Purpose This paper aims to formalize long-term trajectories of human civilization as a scientific and ethical field of study. The long-term trajectory of human civilization can be defined as the path that human civilization takes during the entire future time period in which human civilization could continue to exist. -/- Design/methodology/approach This paper focuses on four types of trajectories: status quo trajectories, in which human civilization persists in a state broadly similar to its current state into the distant future; catastrophe (...) trajectories, in which one or more events cause significant harm to human civilization; technological transformation trajectories, in which radical technological breakthroughs put human civilization on a fundamentally different course; and astronomical trajectories, in which human civilization expands beyond its home planet and into the accessible portions of the cosmos. -/- Findings Status quo trajectories appear unlikely to persist into the distant future, especially in light of long-term astronomical processes. Several catastrophe, technological transformation and astronomical trajectories appear possible. -/- Originality/value Some current actions may be able to affect the long-term trajectory. Whether these actions should be pursued depends on a mix of empirical and ethical factors. For some ethical frameworks, these actions may be especially important to pursue. (shrink)

Better known in his own times than later, Huan T'an (43 BCE-25 CE) was a scholar-official, independent in his thought and unafraid to criticize orthodox currents of his time. A practitioner of the Old Text exegesis of the Classics, he maintained a position on the court during a turbulent time of political crises, uprisings, and civil war, spanning the reigns of four emperors. His principal work, Hsin-lun, differs from other books on political criticism in that it does not deal primarily (...) with history but takes many examples from contemporary social and political life. While belonging to the Old Text group of court officials and scholars, Huan T'an differed radically from them in his stress on direct knowledge, in his range of practical experience, and in his outspoken criticism of popular opinions. He was not a systematic philosopher, but his ideas were influential in the return to a more worldly conception of Confucianism. To translate Huan T'an's writings, one must reconstruct the texts. Timoteus Pokora uses two nineteenth-century fragments as a basis around which to orient quotations from Hsin-lun from sixty-four other sources, primarily encyclopedias and commentaries. Pokora provides notes to give context to these short references and to account for discrepancies between quotations and originals, and he includes a large index to add coherence and points of entry. (shrink)

Artykuł proponuje rozumienie filozofii jako współmyślenia, rozumianego m.in. tak, jak ujmuje to Cezary Wodziński, czyli współmyślenie z filozofem, którego dzieło ma charakter swoistego wyzwania. Jednakże wyzwaniem może być wiele innych zjawisk czy wydarzeń, jak np. zamach 9/11, pandemie, skażenie środowiska itp. Filozofia w całości jest ponadczasową praktyką współmyślenia. Współmyślenie wynika oczywiście ze „współbycia”. Według innych współmyślenie filozoficzne jest dzieleniem wspólnej miłości do tego, co istotowe. Warunki współmyślenia to m.in.: wzajemny szacunek, pokora, tolerancja, otwartość, rzetelność myślenia, polemika ad rem. Kierunkiem (...) filozoficznym, który współmyślenie stawia w centrum swojej uwagi, jest niewątpliwie filozofia dialogu. Filozofia musi być otwartością na to, co Inne. W ten sposób myślenie filozoficzne może wyrastać ze wspólnej troski myślicieli o los człowieka i cywilizacji. (shrink)