What is consciousness? In principle, it is something that can only be experienced by those who possess it. It cannot be "seen" from the "outside". One way of asking about the consciousness that can be in a given "object" would be to ask "Hello, is anyone there? This is intended to show that consciousness is what allows us to define ourselves as "someone", as a "person". Consciousness is thus the essence of our existence. Literally, without our consciousness we would not exist. We are, above all, bearers of consciousness. Of course, this is only a point of view....

The evident crisis of civilization that humanity is going through, as well as the reality of climate change, place the human species before ecological limits which, if they were to be exceeded, will continue to seriously disturb living conditions throughout the planet. Hence, without a doubt, it deserves deep reflection and action to face the future.

We invite you to participate in the following thematic areas

Health 
Education 
Economy and Society Social Ecology 
Non-violence 
Disarmament 
Gender and feminisms
Indigenous People and Decolonization Movements Human Rights 
Conscience and the world 
Spirituality and Transcendence 
Non-violent society Communication for the 21st century 

The situation of crisis that humanity is going through at the present time is evident. The crisis manifests itself at different levels and in all spheres of human action, thought and experience. History has recorded numerous crises that endangered the survival of human groups in different times and places, but in this case – as it was the case a few decades ago with the “cold war” – it is a global crisis.

It’s the system that’s failing!

Change is in organized human action!

Papers presented at the Park of Study and Reflection Attigliano (Italy) during the Symposium Foundation of the New Civilization, held between 28 and 31 October 2010.

Videos and text in English.

WORLD CENTRE OF HUMANIST STUDIES
II WORLD SYMPOSIUM

Foundation of the New Civilization

October 29th to 31st, 2010

The world we knew does not exist anymore; our daily lives have been deeply transformed. A new way of being begins to take shape for Humanity: the first planetary human civilization. How will it be? How do we want it to be?

Tomás Hirsch (Chile)*

At present relationships between ethics and politics are really complex and even tortuous. So much so both seem to be opposite and apparently incompatible universes. Almost every human activity has a well defined ethical code: there is a journalistic code, a medical one, and so on to every one different activity human beings must develop along life.

Rodrigo Carazo (Costa Rica)*

The american continent means a new horizon for the people of all the other regions of the planet: this is why it has become the major crucible of races, believes, cultures and languages of the world. The diverse origin of the inmigrants has turn the American Continent into a non-comparable human tile.

Fernando Garzón Orellana (Ecuador)*

In the origin and development of human communities, violence has manifested itself as an instrument to conquer the community of nature, and of some human groups against others, dominating them by military conditions, slavery, exploitation or political imposition. The superior state of the human being is peace, in its conscience, spirit, and its social environment and natural surroundings.