Editorial

This issue addresses various dimensions of what is now known as “transition”, whose concept has evolved from the designation of the transformation of an imperial order, a change of regime within the state framework or the modulation of interstate relations, to the uncertain construction of an unprecedented planetary order. It aims to reconcile a changing but degraded global environment, with human pressure that has become invasive, between resilience and collapse, safeguarding the social and political achievements and giving in to the appeal of technologies, fear of the unknown and the rescue of the future.

 In the context of cross-cultural studies and comparative philosophy, Dag Herbjørnsrud travels the five continents to find the women who have made philosophy, but whose role has remained hidden, and highlights their fundamental role in the history of philosophy and the history of ideas. The actors who underpin global history have only belatedly initiated a real transition, whose challenge is both the conception of the present and the future of humanity.

 Bénédicte Letellier rereads three poets who have experienced the internal or external disorders caused by geographical displacement, to retrace the epic of exile that makes it possible to understand the world as we believe it is and to transform it as we want it to be. In this sense, she speaks of a poetics of “exiliance”, which can be considered as “a viaticum for everyone who wants to feel “free freedom” everywhere on Earth”.

 Nicole Morgan s’interroge sur la désintégration des ordres anciens, les discours millénaristes et  la pertinence des utopies teintées de magie ou de futurisme, Ce serait plutôt l’Utopie de Thomas More qui ressurgirait d’une philosophie qui anticipait un monde sans magie ni transcendance, se voulait viable pour tous et ne saurait accepter la sombre perspective d’un nouveau Moyen Age.

Marc Luyckx Ghisi sees the ethics arising from artificial intelligence as possibly resulting from a cross-disciplinary development proceeding beyond the traditional distinctions between the scientific disciplines, into a new scientific paradigm closely associated with a convergence between sciences and technologies resulting from an inclusive nano-level approach. In this respect, he agrees with Jeremy Rifkin to think that European views may suggest a re-evaluation of techno-scientific approaches, and pave the way for a second Enlightenment.

Helmut K. Anheier points to the controversial practices of philanthropy, a key sector of civil society defined as almost “everything that was not the state”. He inquires about the amounts involved, the identity of beneficiaries, what purposes are claimed and the way money is transferred. One controversy is about governments ‘use of foundations to fill gaps in public budgets, others are about donors’ intent to mitigate questionable behaviors, or about beneficiaries relying on philanthropy to define their goals and policies. The lack of debate about such issues directly poses questions related to equity and democracy.

Paul Ghils returns to the role and significance of civil society in various sectors, from clear philanthropy to human rights and business practices. The concept has obviously evolved, since the ancient societas civilis of Cicero and the Greek koinonia politikè, which referred to society as a whole as civilized, to the contemporary plurality of actors defined as non-state actors, regardless of their local, national or international objectives, and to the recent conception of a new “natural contract”,

Haider A. Khan devotes an essay to three books dealing with Global Crisis and Artificial Intelligence(AI) in the cyber age. He analyzes the nature and consequences of current multiple crises on the planet’s multiple dimensions: climate change, militarization, socio-economic and political paradoxes.

 In another text, Haider Khan introduces his new translation of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which he wants to be “post-colonial”. He quotes Hegel, who “ so cunningly and eloquently pointed out in a book that he wrote at the beginning of the 19th century, if the slaves are not free, the masters are not free either.”. His translation and reading of Le Petit Prince is aimed to at least accomplish this realization for the postcolonial reader.

 Pierre Calame takes up the same hypothesis of a Europe that would be able to generate an original version of the Enlightenment, as an extension of the only geopolitical innovation of the 20th century, adapted to the 20th century and its new challenges. This development would imply a peaceful epic for its peoples, a beacon for the world, a model for its shared sovereignty and a promising objective for the future.

P.G.