If the 20th century was the “century of science, technology, and economy,” then the 21st century is the “century of values.”
Today, it is evident that the advancement of science, technology, as well as economic prosperity, does not necessarily lead to people’s well-being or world peace. We are grappling with questions such as: “What is genuine happiness?” and “What values should we aim for?”
In the face of an increasingly pluralistic world, we recognize that there can be no single correct answer to these questions about values.
Moreover, it has been revealed that the concepts of individual identity and social uniformity are nothing but myths. There is a pressing demand for the establishment of a society with multiple layers of values, where these values accumulate.
The whole situation suggests an urgent need for reinvigorating philosophy as a discipline of proposing values, and hence, humanities that actively engage in society, or “engaging humanities.”
This new philosophy and humanities will not only focus on West European and North American thought, which became the de facto standard in the 20th century. By shedding light on the traditions that thrive in various regions of the world such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania, and others, we aim to rearticulate them as worldviews with equal authenticity and thereby undertake the mission of fostering the “contradictory coexistence” of diverse values. The Kyoto Institute of Philosophy was established with the participation of a diverse group of people from industry, government, academia, and the public, both domestically and internationally, with the objective to form a global movement towards the realization of a multi-layered society of values by proposing diverse values from the historic and cultural city of Kyoto.