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Tokyo Forum 2022 Theme

Dialogue between Philosophy and Science:
In a World Facing War, Pandemic, and Climate Change

At last year's Tokyo Forum, we agreed that dialogue is the key to alleviating the anxieties that have arisen as a result of scientific progress. This year, in the face of war, pandemic, and climate change, we will discuss how we can live more abundantly. We cannot repeat the history of 100 years ago: biopolitics that has come to dominate human life, totalitarianism that suppresses individual freedom in favor of the state as a whole, and world war. A new social imaginary, a new common social understanding of what society should be, that does not lead to these things is now needed. It also demands a redefinition of humans and the state. To do so, philosophy and science must engage in a thorough dialogue. Regarding philosophy, instead of the philosophy of the 20th century, which fell into the philosophy of war, the world philosophy of the 21st century must be based on locality and diversity, and avoid the traps of relativism regarding value, while contributing to the construction of a new universal. It is not to lose the basis of the good by disregarding universal value as any value is relative, but to refine and open up local and diverse values by putting them to the test of universality. It should be a universal that is open to co-living with other non-human elements, such as ecosystems and nature, while severely criticizing the history of unreflectively considering anthropocentrism as universal. The science of the 21st century also needs a high-quality critical attitude. There is a need to break away from a scientism that lacks this, and for scientists to make efforts to demarcate their own limits. This also means reexamining what ethics means for science. Here, we would like to present the social imaginary needed in the 21st century regarding the state and humans, based on the dialogue between world philosophy and science.