How ideas travel

In a recent Unesco Courier interview (February 1997) the French historian and philosopher Alain de Libera talked about the extraordinary way in which the idea of the individual travelled across the centuries, continents and cultures.

This idea, which originated in ancient Greece, was enriched much later in medieval Andalusia when it came into contact with an Arab concept of intellectual activity as a blend of abstract speculation and technical enquiry. This notion in its turn became the foundation of a revolutionary institution, the university, which spread throughout Europe and, between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, gave birth to the modern concept of the human being. With the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, an idea whose first glimmerings had appeared 3,000 years before became a federating principle of the human community.

The present issue sheds light on some of the highways and byways along which ideas have travelled over the centuries. As well as tracing their geographical twists and turns it notes the increasing speed and range of the mediafrom caravans to computers, from clay tablets to fibre opticswhereby ideas have been communicated. It shows many-sided humanity gradually becoming aware of its unity with the emergence and transmission of ideas, principles and standards which deserve to be shared by all since they give everyone an opportunity for enrichment.

This path towards universality, with all its ups and downs, has been above all else a road to freedom.

Bahgat Elnadi, Director, et Adel Rifaat, editor-in-chief

Quand les idées allaient à pied par François Bernard

Les Tribulations des manuscrits par Gerald Messadié

Chansons, ragots et libelles ou les médias du 18e siècle par Robert Darnton 

La Parole en marche - Youssouf Tata Cissé répond aux questions de Jasmina Šopova

Les Chocs de la mondialisation par Salah Guemriche

La Cyberespace: un réseau planétaire de personnes et d'idées par J.C. Nyíri

Machines à voyager dans le temps par Louise Merzeau

Entretien :  Viviane Forrester répond aux questions d'Edgar Reichmann

Espace vert : Le Sol, ce grand oublié par France Bequette

Patrimoine : Palmyre - visages d'éternité par Mahmoud Zibawi;  Les Pharaons victimes de l'urbanisation par Samir Gharib

La chronique du Directeur général : De l'idéal à l'action