Human Values: The Key to Solving Global Problems

Alexander Chumakov
Russian Philosophical Society
ABSTRACT: At the dawn of global civil society, the test for humanity is to achieve unity while
preserving cultural differences as well as the distinctiveness of nations and peoples. Such unity can
be reached only by recognizing human values, especially human rights. However, these rights must
be strictly determined and more than mere obligations. Hence, the most important task for philosophy
is to develop foundations and principles for a world society and to formulate a global consciousness
and a humanistic worldview that adequately reflects the realities of our epoch. Our action must
increasingly be based on an acknowledgment of global values.

The twentieth century and the United States are synonymous with achievements in the spheres of
science and technology along with the attendant positive and negative circumstances arising from
these developments. Not surprisingly, therefore, when philosophers from all over the world gathered
in Boston in August 1998 for the 20th World Congress of Philosophy to discuss the most important
contemporary problems the majority of these problems were bound up with the revolution in the
spheres of science and technology. Since morality is closely intertwined with social and technological
achievements, I want to underline the necessity of moral reevaluation and the need to be flexible and
tolerant concerning value orientations if we wish to avoid global instability.
Undoubtedly, contemporary global problems find their roots in the consequences of scientific and
technological progress. The most important of these problems are the threat of global nuclear war,
ecological imbalance, unsustainable population growth, and a growing developmental gap in the
socio-economic conditions among countries intertwined in this unprecedented global economy. Yet,
the reason for many of these problems is pedagogical because only through education (which
facilitates a realization of our role in the existence of global problems) does the human race have a
chance to minimize, if not eliminate, the negative consequences of science and technology.
Despite constant efforts and urgent attempts to overcome these global problems the best we have
are only some moderate results. Important decisions have not been made and important actions
have not been taken. Serious reasons exist to think we are proceeding in the wrong direction in trying
to find solutions. Our efforts aim to influence effects, not causes. As a result, we disclose new
unintended problems even as we overcome some difficulties. And like a person trying to remove
weeds by their leaves without removing their roots we go on wondering why the weeds continue to
grow thicker and richer. So to seek the roots of our global problems one should first attempt an active
beginning. This beginning should start with the human condition including relations with others and
the environment.
In the last decade, science and technology have abruptly changed the human condition. Prior to the
twentieth century, a nation's habits, norms, values, and social relations tended to be resistant to
external influences and to be conservative in character. Under the pressures of science and
technology, especially influencing a nation's economy, the modern world began transforming into our
more global contemporary world. As this transformation continues, every aspect of the human
condition alters. For example, transnational corporations turn the sphere of trade among countries
into a global common market. Communication advances create a common space of information
(which increases the speed while decreasing the time for social relations). Alterations in our spiritual
life, also, go hand-in-hand with these changes in culture, science, and politics. Thus, all of these
transformations which influence our human condition create a smaller planet in which people become
more interdependent.
This context of rapid transformations helps to explain the recent changes in Central and Eastern
Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Closed societies (to use a term of Karl Popper) and totalitarian
regimes strive for self-isolation. Such isolationist policies attempt to remove a country and its people
from global interdependence. However, as the Soviet Union's disintegration exemplifies, the open
societies of the West turn out to be in a more favorable position to derive benefits (not the least
political stability) from the transformations associated with the advances in science and technology.
Despite the pressures of global interdependency (which impels social, political, and economic
change), the world remains divided into highly developed and underdeveloped nations with the gap
between these two groups ever-widening. Only one billion (called a golden billion) among the six
billion inhabitants of our planet currently live in conditions which sustain, promote, and guarantee
quality of life. The majority of our planet's inhabitants live in poverty and see no prospects for
themselves.
Thus, at the same time that an integrated world community is forming with a common abode, a
common fate, and a common responsibility for everything that takes place in the world, the realization
comes that no one can escape participating and sharing in the responsibility for discussing and
attempting to overcome our common problems. Such problems will become more aggravated if the
world continues to be divided by nationalistic policies which encourage a continual widening of
standards of living among various populations. This situation of ever-perpetuating socio-economic
inequality is a serious barrier to the interrelating of diverse populations globally. Can such an
interdependent society become a reality? Can the ideal of a world community be transformed from an
ideal into an actual open society? The answers to these questions are not obvious at all.
Our contemporary world still represents a mixed picture of sovereign national states. Some of them
are rich and successful. The majority lag hopelessly behind in their socio-economic development. All
of them undertake immense efforts defending their national sovereignty and carrying out politics
exclusively on the basis of national interests. Such a nationalistic approach is unacceptable in our
new context, when acknowledgement of global interdependency and the maintaining of a balance in
social and environmental relations become the most important conditions for the advancement and
survival of human beings.
In other words, our given circumstances leave us no choice but to seek to achieve a coordination of
our actions, a unity in our aims, and an overcoming of the nationalistic separatism in our world. A
necessary consideration, in overcoming such nationalism, is the recognition and acceptance of the
diversity of cultural traditions which currently exist in various nations and among people. Although the
contemporary transformations wrought by science and technology implicitly prescribe a recognition of
and respect for diversity (which in earlier times was ignored), this prescription is extremely difficult to
accomplish because the socio-economic and political stability currently existing is based on an
international economic interdependence which is supported by military complexes. By having military
armaments as the foundation for international interdependence humanity is put on the brink of an
impending disaster.
However, imposing a value system (which respects diversity) on the basis of force or decree is
unthinkable. Only two ways exist of regulating social relations in a civilized manner--by morality and
by law. Yet moral development and legal processes take time to develop and renew slowly.
Moreover, people need to respond now while they have time. We should not nourish illusions that we
can guarantee our security by only banning and/or eliminating the proliferation and use of our nuclear
arsenals. While such acts are necessary steps, they are insufficient to removing us from our
dangerous situation.
People live not only in a nuclear century, but in an epoch which poses numerous possibilities and
means by which we may eliminate ourselves on a global basis. For example, the destruction of the
ozone layer of the planet's atmosphere, the possibility of chemical or biological warfare or terrorism,
and the destruction/meltdown of nuclear power stations offer similar fates as nuclear warfare. Of
course, we should continue to promote the elimination of nuclear weapons, but people must
recognize that no comprehensive solution exists, and hence there is no secure future for humanity.
Although knowledge of these techniques may not be eliminated (because we still depend on science
and technology for our survival), the primary effort of people should be directed away from destroying
each other (militarily and especially socio-economically) and our environment and toward the creation
of moral, just, peaceful, and sustainable social and environmental relations. In order to reach these
goal, we need to reinterpret and reevaluate ourselves and our world and alter our behavior and value
orientations. Human values must reflect the idea that all of us live as one large family on one small
earth. We have no where to go and cannot change this awful aspect of our existence.
What we can and must do is reevaluate our values, promote a global oriented morality, and
implement appropriate international laws. In this case, human rights legislation becomes of utmost
importance. Yet prior to such legislation is the necessity that everyone receive an education which
facilitates an understanding of our current global situation along with a respectful appreciation for
diversity and otherness. All human beings must recognize themselves as inhabitants of one world
and act accordingly. Hence, all nation-states, despite their traditions, beliefs, and values, are
obligated to give priority to the common interests of human beings in order to preserve all life on
earth. No one can with certainty forecast the fate of humanity or of our planet. But the degree to
which we are able to influence conditions of life on our planet requires each of us to acknowledge
global values and our responsibility for acting on such values.

http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Valu/ValuChum.htm