All our philosophy is as dry as dust if it is not immediately translated into some act of living service. – Gandhi
Faced with the complexity of today’s world, philosophical reflection is above all a call to humility, to take a step back and engage in reasoned dialogue, to build together the solutions to challenges that are beyond our control. This is the best way to educate enlightened citizens, equipped to fight stupidity and prejudice. The greater the difficulties encountered the greater the need for philosophy to make sense of questions of peace and sustainable development.” – Irina Bokova (UNESCO Director-General)
TODAY we celebrate World Philosophy Day and so I’ve spent the whole of the morning devouring the material created as part of the South-South Philosophical Dialogue project designed to provide young people and their teachers with materials for questioning the world, enabling them to grow into responsible, open and participative citizens.
Excerpt from introduction: “True peace is not simply the result of political negotiations or strategic agreements between peoples and States, but the work of human beings with the training and the passion for seeking truth and doing good. True peace therefore has an anthropological basis, which is the humanised human being who is committed to truth and good as the common property of all humankind. This is precisely the fundamental importance that philosophy should have in promoting peace in the world today, as it represents the form of knowledge that quintessentially teaches human beings that the desire for truth and the desire for good come together in the desire to coexist in peace with oneself, with nature and with others.”
The texts selected for this anthology capture the spirits of philosophy in Africa, the Arab region, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of cosmology, epistemology, politics, gender, ecology and aesthetics.
check out table of contents on page 12 and start exploring: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002284/228411E.pdf
Girlwithoutawatch 