The World Congress of Philosophy is organized every five years by the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP) in collaboration with one of its member societies. The XXIV World Congress will be held in Beijing, China, from August 13 to August 20, 2018, under the auspices of the Chinese Organizing Committee. The complementary aims of the 2018 Congress include an emphasis on exploring dimensions of the human and inquiring into the challenges facing humanity.
To globalize philosophical investigations to encompass the diverse forms of philosophizing by past and present thinkers across cultures, with special attention to critical reflections on philosophy itself and the tasks and functions of philosophy in the contemporary world.
To open the philosophical area to enable philosophers to address emerging global issues through fruitful interactions with other disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, with other activities in economic, social, political, and religious spheres, as well as with diverse cultures and traditions.
To encourage philosophical reflections to become public discourses on recurrent human concerns, such as ecology, justice, and peace.
Endowed with arguably the longest history of cultural continuity but deeply challenged by severe ruptures in its modern transformation, China provides a unique locale to raise fundamental questions about self, community, nature, spirituality, traditions, and modernity, evoking the idea of philosophy as practice as well as theory.
The 2018 Congress invites discussions on the nature, roles, and responsibilities of philosophy and philosophers to enhance a common awareness of “learning to be human.” It is committed to attending to problems, conflicts, inequalities, and injustices connected with the development of a planetary civilization that is simultaneously techno-scientific and multicultural.