The crisis of humanity – a threat or an opportunity?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to contest a tendency – one which is not recent but clearly evident in contemporary reflection on the human being – to perceive the problem of the crisis of humanity in terms of a function of a civilisational crisis. The crisis diagnosed in the technological-civilisational sphere and the crisis threatening the human being using this sphere are non-homogeneous and even disjunctive phenomena. Both crisis have been diagnosed as regards their causes, consequences and preventative measures from numerous philosophical positions (the Frankfurt school, E. Husserl, and others). It turns out, however, that the problem may only be fully captured if it is positioned in the ethical space of a meeting, described by philosophers of dialogue (M. Buber, A. J. Heschel, E. Lévinas). And if civilisational crises are challenges to overcome, the „crisis of humanity” is a vital and topical premise supporting the irreducibility of the human being to the civilisational framework of the human life.