Où va l'humanité ? À propos de l'ouvrage de Jean-Claude Guillebaud, Le Principe d'humanité

Jean-Claude Guillebaud, who among other things is a writer, journalist and editor for the publishing house Seuil, made a presentation about his latest book Le Principe d’humanité (Paris: Seuil, 2001) to a Round Table organized by Futuribles International on 14 November 2001. Benjamin Delannoy, a journalist for Futuribles, discusses here the main ideas as Guillebaud presented them at the meeting or in his book.
As he stresses, the author undertakes to stimulate opinion about the future of humanity and to remind us of several essential principles necessary for the “preservation” of human nature and the conditions of community life associated with it. Among them, the “principle of humanity” states that all men and women belong fully and undeniably to a common humanity.
This presentation highlights the threats now facing humankind, as a result in particular of the very rapid advances in science and technology without any corresponding ethical control over them, as well as the blindspots and failure to address the major human and social issues such as the relationship between human beings and machines, between Man and Nature, etc. This is therefore an opportunity to explore more thoroughly what underpins “living together” and to take a position as to a critical but constructive view of humanity, necessarily based on freedom.