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 The
Institute of Oriental Philosophy
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Public Lectures |  |
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Lecture on “Transition Stage of Civilizations
―The Past and the Future of Humanity”  Dr.
Ito graduated from the University of Tokyo and obtained his Ph.D. from
the University of Wisconsin in the U.S. To date, he has taught at the
University of Tokyo, the University of Copenhagen, and Universität
Tübingen in Germany. He was a special fellow at Clare Hall, University
of Cambridge, a visiting research fellow at the Institute for Advanced
Study at Princeton, director of the International Society for the
Comparative Studies of Civilizations, the History of Science Society of
Japan, and the Japan Society for Global System and Ethics. In his lecture, Dr. Ito said that over the course of history, there has been no such framework as “Global Civilization,” that western civilization has always been the center, and that other civilizations such as Islam, India, and China tend to “A Philosophy of Peace, Unity and Hope in Contemporary Society: SGI President Ikeda’s Dialogue on the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”“A Philosophy of Peace, Unity and Hope in Contemporary Society: SGI President Ikeda’s Dialogue on the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”“A Philosophy of Peace, Unity and Hope in Contemporary Society: SGI President Ikeda’s Dialogue on the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”“A Philosophy of Peace, Unity and Hope in Contemporary Society: SGI President Ikeda’s Dialogue on the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”“A Philosophy of Peace, Unity and Hope in Contemporary Society: SGI President Ikeda’s Dialogue on the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”“A Philosophy of Peace, Unity and Hope in Contemporary Society: SGI President Ikeda’s Dialogue on the Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra”have been neglected. He said that the world spirit has been dormant and that this view must be corrected. He emphasized the necessity of rebuilding a new global civilization for the whole of humanity. Dr. Ito suggested that there had been five stages of civilization, which he referred to as: 1) the anthropic revolution, 2) the agricultural revolution, 3) the urban revolution, 4) the spiritual revolution, and 5) the scientific revolution. Contemporary society is now facing the sixth transition, which he calls “the environmental revolution.” He stressed that humanity should start thinking about which path to travel from now, and emphasized the importance of peace and coexistence with nature. “We must live in a way that sustainable development can be realized,” he said.
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