May Philosophy Day Motivate Thinking!

 

World Philosophy Day 2024 / 21 November / Article

May Philosophy Day Motivate Thinking!

Fr Dr M. D. Thomas

Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi

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World Philosophy Day is celebrated on the third Thursday of November every year and this year it falls on the 21st day of November. It was declared an international day by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

 

World Philosophy Day was first celebrated in 2002. In 2005, UNESCO institutionalized World Philosophy Day. The first ever World Philosophy Day was held in Paris at the headquarters of UNESCO.

 

The intention of declaring the day was to honor philosophical reflections around the world. It is a day for people to share thoughts, openly explore and discuss new ideas and inspire public debate or discussion on the challenges of the society.

 

Affirming philosophy as the universal language of thought and underlining the value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and for each individual, were the objectives of the day.

 

Philosophy gives particular importance to intuitions. It situates the correctness of specific claims or general principles. It plays an important role in thought experiments. It evaluates the possible consequences of an imagined situation, as well.

 

Philosophy seeks to form a coherent position on a certain issue by examining all the relevant beliefs and intuitions. The anticipated consequences can be used for confirming or refuting philosophical theories.

 

The concepts of philosophy comprise ideas of existence, knowledge, values, the mind, language, and reason that have evolved throughout history. There is no doubt that philosophy has made great contributions to molding and transforming the future societies of the world.

 

Experimental philosophy is of rather recent origin. Its methods differ from most other methods of philosophy.  It tries to answer philosophical questions by gathering empirical data in ways similar to social psychology and the cognitive sciences.

 

The theme for World Philosophy Day 2023 was “Philosophical Reflection in a Multicultural World”. This theme highlights the importance of philosophy in promoting understanding and dialogue between different cultures and perspectives.

 

The UNESCO organized a panel discussion on “Artificial intelligence, a tool for mental health care?", to mark World Philosophy Day 2023 during the 42nd General Conference. The round-table reflected on the potential contributions of AI to a human-centered approach of mental health and examined its ethical repercussions and moral concerns.

 

The work of UNESCO on philosophy aims to promote humanist thinking as a response to social transformations and encourages its use for impact on political dialogue. Philosophy allows to think collectively about the future of humanity and thus to design a better world.

 

While launching World Philosophy Day in 2005, UNESCO gave emphasis to the fact that philosophy is crucial to the young generation. It is a discipline that stimulates the objective examination and evaluation of issues to make a decision as per UNESCO.

 

UNESCO established that World Philosophy Day improves the development of independent critical rational thinking. This results in a better awareness of the world, promoting peace and patience.

 

The beginning of Western philosophy starts with Thales of Miletus. Thales was an ancient Greek philosopher from Miletus who lived in the 6th century BCE. He is known for proposing that water was the fundamental principle of the universe. He attempted to create a theory that would explain the natural world.

 

There are seven types of philosophical studies: Metaphysics, Axiology, Logic, Aesthetics, Epistemology, Ethics and Political Philosophy. Epistemology studies what knowledge is and how to acquire it. Ethics investigates moral principles and what constitutes right conduct.

 

A few of the ways to observe World Philosophy Day are -- participating in workshops and cultural events that are in collaboration with academic institutions, government, and organizations which are arranged by UNESCO. The activities can be based on philosophical dialogues, debates, conferences, workshops, cultural events, and presentations.

 

World Philosophy Day can be celebrated at home too, by downloading thinking sheets, visual philosophy recitals, and posters. Sharing awareness about one’s favourite ideas and concepts on social media is also another way. One could also celebrate the day by reading a book, watching a movie or serial on philosophy.


Joining hands with UNESCO and actively partaking in UNESCO’s planned activities and events for the year’s celebration at international, national, and local levels is yet another way of celebrating the day.

 

Further still, one could join in activities with media legislatures, teachers, students, and the general community. Visiting exhibitions, book launches, fairs, and philosophy cafes, among other exciting and educational happenings is also another way of celebrating the day.

 

A few of the most popular philosophy intellectuals are Thales, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato. A few of the other leading philosophers of the world are Lao-Tzu, John Locke, Karl Marx, Confucius, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Immanuel Kant and Epicurus.

 

Some of the philosophers in India are Adi Shankara, Vyasa, Chanakya, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Nagarjuna and Vivekananda. 

 

World Philosophy Day was boycotted in 2010. Globally, academies erupted in an organized boycott for the reason that celebrating in Tehran would risk veering the festivity into political propaganda for a vicious administration.

 

World Philosophy Day gives people all around the world a platform to exuberantly vocalize their philosophical beliefs on old and modern issues and comprehend the world better. This practice supports the peaceful coexistence of diverse people globally.

 

World Philosophy Day nurtures philosophical analysis, research, and studies on major current events, to respond more appropriately to the issues the world is going through nowadays. Through World Philosophy Day, knowledge of the vital role of philosophy and its importance can be made known to people, as well.

 

On occasion of World Philosophy Day 2024, we need to resolve to learn to philosophize and think and thus contribute to the culture of thinking, reflection, creativity and innovation. Hail World Philosophy Day!   

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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to education, cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, social ethics, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past nearly 45 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.

He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).

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