Santavuori, Humanity First! - Towards an Ethical Civilisation

We are living in the era of the unification of humankind. Humanity will survive or perish together. So far, self-destruction seems more likely than survival. What is the reason for the self-destructiveness of the human species? This is the crucial question of our time. Finding an answer to this question is the most important ethical and intellectual challenge of our era. Humankind can survive only by building its internal relationships on the basis of self-knowledge. Only in this way we can live in harmony with nature. Our sole survival strategy is the knowledge of human history and human nature. This program pamphlet contains a new and original view of the world today: the change of era, the crisis of democracy, and how we can see features of the future global society already in the present. Humankind ought to come together to study and discuss the basic teachings of our history. To that end, this program provides some practical suggestions. The program relies on the lifework of the Finnish philosopher Matti Puolakka. It makes use of his text archive, notes and speeches, which he left to the New History Association for safekeeping, editing and publication. A short presentation of Puolakka's lifework and a summary of his view of the entire history, i.e. the 2.5-million-year journey of the Homo family, are attached. The program is available also on the web site of the New History Association: https://newhistory.fi.