For Further Social Development, Peaceful, Safe and Useful for People
Wiesław Sztumski
University of Silesia in Katowice, 40-007 Katowice 11, Bankowa St., Poland (Poland)
Abstract
In the 21st century, social progress based on the idea of the earlier Enlightenment (productivity, rationalism and respect for private good) brought humanity to the brink of the abyss. Its further continuation threatens to destroy humanity, and maybe even our planet. This warning is included in the first and second report of the Club of Rome. Therefore, the authors of the second report from 2017, Ernst Ulrich v. Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman, recommend creating a New Enlightenment. This is a challenge for the present generation – the last one that can and should do this to protect humankind from cataclysm. Above all, one has to stop the irresponsible and harmful social progress, which crosses the limits of growth. However, not everyone agrees with this. Some people (e.g. S. Pinker) claim that one not needs a new Enlightenment. On the contrary, one needs to continue the development the ideas of early Enlightenment and to guide yet more by reason and science to ensure an increase in productivity and prosperity. In addition, the problems of the modern world are not as great as it is presented in the reports of the Club of Rome. One can solve them using reason and science. Therefore, instead of weakening the role of reason, one should strengthen it by eliminating elements of irrationality from people’s thinking and behavior. In addition, all negative effects of the Enlightenment are finally useful. So, there are two opposing concepts to get out of the impasse. One is utopian and the other is excessively realistic. As usual, extreme ideas are not the best. Therefore, one must seek for a way out between them and find some golden mean.
Keywords:
social development, civilization, existential threats, New Enlightenment, New Ethics, transformation of consciousnessReferences
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Wiesław SztumskiUniversity of Silesia in Katowice, 40-007 Katowice 11, Bankowa St., Poland Poland
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