World Philosophy Day, UNESCO

  World Philosophy Day / World Philosophy Day, UNESCO

By celebrating World Philosophy Day each year, on the third Thursday of November, UNESCO underlines the enduring value of philosophy for the development of human thought, for each culture and for each individual.

Philosophy is an inspiring discipline as well as an everyday practice that can transform societies. By enabling   to discover the diversity of the intellectual currents in the world, philosophy stimulates intercultural dialogue. By awakening minds to the exercise of thinking and the reasoned confrontation of opinions, philosophy helps to build a more tolerant, more respectful society. It thus helps to understand and respond to major contemporary challenges by creating the intellectual conditions for change.

UNESCO leads World Philosophy Day – but does not own it. It belongs to everyone, everywhere, who cares about philosophy.

On this Day of collective exercise in free, reasoned and informed thinking on the major challenges of our time, all of UNESCO’s partners are encouraged to organize various types of activities - philosophical dialogues, debates, conferences, workshops, cultural events and presentations around the general theme of the Day, with the participation of philosophers and scientists from all branches of natural and social sciences, educators, teachers, students, press journalists and other mass media representatives, and the general public.

2020 EDITION

The 2020 edition aims to highlight the importance of philosophy in different regional contexts in order to obtain regional contributions to global debates on contemporary challenges that support social transformations. The purpose of this approach is to foster regional dynamics stimulating global collaboration to address major challenges such as migration, radicalization, environmental change or artificial intelligence.

Contact: wpd@unesco.org(link sends e-mail)

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

"UNESCO has always been a friend of philosophy. UNESCO itself  is  an  institution  that  implements  a  philosophical  project  –  the  philosophy  of  human rights, that of Emmanuel Kant or Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. In a sense, it can thus  be  said  that  UNESCO,  whose  mandate  reflects  the  universal  vocation  of  philosophy, is itself a philosophy.

On  this  World  Philosophy  Day,  UNESCO  invites  you (...)  to  experience  this  astonishment  about  the  world  and  the  environment  and  to  unmask  dogmas  and  prejudices; to discover, in short, the universality of the human condition."

— Audrey Azoulay, Director General, Message on the occasion of World Philosophy Day