The concern with universality or the inclination toward globalism has been one of the primary tasks of philosophers since the Greeks, forming one of their most noble and grand objectives. This was clearly manifested in Plato's Republic, which leaned toward the normative—that is, what general and specific existence ought to be—by proposing the concept of universal happiness. We observe the same notion in a different cultural context, specifically in Arab-Islamic culture through the "Second Teacher," Al-Farabi, who emphasized the necessity of rallying around core normative values for a better future for humanity.

The relationship between knowledge and power—exemplified par excellence during this period by Aristotle and Alexander the Great, through which Greek thought spread while benefiting from other cultures and civilizations in the East and West—is what bound the philosopher to the politician through their eternal travels across the globe. This was evident in Plato's visit to the Temple of Heliopolis in Egypt, as well as the pilgrimage of most ancient thinkers and philosophers to the Library of Alexandria, which served as a defining hallmark of the universality of Greek philosophy and politics in its era.

The West waited for long centuries to revive the concept of universal consciousness within its philosophical projects. Thus, Kant called for the universality and global nature of peace in his work Perpetual Peace, alongside the attempt by his compatriot, the philosopher Hegel, to make dialectics universal and global. Universal projects subsequently continued through the phenomenology of Husserl, who sought to find a complete science to save the world from the absurdity of politics, war, and technology. Following this, philosophical ideas and projects rushed to establish new, more robust universalities—manifested this time in Gadamer's hermeneutics, Habermas's communicative action, Jonas's imperative of responsibility, and Ricœur's alterity. The underlying purpose of all these projects converged in the search for the normative—what ought to be—without overlooking the contributions of science in its applied and procedural domains to provide what is best for the universal (global) human being through a set of applied scientific philosophies aimed at achieving human harmony with self, with the other, and with existence itself. Thus, the primary stake of philosophy has now shifted toward all that is human and universal, with critique perhaps serving as the foremost characteristic in the journey of these transformations that accompanied philosophy and humanity.

Journal Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Larbi Miloud