THE POLYCRISIS
Interconnected global challenges & reductionist trap
HUMANISM
FORUM
An institutional response to the polycrisis
WORLD
HUMANISM FORUM
One Planet. Many Civilizations. One Shared Destiny.
Understanding complexity. Strengthening human judgment.
FlorenceDubaiThe World
Continue↓Why Now
The polycrisis cannot be understood in fragments.
Ecological, social, political, economic and technological crises interact across systems and generations. Their causes and consequences cannot be understood in isolation.
The challenge is not information alone, but the fragmentation of knowledge and the difficulty of seeing relationships, contexts and consequences.
The World Humanism Forum helps people and institutions navigate this complexity, strengthening the conditions for more conscious, contextual judgment.
Mission, Purpose and History →AthensKnowledge travelsBaghdadCivilizations meetFlorenceThe conversation continuesThe Gulf
Theory of Change
From polycrisis to epistemic agency.
The Forum brings together historical inspiration, complex thought, contemporary technology and Planetary Humanism through Contemporary Bayt al-Hikma and Bayt al-Hikma Tools.
What emerges is a public pathway from fragmented knowledge to more conscious human judgement, autonomous decisions and experiential learning.
Open the full flow diagram →WORLD HUMANISM FORUM
Institutional & methodological enabling engine
FOUNDATIONAL INGREDIENTS
Bayt al-HikmaInspiration & memory
Edgar MorinIntellectual method
Artificial IntelligenceTechnological tool
Planetary HumanismEthical horizon & purpose
Contemporary Bayt al-HikmaHuman encounter, dialogue & embodied experience
Bayt al-Hikma ToolsHolistic assessment & complexity navigation tools
COGNITIVE & EPISTEMIC AGENCY
Preserving human sovereignty, critical reasoning and contextual responsibility in decision-making.
Augmented wisdom. Ethical choice remains strictly human.
INFORMED DECISIONS & SYSTEMIC ACTIONS
Autonomous application by people and partner institutions
High-leverage interventions
From information to understanding
Current platform and future domains.
The Forum begins with Understanding Philosophy as the current platform and expands into a wider landscape of learning, inquiry and public understanding.
Understanding Religions
Available
Open →Understanding Philosophy
Current platform
Open →History
Under development
Open →Civilizations
Under development
Open →Economics
Under development
Open →Climate & Earth Systems
Under development
Open →Politics
Under development
Open →Geopolitics
Under development
Open →Thought & Governance
Under development
Open →Edgar Morin
Under development
Open →
Method and Purpose
Complex thought. Planetary responsibility.
Edgar Morin’s work provides the Forum’s principal intellectual method.
Complex thought reconnects knowledge, places it in context and remains attentive to interdependence, uncertainty and the relationship between parts and wholes.
Developed by the Forum through its reading of Morin, Planetary Humanism provides the ethical horizon: dignity, plurality, shared planetary belonging and responsibility.
Foundational Architecture
Four ingredients.
Different functions.
One integrated architecture.
Memory, method, technology and purpose work together across the Forum.
Historical inspiration and memory
Historical Bayt al-Hikma
The House of Wisdom of Baghdad evokes a formative period of translation, inquiry and circulation of knowledge across cultures, languages and intellectual traditions.
Intellectual method
Edgar Morin
A method for reconnecting knowledge and understanding context, interdependence, uncertainty and the relationship between parts and wholes.
Contemporary technological tool
Artificial Intelligence
A current, subordinate and replaceable tool for organizing and navigating knowledge under human stewardship.
Ethical horizon and purpose
Planetary Humanism
An orientation toward dignity, plurality, shared planetary belonging and responsibility. It directs and limits how the other ingredients are used.
How the World Humanism Forum responds to the polycrisis
The problem
POLYCRISIS
Institutional response
WORLD HUMANISM FORUM
Four foundational ingredients
Knowledge Center
TOOL FOR NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY
People and institutions
AUTONOMOUS DECISIONS & ACTIONS
Responsibility remains human and contextual.
Experience, evidence and consequences may return as feedback and correction.
The Knowledge Center
From information
to understanding.
The Knowledge Center is the Forum’s knowledge-navigation infrastructure. Inspired by complex thought, it connects sources, disciplines, cultures, timelines, geographies and comparisons so that relationships become visible and complexity can be explored without being reduced.
Artificial intelligence supports exploration; evidence, scholarship, interdisciplinary inquiry and accountable human judgment remain essential.
Current Platform
Understanding Religions
The first public implementation: comparative, contextual and source-transparent.
Explore Understanding Religions →Current Platform
Understanding Philosophy
Questions, traditions, concepts and thinkers explored across cultures and civilizations.
Explore the Current Platform →Under Development
History
Events, structures, continuities and change across time.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Civilizations
Encounters, exchanges and transformations across civilizations.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Economics
Economic systems, institutions, incentives and their human consequences.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Climate & Earth Systems
Climate, ecosystems and planetary interdependence.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Politics
Power, institutions, public choices and collective life.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Geopolitics
Power, geography, strategic interests and relationships among states, regions and global systems.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Thought & Governance
Ideas, traditions of thought and the institutions through which societies govern.
Explore the Roadmap →Under Development
Edgar Morin
A dedicated knowledge environment for complex thought and Edgar Morin’s intellectual legacy.
Explore the Roadmap →Relationships · Timelines · Geographies · Comparisons · Visible Sources · Human ReviewExplore the Knowledge Center →
First Public Implementation of the Knowledge Center
Understanding Religions
A comparative, source-transparent environment for exploring how religious and non-religious worldviews understand reality, human life and society.
Explore fifteen independent profiles through shared questions, timelines, everyday and public life, dialogue and visible sources. Every comparison states its limits.
Work in Progress · Open to Contribution
Convening & Culture
Where worlds meet.
Contemporary Bayt al-Hikma is the Forum’s convening and cultural component, bringing people, disciplines, generations and traditions into encounter.
Grounded in historical memory, it creates space for dialogue, translation, cultural expression and collective inquiry without erasing difference or conflict.
Encounters That Shaped the Journey
Ideas grow
through encounters.
A selective record of conversations that informed the Forum’s intellectual journey. Inclusion does not imply endorsement, partnership or participation.
Documented dialogue · Florence
Fireside with Mark Carney and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
Documented encounter
Jane Goodall
Documented conversation
Christine Lagarde
Documented encounter
Muhammad Yunus
Intellectual inspiration · public portrait
Edgar Morin
Initiatives & Practice
From understanding to contextual practice.
The Forum connects knowledge and experience to make complexity more understandable and navigable. It helps people and institutions examine relationships, assumptions and consequences before deciding how to act.
People and institutions retain responsibility for their decisions and actions. The Humanistic Transformation Framework supports the design, learning and evaluation of initiatives in their own contexts.
Education
Connect knowledge, dialogue and reflection to strengthen judgment and responsibility. Learning is designed to reveal relationships across disciplines, cultures and lived experience.
Institutional Learning
Help institutions examine assumptions, relationships and consequences across professional boundaries. Shared inquiry supports more reflective learning across roles and sectors.
Systems Practice
Map interdependencies, identify leverage points and test responses in context. The aim is to make complex relationships more visible before action is taken.
Initiative Design & Learning
Develop explicit theories of change, evidence plans and cycles of adaptation. Assumptions, responsibilities and learning questions remain visible throughout the work.
Stewardship & Public Purpose
Built to serve. Designed to collaborate.
The World Humanism Forum was conceived and initially funded by Claudio Pedretti, who serves as its founder and steward. Horizon Strategies is its current strategic and technical development partner.
The Forum is being developed in the public interest. It is designed to complement, not compete with, universities, foundations, research centres, cultural institutions, international organisations and public bodies.
Its contribution is a method, knowledge-navigation tools and convening capacity that partners can test, adapt and strengthen within their own mandates and contexts. Decisions and actions remain the autonomous responsibility of the people and institutions involved.