Jeffrey Levett is an International Gusi Peace Laureate awarded for services to international public health and dissemination of Greek philosophical ideas. It is designated the foremost award in Asia and referred to as and Nobel peace prize of the East.
During the recent and 12th Symposium in Dialectical Philosophy (October 7-9, 2021) of the World Philosophical Forum (WPF) Jeffrey Levett was proclaimed Honorary President taking up the vacant position of the late Evangelos Moutsopoulos, Academician.
The World Philosophical Forum draws attention each year and to the early warning system of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists whose doomsday clock is an indicator of the probability of a manmade global catastrophe. The Forum was founded in Athens Greece 2009 in the homeland of philosophy by the Russian philosopher Igor Kondrashin as an independent international non-governmental, non-profit organization. Its interests are to protect the interests of humanity and act on behalf of mankind in order to attain a better future for all Earthlings and their respective societies. Its logo shows a pensive goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom, protector of Athens and the Thinker, a statue of Rodin, bridging its motto of philosophical ideas educate, consolidate and help transform Humanity. Its focal aim is to revive classical Greek Philosophy and to move the world away from scholasticism. In 2018, the Greek authorities honored the Forum with a laurel leaf by the Minister of Tourism.
Its emergence is bound up in UNESCO’s slogans; no UNESCO without Philosophy, of building peace in the minds of men and women and a sense of peaceful coexistence and in a world moving towards a catastrophic brink where the United Nations makes attempts to heal and restore, by embracing civic education and calling on all peoples to foster a greater sense of global citizenship. When last in Athens to examine the plight of migrants in their search for a safe port Βan Ki-moon a proclaimed ‘Aristocrat of the Earth’ received a symbolic life jacket received a symbolic life jacket. In Zagreb he spoke of public health and the life of Andrija Stampar in the School of Public Health. Βan Ki-moon is also a Honorary President, WPF.
The 12th Symposium in Dialectical Philosophy (October 7-9, 2021) of the WPF took place in the Auditorium of Parnassos, the Hellenic Philological Association. It is worth recalling that the revival of the Olympic Games, one pillar of antiquity was discussed within the walls of Parnassos before the games returned to the Stadium in Athens, in 1896. The second pillar was the Symposium which helped by music in a theatrical background played a basic role in Education. Around 1960, a Boîte named the Symposium was opened in Plaka serving a popular need and played a vital role in Athenian social life, after the Civil War. 12 years ago (2009) the concept of a Symposium became more official with the inauguration of the WPF in the presence of the late Evangelos Moutsopoulos, Honorary President, under the auspices of UNESCO and in the name of Irina Bokova.
During the 12th Symposium Jeffrey Levett provided a personal overview of two political narratives he considers missing from Greek society. The first narrative is a lack of an adequate concept of interdisciplinary public health. In modern times public health helped improve the living conditions of the Greek people whose physical condition was miserable and life expectancy low. It eliminated endemic malaria, added twenty-years of life to the average Greek citizen (1930-70) and facilitated the way for Greece to take up its rightful niche in the international community as a progressive nation. Development was based on the work of the Athens School of Public Health, one of the first Schools in the world and founding member of ASPHER.
The second missing narrative is that of classical philosophy that placed its seal on the cradle of civilization; philosophy that has stood for millennia, suffered barbaric attacks and paradoxically has not yet found a suitable and appropriate place in education while the digital dimension is already well entrenched in education. The wages of scholasticism were paid at the expense of Greek classical philosophy; the search for the golden mean remains still yet, out of reach; while Hygiene goddess of public health remains disappointed with the contemporary world.
Decisions taken at the 12th WPF include, the 13th Symposium of Dialectical Philosophy (2022) will be held at the Parnassos Philological Association, the upcoming World Philosophical Day, 19 November will be held in Athens and Mexico and an Appeal was tabled to the UN and the Greek authorities. (enclosed)
Let it be noted that the Forum followed on from the 48th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (September 20, 2021) and was followed by COP26. The former event examined the existential problem space facing mankind at a time when countries are unable to improve the living conditions of their people. Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General referred to the abyss moving in the wrong direction, which is equivalent to my social dementia and he offered a moral indictment of the state of our world for which, the WPF responded with an Appeal.