APPEAL FOR PHILOSOPHY Although it is widely recognized
that it is impossibile to postpone a rational comparison of World cultural experiences,
the encounter among different civilizations has been and is currently marked by
a general flattening of customs and expressions, or the loss of historical memory:
each civilization seems to exchange with the others the worst aspects and faults
instead of their virtues. In that huge melting pot of civilizations represented
by the classic world, a vital and perpetual nourishment rose: the philosophical
reflection, a knowledge that has marked our history and to which we are debtors
for the distinguishing features of our society. Nevertheless the attitude of
the contemporary society towards philosophy seems not appropriate to the problems
of our present. In the schools of many Countries, the teaching of philosophy and
history of the scientific thought is getting more and more ignored and limited:
millions of young students ignore even the very meaning of the term philosophy.
We are educating technical and pratical talents and atrophying the genius of the
philosophical invention. Therefore it follows that the number of those who understand
- or are effectively able to understand - the ties connecting the factors that
constitute the historical truth, is decreasing. On the contrary, nowadays and
more than ever the World needs new creative forces. In order to stimulate creativity
we need to nourish the critical ability that means people familiar with philosophy. For
this reason. we call upon all World Parliaments and Governments to confirm and
strengthen, or introduce, in every school, the study of philosophy in its historical
course and connection with science - beginning from the Greek and Oriental thought
- considering it as an essential premise to an actual encounter among peoples
and cultures to define new categories that get over the present contradictions
and shine humanity on the way to Good. In this amazing and upsetting moment of
our history, when the word "humanity" begins to mean "all men",
it is necessary to retrieve a civil orientation. Philosophy is necessary. The
Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo supports the Appeal for Philosofy called by
the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici.
Naples, December
12th , 1994 |