Philosophy as ‘force for individual and collective emancipation’
Marking World Philosophy Day, the head of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) has stressed that sustainability calls for new ways of thinking about ourselves and the planet and as such, “philosophy and all the humanities will be essential.” “The conviction that philosophy can make an essential contribution to human well-being, to addressing complexity, to advancing peace stands at the heart of World Philosophy Day,” UNESCO ’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, said in her message for this year’s celebration. Ms. Bokova pointed out that UNESCO puts philosophy forward as a force for individual and collective emancipation: “For to think, while reflecting on what it is to think, is to philosophize, and all of us do it constantly, driven by the truest motor of all human ingenuity – wonder.” World Philosophy Day has been observed every third Thursday of November since 2002. According to UNESCO, philosophy is dialogue of wonder, across the ages, with ar...