Guide to the Platform

The main purpose of the platform is to present in an ideal and therefore philosophical form the concept of a unitary political organization of humanity, i.e. of a society and a state that are global.

In order to achieve this aim, several sections have been created, each of which contains the concept, i.e. the idea in the platonic sense, of a certain sphere of life.

The various sections have been grouped into three basic macro sections, which represent the three main spheres of human life: theory, ethics and aesthetics.

The first sphere is that of knowledge, which we have identified with the term ’THEORETICS’.  Every human being, in fact, has a knowledge, whether wide or limited, and this knowledge constitutes the horizon within which he moves, organizes his life and manages the time at his disposal. 

The philosophical category of ’true’ corresponds to this theoretical sphere of knowledge.  In fact, each of us possesses knowledge that we consider ’true’, regardless of whether or not it is true in an objective sense. Every human being lives in his or her own truth, which he or she confronts every day with the truth of others and with the experiences he or she makes, modifying it more or less in the course of life according to his or her own subjective disposition and character.

To this theoretical sphere belongs first of all philosophy as well as science in general.  Secondly, religion also belongs to it, being also an explanation of the world and therefore a form of knowledge, even if based on a dogma. 

This knowledge is taught within the university and the school, institutional structures which also belong to the ’theoretical’ sphere of life, then - because within them the transmission of knowledge and knowledge takes place. 

Even technology, although something practical, is in its essence applied knowledge, knowing that it is then used to construct something that serves man from a practical point of view. 

Psychology and pedagogy, finally, are two particularly important philosophical and scientific disciplines, since they directly concern man and his education and therefore have a significant influence on his life.

All these sections are part of the macro-section ’Theoretics’.

The second fundamental dimension of human life is ETHICS, i.e. the social dimension in which human beings produce and reproduce their lives. To this sphere belongs, for example, the family, in which the generation of new life takes place, as well as the world of work and the economy, in which the necessary goods are produced without which one cannot live and survive. The society articulated in families, or even individuals, who contribute with their work to the general wealth is organized at the political level by a government and this is the dimension of politics.  The task of politics is to elaborate and promulgate laws that regulate the peaceful coexistence of citizens of a state. This is the area of law.  The law is first of all to be considered as a human right, and it is the right itself, but there is also an a-nimal right, so human beings recognise the rights of animals because they suffer and therefore have the right to have this suffering reduced if not eliminated completely.  Lately, environmental law is becoming more and more established, because the whole of nature as such is governed by a balance, by an order that the human being does not have the right to upset.  In this sense, therefore, we are talking about environmental law.  Another section of this ’ethical’ section is finance, then--which the economy, therefore the world of work, is based on the exchange of goods and currency, constitutes the unit of measurement of exchange, to which the world of finance is evidently dedicated.

The fundamental philosophical category of this dimension is that of ’Good’.  While in ’theoretics’ the aim of the human being is to reach the truth, in the field of ethics, therefore of interpersonal relations, each of us tries to realize the ’good’, what seems right to him, according to his own ’truth’, therefore according to his own ’theoretics’. 

Finally, the third macro-section that completes the synthetic picture of the various dimensions of human life is AESTHETICS. It is dominated by the philosophical category of ’Beauty’, therefore, by those activities that induce in man a state of pleasure and enjoyment, a positive feeling of participation and attachment to life.

The sections of this aesthetic macro-section are many because there are infinite possibilities through which human beings can experience beauty.  There is ar-tistic beauty, therefore the various figurative arts, musical beauty, according to the various genres, but also cooking is an art, the culinary art, whose products evidently provoke in man a sensation of pleasure.

Also the game and sport belong to this dimension of beauty because both activities induce in us feelings of pleasure.

Health and hygiene are also aspects that make life beautiful and therefore belong to this dimension.

These three dimensions, therefore, knowledge in theory, interpersonal action in ethics and the pleasure of life in aesthetics are the three fundamental spheres of human life, corresponding to the three fundamental categories of true, good and beautiful that govern the entire network of our life Everything we do every day falls under one or even more of these categories. If, for example, we are having dinner with our loved one, at that moment both the category of good, in the interpersonal relationship of love, and the category of beautiful, in the pleasure of having dinner together, when a teacher gives a lecture, are active at that moment the category of true, in what he says, and of good, because in the interpersonal relationship with the students he behaves ethically, helping them to understand the contents, for example, and so on for all the actions of our life. 

In order to make these sections more easily identifiable on the homepage, we have given different colours to the windows, by clicking them you enter the corresponding section. In particular, we have chosen yellow for theory, red for ethics and green for aesthetics. The choice of these colours is purely random.

Entering each section, you will first find, in the entrance, a description of the concept of that section, then of that particular sphere of life uma-na. We have named this introductory part of each section ’Entrance’, obviously virtual, to give precisely the idea that the initial concepts constitute the entrance into this dimension of human life, the way to the understanding of it. 

There is a point of view from which these concepts are presented: the cosmopolitan point of view.  As said above, the purpose of this flat-form is to build together the world of tomorrow from a philosophical point of view, therefore of harmony, balance, serenity, wisdom. The term ’together’ refers to the whole of humanity, so if we are seven billion human beings, philosophy in one way or another, obviously above all through scholastic organization, must reach the whole of humanity. We have no al-ternative, we can never manage a global world if we don’t manage in some way to make all seven billion human beings wise.

In fact, this world of tomorrow can only be a single unitary world of all humanity, in which all local cultures are of course respected and indeed revalued, but within a universal and global dimension, to use the term in vogue today. To think of managing such a complex world outside of a basic dimension of philosophy, therefore of wisdom, is an enterprise destined to fail. There are so many individual, particularistic, national interests, and so many cultural and ideological differences, which are a harmonization based on philosophical wisdom, on wisdom, on balance can succeed in keeping it all together. Otherwise the collapse with unspeakable suffering for all humanity is certain.

Within each section, after the part relating to the presentation, there are then various ’Rooms’, managed by teachers, researchers, students or even just lovers of the subject proper to that section. The manager of a room, called ’Editor’, can publish in it his reflections in the form preferably of text, but also of audio or video files, in which case a link will postpone the publication of the same on an external platform such as youtube.

In this way, more different sources can come from different ages (a student will obviously be younger than a researcher and the latter than a teacher) as well as for level of preparation but also for language (it is presumable that the language of a student as well as of a young researcher is closer to the language of young people and therefore more understandable) further proposals suitable to build the world of tomorrow. These proposals will enrich and deepen the gene-rals ideas, indicated in the introductory part of the section, i.e. in the entrance.

Inside each room, the Author can publish articles, essays, if he has written books, he can advertise them, in short he has in general the possibility to present his own reflections related to that field of knowledge and thus make his own contribution to the construction of the global and cosmopolitan world of tomorrow. 

The platform is conceived in an interactive way, it is not a static site.  This means that the simple user, defined as ’User’, can get in touch with the Author (Editor) of an article, commenting on it and then starting a dialogue that, at this point, we can easily define as philosophical, in order to arrive at a truth that may be further or more precise and circumstantial than the article itself. 

The possibility of commenting can obviously be used only to ask for clarifications and explanations, in short, it is the keystone of the whole platform: it is what makes it ’alive’. 

Our hope is that the Author-User dialogue can result in a shared knowledge, fundamental for the construction, also shared, of tomorrow’s world. We consider this principle of ’Sharing’ to be a fundamental mental principle and the theoretical and ethical basis of tomorrow’s world. Globalization’ must primarily mean ’Sharing’ of the Earth space that all human beings inhabit in a limited period of time. Sharing a common space requires ’Respect’ as the fundamental rule of life. Respect due to the beings currently living as well as future generations. This flat-form pursues the primary purpose of the Sharing of Ideas and is based on the Re-spect of other people’s ideas, even in the necessary discussion, possibly even critical, but always constructive, thus aiming at a common progress of consciousness for the shared good of the whole of humanity.

Users’ to comment must register, which can be done in a very simple and unbureaucratic way by simply providing their name, surname and email address.  Once registered, the User can comment on any article in all sections.  It is of course also possible to visit the platform without registering, but in this case it will not be possible to comment (passive use of the platform).  The registered user will be informed each time a new contribution is published, so that he or she is always kept informed about the growth of the platform.

It is our hope that many activists of the Fridays for Future movement will re-strangle and enter into a fruitful philosophical dialogue not only with lecturers and researchers, but also with the students themselves who often, despite being young, have powerfully innovative ideas about the world of tomorrow. In the youth, it is the world of tomorrow that presents itself, that looks at life not as something that has been and is passing, but as something that has yet to happen and that is infinite. Life is for the young man a blank sheet of paper on which he has yet to write. Our experience as teachers has taught us that the freshness of young people’s ideas often not only replaces the knowledge and experience that they cannot yet have, but looks much further than what the current consolidated knowledge has already understood. In the young person it is life itself that opens up to itself, that thinks, imagines, plans and wants itself, it is the world of tomorrow that learns to walk. This platform intends to shake his hand and support him in his first steps.

The main idea behind the platform is that only on the basis of a serious, philosophical and scientific, but expressed in a comprehensible and populously understandable way, as is the case with a virtual platform, the movement of those who today have begun to fight for a sustainable and just world of tomorrow as well as free, should not only protest against those aspects of today’s global society that threaten their future lives, but should also philosophically, scientifically and culturally inquire philosophically, scientifically and culturally in general in order to have a precise and well-founded idea of the alternative, i.e. how the world of tomorrow should be constituted as a global, sustainable, just and free society.   Without an adequate philosophical, scientific and cultural preparation in general, it will, in fact, be very difficult one day to create a different society and we risk protesting today without collecting anything tomorrow.  If, on the other hand, we prepare today first of all in ourselves in our spirit, in our mind, if we elaborate in a serious and well-founded way the clear vision of what we want tomorrow, that is, our idea of a new society, different from the present one, even in many aspects opposite to it, we will then be ready tomorrow to realize this shared philosophical and scientific ideal of ours, transforming the institutions of the old society in the new sense that we have first of all elaborated in ourselves, in our inner self.

If today’s world is based on ruthless competition that cancels out any sharing, on the search for unlimited profit, which jeopardizes the very survival of human life on the planet, then we must first of all work out within ourselves, on an ideal and philosophical level, the alternative to this world, through the elaboration of a culture of sharing and cooperation, which at the same time makes private initiative possible, while coordinating it with social justice and environmental sustainability.

From what has been said so far it is then clear that the three fundamental dimensions of human life, the theoretical, ethical and aesthetic, which seem to be fixed and static, eternal in their conceptual validity, actually live in time, in that dimension in which every human being necessarily finds himself living, that is, in history.

For this reason the last part of the platform is made up of sections that do not deal with specific contents of the life of the spirit, but with the dimension of the time in which it lives.  These are the dimensions of the past, present and future.  If we do not know the past, therefore history proper, we cannot in any way understand the present, but if we do not understand the present, we have no chance of understanding which direction it is heading in and what the meaning of its development is. Consequently, we will not even understand what our actions must be in order for this future development to take place, if we believe it to be positive, or not to take place, if we believe it to be negative. 

In fact, as free human beings, it is up to us, as free human beings, to make the final decision on how to act, first of all at the level of the world political community that is planned over time on this ship that we call ’Earth’.  But within every sin-gola, communal, regional, national or even continental community that constitutes our global humanity, every human being enjoys the freedom to plan his or her own life, that of his or her family, of his or her work and of the circumscribed community in which each of us ultimately lives.  This freedom is the essence of the human being and what characterizes and distinguishes him/her from all other beings.  It is his creativity, man is capable of creating the world of tomorrow, the world of the future for better or for worse. Choosing the path of good or evil will only be his decision.

Our hope is obviously that the human being will create the world of tomorrow in good and not in evil.  The purpose of this platform is precisely to provide the best possible intellectual means for this to happen.  Knowledge, the true, therefore the theoretical, is the foundation of good and therefore of ethics.  Only through knowledge, understood not as an arid sum of notions but as wisdom, according to the concept of philosophy formulated once and for all by the Greeks, therefore love for knowledge and truth, can human beings build a global world that realizes good.

This good consists of a free and dignified life for all, independent of the accidental place of birth. This means being able to have an education, a job, a family, obviously civil liberties and inalienable rights, all values that we are not inventing ourselves, but are the fruit of the history of philosophy and firmly expressed in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. Yet today they are not respected at all in many parts of the Earth and, because of the environmental pro-blemism, they risk not being respected one day in any part of the planet.

Only such an ethical life, in which this good of a dignified life for every human being in any corner of the Earth is realized, can be the basis for an ’aesthetic’ life, therefore for a beautiful life, full of happy moments, artistic and musical emotions and everything that in the end makes us satisfied and happy, each according to his or her individual inclinations.

This is how those three fundamental dimensions, which seem to be static, are instead the real dynamics of our soul, of our spirit, always aiming to seek the true, to achieve the good and to enjoy the beautiful.

In the hope that this platform can be of help so that this may be a possible day for any human being in any corner of the earth, we wish you a pleasant reading and an interesting exchange of ideas.