Dr. Mohyeddin Bahram Mohammadian the Head of OERP opened the symposium and first congratulated the attendees on the 37^th anniversary of success of the Islamic revolution. He cited some verses of the holy Quran on giving thanks to God and on the children of Israel. He considered historical stories of the Quran as instructive and added that history is the mirror of the past and light of the path to future.

The special guest of the symposium was Dr. Abdolhosein Khosropanah, chairman of the Iranian Research Institute of Philosophy.

He classified the temporary intellectual currents in Iran into six groups and provided some information on traditional thinkers, modernity, spirituality, etc. and introduced some works of Martin Heidegger and René Guenon.