IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities Volume 7 – Issue 1
Editor: Dr Alfonso J. García Osuna
Published: June 06, 2020
ISSN: 2187-0616
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.7.1
Editor's Introduction
IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities Volume 7 – Issue 1
We’ve arrived at a moment in history where humanist thought, or more exactly the humanist endeavour, must again migrate from bookish realms of detached abstraction to a place where it will act as arbiter and advocate in the substantive arena of everyday life and human interaction. Humanism must once more find ways to be critically relevant in the course of human events, much in the manner of XIV century Italians and of d’Alembert and Diderot in the XVIII century. Like them, humanists must again find a way to cross the bridge that unites intellective with substantial, helping find ways to change our lives and alter the terrifying direction that our species’ journey has taken.
Now, in the midst of a global pandemic that is distracting humanity from its unconcerned demolition of the planet, we may have a better opportunity to infiltrate policy with humanist ethical values. I say this because I believe that humanism and humanist thought have the potential to interfere with the sightless ferocity with which human beings are now destroying the ability of future generations to provide for themselves. And this pandemic, likely caused by human recklessness, is a clear prognosis of things to come. But can an assortment of scholars and intellectuals intervene in an effective manner? Well, history tells us that humanism – perceived in broad terms – has the ability to intrude into and inconvenience the mechanisms with which authority sustains its follies. But to do so humanists must once more cross the bridge that leads from our world of unobtrusive, graceful disquietude to the vulgar realm of antagonistic political action.
(Read the full Editor's Introduction here.)
It is hoped that the present volume will draw readers to the work of these researchers and motivate them to follow their scholarship in the future.
Alfonso J. García-Osuna
Editor
IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities
