On the Need of Ethical Foundations for Global Education

The concept of global education is based on the recognition of the world as a network of interdependencies and on realizing the fact that the current direction of the development of civilization is leading to environmental and humanitarian disaster. On the other hand, there is a belief that there is still a chance to change this state of affairs by means of education. The purpose of education is recognized as not only a transfer of knowledge, but also as a transfer of morals that are able to generate a shift in attitudes. In order to strengthen the impact of the global education project, it is necessary to provide a coherent description and axiological analysis of the values behind it. In the paper, we argue that ethicists should work on building philosophical arguments for the development and implementation of global education programs. We argue further that such a philosophical framework should be based on the ideas of new humanism (proposed by Aurelio Peccei) and global responsibility (formulated by Hans Jonas).