The Role of Philosophy in Changing the Mentalities and the Democratization of the Public Sphere

Program Objectives:

* the promoting philosophy like a formation discipline
* the promoting of ideas of freedom, justice, human rights among highschool students
* organizing of debates, moderated by experts, with highschool students
* the promoting of the results of the debates on a website

Description:
We intend to realize a pilot program of promoting democratic ideas of freedom, justice, human rights to highschool students that do not have the discipline of Philosophy included in their mandatory curricula. This program is important because, starting with 2000, the discipline of Philosophy became mandatory only for humanist hignschools. Thus, the other students are left without a discipline that lays the basis of a critical thinking, and of the premises of the democratic dialogue. In this way, they become unresponsive to arguments, and are easy to be recruited by nationalist and other partisan ideologies

We believe that a philosophical perspective may be an adequate way for young students to avoid the dangers of the extremists and non-democratic discourse and to fight for the elimination of discrimination. In the same time, at SACRI activities, we noticed the interest of highschool students for philosophy in general and for philosophical debates in particular. This interest for philosophical debates must be used for promoting the ideas of freedom, justice and, human rights.