World Philosophy Day: The Human of the Future
17 November 2022
Zinan Binte Zaman :
Our loving planet, the earth is the inhabitant of about eight billion people. They are different in cultures, races, customs and languages. But the only one matter common in all of them, that is, the ability of thinking. In broader sense, it means the philosophy. Many people may raise their eyebrow in this context, because most of them conceive philosophy as an obscure study, which is far away from our daily life. But this is not a right conception about philosophy. Philosophy is not only the study of abstract thought, it is very much connected to our life and observation related to the living world. So, philosophy is the universal language, which binds the different people together.
The world organization UNESCO recognized the significant power of philosophy by announcing the third Thursday of November as "World Philosophy Day". Every year UNESCO selects different theme to celebrate the day. In this year, 2022 the theme of the day is, The Human of the Future. This is undoubtedly a very important topic for today's world and civilization.
Human beings are only rational animal among all creatures of the world. From ancient to present time, the human civilization has been changing in many ways, and the change in human thoughts plays a significant role in this blue planet. The world evolution faces various challenges in every stages of its development. Humans solve these challenges by using knowledge and intellect. The civilization thus reached the present stage. However, the problems we face today have got new phases during the development course. In this situation, we are badly in need of philosophical solution.
Nowadays we live in the era of hyper-technology. It is the great outcome of our scientific thinking and development. Here we face some cognitive and pragmatic problems, such as,in this hyper-technologized period, the very concept of humanity is in constant evolution. What do we call human at present days? Despite the obvious historical evolution and the uncertain future we face, how can we describe the human? Are we witnessing a transfiguration so radical that its own definition, in addition to the humanistic horizon, is outdated? How can we envisage the new figures of the human in the future? - UNESCO indicates these questions and wants the solution in philosophical way. In addition, we can also arise some related problematic questions connected to our socio-political or economic issues.
The essence of human being is rationality with animality. That is why human are superior. This superiority also imposes the moral duty to human being. This is unchangeable and constant. When one can feel one's human essence of rationality then he can preserved the humanity. Only deep thinking of philosophy helps us to discover our potential rational feeling. So, it is exaggerate to describe the necessity of philosophy in present world.
(Zinan is Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Kabi Nazrul Govt. College, Dhaka).
