Skip to main content

17 November 2016: World Philosophy Day





World Philosophy Day is celebrated annually on the third Thursday of November – this year it’s 17 November 2016. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established World Philosophy Day in 2005 especially for young people. UNESCO announced that ‘philosophy is a discipline that encourages critical and independent thought and is capable of working towards a better understanding of the world and promoting tolerance and peace.’ It occurs a day after World Tolerance Day on 16 November.

By celebrating World Philosophy Day UNESCO underlines the enduring value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and each individual. UNESCO director-general, Irina Bokova, said, ‘Faced with the complexity of today’s world, philosophical reflection is above all a call to humanity, 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.’

On this day of collective exercise in free, reasoned and informed thinking on major challenges of our time, all of UNESCO’s partners, educational institutions and individuals are encouraged to organize activities, such as philosophical dialogues, debates, conferences, workshops, cultural events and presentations. Philosophical dialogue can take place anywhere at any time – primary and secondary schools, hospitals, prisons, cafes, evening classes, language classes, public libraries, theatres, cinemas, businesses, and research laboratories etc.

For example, UNESCO is organizing the 15th International Encounters on New Philosophical Practices conference in Paris, France, on 16-17 November 2016 and A Night of Philosophy in Paris on 18-19 November 2016.

The 15th International Encounters on New Philosophical Practices conference provides a forum for everyone who is interested in the practice of philosophy in all its forms, including the least traditional. There will be practical philosophy demonstrations with and for children, teenagers and adults, roundtable discussions, communication workshops, research workshops, a book fair, and a ‘cine philo’ led by Ollivier Pourriol. It finishes with a banquet at the Falstaff restaurant.






http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/most-programme/humanities-and-philosophy/philosophy-day-at-unesco/


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou
8 comments
Read more