Yuri F. C. Fernandes, Federative Republic of Brazil, participant of the VI BRICS International School – special for InfoBRICS

Today, in the year 2022 of the 21st century, in the emergence of a multipolar world, we have a serious philosophical problem: to rethink our way of being and acting on planet earth. This problem arises in such a way as to present several layers. I will deal here with one of them, perhaps the main one, the layer of Philosophy.

During the last five hundred years we have seen the expansion and domination of the European peoples over the other continents and peoples of the world. This process was, above all, not only a process of material domination, but also a symbolic and philosophical one. The expansion of European thought shaped the world in these centuries and epistemicide was a fundamental element of this endeavor. They shaped the world in their image and opposition, having themselves as the center of civilization, as a model of thought, social, economic and political organization. Under his thinking the world, we were molded and subjugated. The philosophical contribution of the European continent to the thinking of humanity as a whole is undeniable and it is necessary to emphasize this before continuing, emphasizing that those who set out to try to erase and submit the other were the Europeans who took this thought and made a weapon of domination. I think that few of the European philosophers who contributed richly to humanity had in mind what their theses were made of or what they were used for. Would Socrates, Plato or Aristotle, mentioning here the best known and consensually important in a huge list of thinkers, would be satisfied with what has become of their works, their ideas, foundations of Western philosophical thought, if they had the opportunity to be here today? Under the aegis of taking progress to the world, under the arrogance of placing themselves as the "garden" - an allusion here to the recent speech of a famous European leader - who domesticates and prevents the advance of the "jungle" with the pretext of placing themselves as the bastions of freedom and civilization, supported by the idea of taking and imposing their democracy on the world, the friends of the West got lost in their words and actions and instead of making the world a better place, as they preach, supported by their liberal ideology that naive has nothing, have made and still make the world a place of inequality and despair. Thus, under these conditions, it is necessary for us, above all, to remain calm because with calm and strategy, reality, the world, is willing to be rethought in its entirety and the balance of power tends to be rebuilt under other weights. and other measures.

The multipolar moment has arrived, which requires us to bring other philosophical matrices, our Philosophies, to the center of the debate. If a matrix, a way of thinking, was what shaped the place we arrived at that moment, now reality urges new ways of thinking about the totality of reality, engaged in thinking about solving humanity's problems, defense strategies, security, innovation, sustainable development, social, political and economic organization. When I say new, it's in the sense of making them protagonists as much as those who have always dictated the rules of the game and left no room for other ideas. The rules need to be rethought from this multiplicity of ideas. Not just rules but essential concepts for humanity, such as the very concept of humanity, equality, cooperation, and how they were put up until now, the organizations to which they gave the bases, their dynamics, decisions and resolutions. How can our philosophers, ancient and contemporary, help us to think about this multipolar world? From the perspective of the global South, starting from here, how can we think about our problems and contribute to the planet? It is time for our philosophical thought to be a protagonist as well, nothing more consistent with a multipolar world than multiple philosophies supporting the construction of an international system that contemplates all of us, sovereign States and their citizens, us humans, us nature, we system organic, planet Earth. If we are in this moment of remodeling the international order under multipolarity, then let's deal with ideas, and how ideas have shaped and can shape the world, or rather, how the world can shape ideas, how the dialectic between idea and reality arises, what she demands of us. Our philosophies not only can but should be in this world, this world needs different protagonists based on the real world to build a common prosperous future together. In the diversity of philosophical perspectives lies the source of problem solving formulations that affect us all. Today, reality calls us to bring them to the table.

At the BRICS International Philosophy Forum, where young thinkers, members of the bloc and observers can discuss and think together in cooperation, across the most diverse areas of knowledge, produce documents with useful guidelines for the designation of projects and decision references for the different actors in each BRICS country. Its importance comes from the need to have our philosophical matrices as a basis for the elaboration of theories and strategies, in contrast to the movement of the incident periods and to shape the world of its philosophical matrices. If we are in the emergence of a multipolar world with the natural protagonism of the countries that make up the BRICS, we must, as reality urges, have our means, supported by our original and unique thinking, to support this plurality of ways of being in the world. and position itself in the international system. Thinking about autonomy in this multipolar world necessarily involves having the autonomy to think from our roots in the dialogue with our strategic partners.

We have philosophical matrices in each nation, in each people, because where there is a human being, there is also the production of knowledge and therefore Philosophy. In their craving for colonial domination, some Western nations positioned themselves as masters of philosophy. Only they would be able to say what is and what is not Philosophy and what would be useful to humanity. It was a dark time for knowledge. The Philosophy that underlies all areas of knowledge, therefore, the so-called “mother of knowledge” was hampered, imprisoned and put in favor of world projects that definitely did not contemplate all of us. The world we live in was shaped from this movement, from the restriction of the most precious knowledge of each people, of their philosophies. I don't want to say that we were forbidden to do philosophy or to think, this is almost impossible, the question is what we were allowed to do with that thought, where it was able to reach and act.

It is time to bring our philosophies to the center of the debate, so that we can think about the world that is formed from them. Our peoples, ancient with crossings that renew them, all produced and produced thought. We are fertile ground for thinking and solving problems from our perspective. Why is there no philosophical cooperation, inside and outside universities and multilateral organizations, between us? I mean, carried out as an institutional initiative of the BRICS bloc. Why isn't there? How to make this cooperation happen?