For a long time in the West, philosophy marched along placidly as the undisputed mother of all learning. Controversy arose when theology attempted to divest philosophy of her title. The result was an uneasy coexistence affirming the Humanities as the source and moral torchbearer of the emerging social and natural sciences. Thus the link was established between ethics, education and civilization. The slow ascent of the natural sciences to the apex of education today coincided with the steady erosion of democracy and its substitution by tymocracy. Contemporary tymocratic teleology has set humanity along the trajectory of ethically indefensible but preventable self-destruction. The consequence remains the disturbing subordination of human dignity to the sovereignty of money. Despite its isolation from the architecture of contemporary education, philosophy never lost its power and mission as the consoler and guide whenever human reason strayed from the path of wisdom and chose folly. The isolation of philosophy today, reminiscent of Boethius, is an ironic reaffirmation of its urgency and relevance to the age of the deadly sovereignty of money, weapons of mad destruction and omnicidal environmental destruction. The thesis defended in this essay is that philosophy, as an intercultural dialogue of the human race, is vital for the restoration of ethically defensible learning orientated towards individual and collective survival of humankind. Only in this way can humanity vindicate its claim to wisdom and civilization.
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