The World Philosophy Day conference was inaugurated Sunday morning in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and scholars from Iran and 42 other countries.
The
conference opened at the Iran National Library and Archive (INLA) with the
opening speech by President of the conference in Iran Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel,
the Persian service of Fars reported on Sunday.
“We
are pleased that Iran is celebrating such a great event in its country this
year,” he said.
“A
philosopher has a deep and perceptive mind and great philosophers are the
elites who devote their main attention to human beings,” he said.
“Iranians
comprise a nation that has inscribed their history with peace, justice and
thought. Iran has trained great scholars and philosophers over the centuries,
one of whom is Avicenna,” he remarked.
Addressing
the foreign guests, he continued, “You have traveled to a country whose
philosophers of today can name their older generation of luminaries one by
one.”
President
Ahmadinejad spoke next and said, “Man grows as his knowledge of the world and
its Creator increases; man is greater than any single phenomenon of which he
has knowledge.
If
an individual gets to know God and mankind, he/she would naturally get to know
the other creatures, “the main concern for man is getting to know himself and
his Creator.”
Director
of the Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy of Iran Gholamreza Avani, who is also
the deputy president of the conference, next said that Iran is the only country
in Asia holding the event internationally, “Concurrent with the conference in
Iran, many countries across the globe are celebrating the event nationally.”
He
also added that organizers of the event have tried to select and invite the top
philosophers from different countries to attend the event, which is running
until November 23.
He
added that 37 scholars are coming from Europe, 28 from Asia, 15 from the United
States, 12 from Africa and 5 from Oceania.
Source: MEHR News Agency