Similar to other humanistic and social disciplines, philosophy has experienced major changes in the last three decades – in key themes, ways of understanding problems, but also in opening up to other disciplines. This is the common assessment of the participants of the conference “Philosophy in the Age of Transition”, held on October 4, 2022 in the organization of the Center for Philosophy of the Institute for Social Sciences.
The meeting was attended by philosophers from Belgrade, from the Institute of Social Sciences (IDN) and from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. The meeting was opened by the director of IDN, Goran Bašić and the Head of the Center for Philosophy, Vojin Rakić. Goran Bašić said that philosophy as a discipline has always had a prominent place in the Institute, and that today the need for philodophy has never been greater, precisely because of the demands that modern challenges pose both to the Institute itself and to its researchers.
The Head of the Center, Professor Vojin Rakić, highlighted the changes that have occurred in philosophy due to the rapid development of new biotechnologies in recent years, which has put bioethics as a philosophical discipline in the foreground, and more recently with the actualization of topics related to ethical problems during the coronavirus pandemic. Professor Živan Lazović pointed to the contemporary problematization of the notion of reliability of information and knowledge, while prof. Slobodan Perović presented the latest results of the use of artificial intelligence in the evaluation of scientific projects.
Mašan Bogdanovski and Marinko Lolić paid more attention to historical topics: Berkeley’s “master argument” and Kant’s understanding of the relationship between enlightenment and transition. Duško Prelevic spoke about the change in the relationship between science and philosophy, about the return of science to philosophy, and about the challenges of transhumanist ideas.
The researchers of the Center for Philosophy, Dušica Kovačević and Janko Nešić, focused on some more specific topics. D. Kovačević explained the idea of a “good death”, that is, euthanasia – as seen by philosophers, while J. Nešić touched upon key aspects of the contemporary relationship between philosophy and psychiatry, arguing that philosophy is indispensable for the work of psychiatrists.
The presentations were followed by a lively discussion both by the participants of the conference, as well as by the audience.
