|
Projects
The set of related research efforts is currently in process:
1. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change:
Philosophical Foundations for Social Life. Focused,
mutually coordinated research teams in university centers
prepare studies as part of an integrated philosophic search
for self-understanding differentiated by culture and
civilization. These evolve more adequate understandings of
the person in society and look to the cultural heritage of
each for the resources to respond to the challenges both of
its own specific contemporary transformation and of meeting
all other civilizations in global times.
2. Seminars on Culture and Contemporary Issues. This
series of 5-10 week cross-cultural and interdisciplinary
seminars is coordinated by the RVP in Washington, D.C.
3. Joint-Colloquia with Institutes of Philosophy of
the National Academies of Sciences, university philosophy
departments, and professional philosophical societies.
Underway since 1976 in Eastern Europe and, since 1987, in
China, and since 1990, in Islamic countries, these concern
the person in contemporary society with special attention to
their cultural heritage and its progressive application in
response to the needs of our times.
4. Foundations of Moral Education and Character
Development. A study in values and education which
unites philosophers, psychologists, social scientists and
scholars in education in the elaboration of ways of
enriching the moral content of education and character
development. This work has conducted since 1980.
5. Faith
in a Secular Age. This
research project focused on unfolding the meaning of faith for the
new dimensions and needs of our evolving human awareness,
its challenges and opportunities.
The goal was to make "belief more
believable," both for Professor Charles
Taylor's contemporary
'seeker' and indeed for all
the faithful, and thereby to render all of personal and
social life more
fully human and thereby more
theonomous or expressive
of the divine.
6. Re-Learning
to be Human. This
multi-year project has had sets of research teams in the
different cultures and civilizations across the world to
study related issues under the general theme “Re-Learning to
be Human for Global Times: Challenges and Opportunities.”
Each team is consisting of multiple specialists based in
their own cultural perspectives and producing a study on a
specific sub-issue. These will feed into a World Congress of
Philosophy which will gather world scholars in Beijing in
August 2018. There they will exchange findings from their
own regions and return to their work throughout the world to
share related insights and aspirations in their formation of
future generations of world leaders for decades to come.
7. Meaningfulness
of Life. This
project had five subthemes: the person, the moral life, and
self-cultivation; social existence, communicative action,
and the common good; human relations with nature; and human
relations to Ultimate Reality. Various research teams from
different countries focused on one aspect of these themes
and organized seminars and published their research
findings.
8. Understanding
the Signs of Our Times. This
special research project will explore such four crucial
issues as the crisis of the modern world, the impact of
technology, morality and spirituality pointed out by a
special figure, Romano Guardini, one of most important
Catholic intellectuals in the 20th century. The goal is not
just to focus on Guardini himself or one particular religion
but to look into urgent issues and challenges the entire
humanity is facing today. With help of his philosophical and
theological insights we may rightly diagnose our current
situations.
All scholars and thinkers who are willing to contribute
their time and research as part of their professional
commitment to life in contemporary society are welcome to
these projects.
|
