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Biography |
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Dr. Biljana Papazov Ammann „One should start with oneself, but never end with oneself“ Born in 1948 in Novi Sad, ex Jugoslavia, she grew up in Bulgaria, immersed in the Slavic tradition with a profound knowledge of the culture and the relevant three languages: Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat and Russian. Schooling was in Sofia, Moscow and again Sofia, followed by studies at the Technical University for Forestry in Sofia, where she specialized in landscape architecture. After five years of employment in the Planning Department of “Sofproject”, she felt the need for a complete change under the stagnating political atmosphere, and made the decision to drastically alter her path by switching to philosophy where she obtained her doctorate in the Department of Methodology of Science at the Philosophical Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Science. In 1987, she was invited by the Swiss government as a guest scientist. Subsequently she stayed, thus enabling her to further develop her unique and sensitive approach between the Eastern and Western societies. As her awareness and knowledge of Western society developed, she sought to integrate apparently incompatible worlds: East and West, religion and science, rich and poor. As a member of the program committee she helped to coin the first leitmotiv of Academia-Engelberg and still challenges her genuine passion for finding the way towards a better world. She also participated in activities of the Federal School of Technology in Zurich and at the University of Bern about discursive methods, and shared her views in international conferences in Montpellier on the dispute on genetic engineering, and in the ‘Darwin Now’ conference at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, ( British Council). Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal ‘Agriculture & Food Security’. Publications on Science and Humanity, Scientific Knowledge, Social Ecology, New Approach to Understanding the World, Battle on Objectivity within Society: the female dilemma.
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Abstract |
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Humanizing Science: Beyond Mere Profit! |
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How can this work, when after the Second World War the scientific attitude has hardly changed. The slogan is still: science as usual and business as usual. The world has changed a lot by following this principle. We now urgently need a frame or compass to achieve a better world. In order to understand the world around us, we must first try to understand the person inside us. Humans cannot be understood through the “glasses” of technological knowledge, no matter how fast it is growing and booming. Informative knowledge cannot transform men, because it is not part of its own self. Technological knowledge can be very useful, but it cannot replace this kind of Human knowledge that is connected with the feeling to one another, the place where you start to recognize yourself. In simple words: the essence of a new dialogic culture is when men reach the “Me” through the “You”, when I am able to understand myself through empathy to someone else. Both science and business changed their character and dimensions in the 20th Century through technology. We cannot speak anymore about pure science or pure business, neither about humanizing science through intelligential deal. What we urgently need is actually a culture asking questions in a new way, making a difference between informative and existential questions. The first existential question is: What do we need today - technological progress for the sake of technology, or a human development for the sake of men? The Questions should be oriented towards human reality instead of being based on the curiosity of the researcher or on the interest of industry or mere profit in business. This question culture should ask existential questions oriented towards life in order to get answers relevant to life. This is how we actually can deal with the overarching topic of Biovision 2012: The resonance of knowledge in the society of the 21. Century. |
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