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2008 • Reinventing progress
October 18 and 19, 2008
Scientific discoveries, medical and technological advances – progress is the vital backdrop to our daily lives. But we all know that we have reached the end of the industrial phase that was the locomotive of the Western world for 200 years, a period of runaway progress that preferred to ignore the collateral cost: the poisoning of the planet and the depletion of its resources. For some years now, we have been aware that we must look at progress in another way and that we must invent another model for society.
The idea of "sustainable development" is quite recent, but also quite novel: a sustainable economy can create new prosperity. The ecological revolution can create wealth.
If we wish to reinvent progress, we must explore its potential and redefine the ethics that should govern our scientific, political and social models. Until now, any attempt to slow the development of knowledge has come to grief on the shores of human conscience… and its irresistible instinct for transgression! Whatever their intentions, it looks as if the discoverers are engaged in a headlong flight from reality. Reinventing progress could, perhaps, begin with accepting the fact that any invention is an element of progress: a necessary first step to avoid sterile debates between partisans and opponents of progress. Does not reinventing progress mean putting mankind at its centre? No matter what form it takes, progress springs from the human spirit and embeds itself in the lives of millions of men and women. Since progress begets progress, reinventing it implies, first and foremost, redirecting it in order to imagine our future. The excesses of industrialisation demonstrate the need to preserve the resources of our planet. Any new "model" of progress must take into account the growing awareness of the world's peoples (at varying degrees), and the need to apply it to all sectors of society: science, of course, but also business, education, consumption, leisure and social relations.
What if reinventing progress consisted, first and foremost, of assuming responsibility for our lives and citizenship in a world whose injustices and complexity become apparent, a little more, every day?
Speakers
Jacques ATTALI
Writer, Chairman of PlaNet Finance
Etienne-Emile BAULIEU
Professor, doctor, endocrinologist, biochemist
Jean-Louis BORLOO
Minister of the Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Planning
Mick BREMANS
Managing director, Ecover
Pierre-André de CHALENDAR
Managing Director of Saint-Gobain
Boris CYRULNIK
Writer, neuropsychiatrist
Jean-Luc DECORNOY
Chairman of the Board of KPMG
Marc DRILLECH
Managing Director of IONIS Education Group
Dominique ERAUD
doctor, acupuncturist
Geneviève FERONE
Director of Sustainable Development of the Veolia Environment Group
Luc FERRY
Philosopher
Orianne GARCIA
Founder of Caramail and co-founder of Terra Femina
Thierry GAUDIN
Mining engineer, President of Prospective 2100
Patrick HAAS
Chairman and CEO of BP France
Pascal HUSTING
Albert JACQUARD
Geneticist
Chantal JOUANNO
Chairwoman of ADEME
Axel KAHN
Geneticist, President of Université Paris Descartes
Etienne KLEIN
Physicist with the CEA, PhD in science
Elisabeth LAVILLE
Director and founder of Utopies, professor at HEC
Jean-Christophe LE DUIGOU
Dominique LECOURT
Philosopher, Director of the Centre Georges Canguilhem, Université Paris 7-Denis Diderot
Marc LUYCKX GHISI
PhD in philosophy, Vice President of the Conseil Consultatif International d’Auroville
Michel MAFFESOLI
Professor at the Sorbonne, Director of the centre d’études sur l’actuel et le quotidien (study of contemporary and everyday life)
Pierre MONGIN
Chairman-CEO of the RATP
Joaquin MUNOZ
Director of Max Havelaar
Maria NOWAK
Chairwoman of the Association pour le Droit à l'Initiative Economique (ADIE – micro-finance nonprofit)
Serge ORRU
Managing general WWF France
Yves PACCALET
Writer, philosopher and naturalist
Raphaël PALTI
Chairman of Altavia
Michèle PAPPALARDO
General commissioner for sustainable development
Bertrand PICCARD
Founder of Solar Impulse, psychiatrist
Frank PIEDELIEVRE
Chairman of the Board, Bureau Veritas
Pierre RABHI
Chairman of non-profit organisation Terre et Humanisme, writer, philosopher
Bernard RAMANANTSOA
Dean, HEC
Claude-Yves ROBIN
Joël de ROSNAY
Chairman of Biotics International
Maximilien ROUER
Chairman, partner and co-founder of BeCitizen, positive economy consultant
Samuel ROUVILLOIS
Priest, philosopher
Jean-Christophe RUFIN
French Ambassador to Senegal
Nicolas SADIRAC
Director of EPITECH (IT and new technologies School)
Jean-Louis SERVAN-SCHREIBER
Journalist, essayist, Director of the magazine "Psychologies"
Jean STAUNE
Nathan STERN
Sociologist, founder of Peuplade
Ezra SULEIMAN
Professor of Political Sciences, Princeton University
Dominique THYS
Delegated Administrator to the General direction of MAIF
Jean VIARD
Senior CNRS researcher with CEVIPOF, Sciences-Po political research centre
Patrick VIVERET
Philosopher, Senior member of the Auditor-General's Department (Cour des Comptes)
Photosof Earth University - 2008 edition
