age. I do not pretend, in these simple words, to suggest any answer to such a major question. That is the task which is attributed to the collective thought that will take place here, today and tomorrow.

But allow me to say a few words about another question: why do we need values?

Men aspire to an ideal or, at least, hope for an ideal which they can follow. In fact, without an ideal of life in common and without the values that bring it to fruition, the links that connect men over time would not exist. A group without common values would not be a society, since it would lack sense, hope and future. Force would then be the only means for men to stick together. And, as I think you will agree, force does not forge the social link.

Values are thus the expression of an agreement on how to bring about common objectives. I do not mean elaborate abstractions lengthily worked out by philosophical thought. I mean values which unite the men who live in common. I mean definite values – about good conviviality, about common welfare, about work, about helping each other and cooperation, about cultural practices and traditional costumes – values which represent an existing society facing other groups and facing History.

Such values of life in common pacify the eternal tension between the need for us to live together and each one wishing to lead his own life.

Nevertheless it does not seem possible to sustain values in the model of a solitary man, because values arise, precisely, when real values are shared. That is how the objectives of each one are confronted with the objectives of all and, consequently, how to resolve the tension between the individual and the corporate. This is how conditions are created for men to cooperate, that is, for men to work together.

In short, in order not to be solitary man must be equitable.

As far as I am concerned, I ascertain that men cooperate. It is true that the end of certainties is being talked about, as is the denial of tradition, the disbelief in ideals. The diagnosis is at times heavy, distressing.

However, beyond all these theoretical thoughts, cooperative relations continue to be developed between men in real life.

These cooperative relations are based either in reciprocity or in altruism. This means, immediately, that human choice cannot always be explained in terms of individual and selfish benefits. Men are equally motivated by other rationalisms, based on friendship, compassion, respect or simply the wish to work in common.

As President of the Portuguese Republic, as a Portuguese, I would wish that this spirit of cooperation, this wish to work in common, should dominate my countrymen more deeply. Within my possibilities, I would like to contribute for such a purpose. I believe, moreover, that there are reasons to be hopeful. This is my conviction, a conviction based on sound reasons.

I feel it always when I find Portuguese available to perform voluntary actions. I am particularly touched when I see so many youths amongst them, those who supposedly would disbelieve such ideals.

I feel such reasons when I appraise the effort of those Portuguese who, gratuitously, impel numerous collective bodies of our civil society.

I feel there are reasons to be hopeful when I meet Portuguese that, notwithstanding the seductive offers received from abroad, choose to remain among us and give their contribution to the country in, for example, the more advanced scientific areas.

I feel also sound reasons to believe in the cooperative spirit of the Portuguese when I find enterprises that assume their social responsibility.

I feel hope in all actions of voluntary cooperation and in all the wishes that join together to work for common welfare.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We know that values, as a corporate creation, can be determined by meditated and deliberate actions. Debates such as this which will take place here during the following days will be valuable due to the capacity to provide other references and will be able to do so if common sense is reached. This will confirm the maxim “think better to live better”.

To live in accordance with the values of our choice could be a difficult route, but the only one that would be coherent. In our societies, in which the issue of values is always open, its choice is an exercise of freedom. But an exercise of freedom with responsibility.

In fact, we are free because we are predisposed to alter our convictions should we be so convinced. But we are also conscious that only our predisposition to change will provide value to the fact of maintaining our convictions.

We are also free because we are responsible and because we know we will be called to responsibility for the choices we make and by our interpretation of such choices in all our life. We are, after all, responsible towards all the others.

It is undoubtedly, a difficult freedom.

This is the greatest of responsibilities, mediation between my freedom and the values of others. In each man who knows how to thus live his responsibility I find a new reason for hope.

My congratulations to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and its President, for having organized this Conference, and I wish that all participants enjoy fruitful work. I cannot hide my curiosity to ascertain your answer to the question: "Which values for this age?"