Weekly Press Release of Istanbul Gelisim University (March 8-12, 2021)

Abstract

BY A DOYEN - The Future of Our Civilization It is necessary to admit that our civilization has created various ailments and diseases. The way to eliminate them is to understand the reasons thoroughly. The diagnosis should not be limited to the economic crisis. The diagnosis should be on the “crisis of civilization”. Today, it is seen that the social order of our world continues in a direction that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. In the globalization process, this imbalance has become more severe and has reached dramatic dimensions during the pandemic process. The problem of “sustainability” in economic development maintains its important place on the agenda. Looking at the problem, solutions should be sought, considering the negative results of developed countries’ past “bad” development and developing countries’ efforts to imitate developed countries’ models. Considering the existence of the environment in the crisis of development, it seems that the questions of how the economic growth should be and under which conditions it can be valid in the social and ecological plan should be put on the world agenda together with the evaluation of the pandemic process. Let us give an example of the observational pragmatism of Benjamin Franklin, one of the thinkers who put forward various aspects of the “environment” minded development strategy: Waking up early one summer morning, Franklin sees his room already filled with sunlight and sits down. Calculates the waste of candles caused by the mismatch between daylight hours and working hours. If this discrepancy is eliminated, Parisians will be able to save 64 million francs of candles. Benjamin Franklin’s suggestion to wake people up with a cannon shot in the morning is interesting: Daylight saving time! .. What shall we say; I hope the future of humanity will be “enlightened”.

Prof. Dr. Ömer Gürkan Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences International Trade and Finance Department