Abstract:
Die toekoms is onontwykbaar. Mense bly altyd daarmee gekonfronteer. Die uitdagings wat dit stel is ewe onontwykbaar : Wat moet ons daarmee doen? Hoe kan ons ons daarop voorberei? Wat kan gedoen word om dit te verseker? Duidelik stel dit hoë eise aan menslike denke, want geen empiriese hantering van die toekoms is moontlik nie. Deur die eeue het die gedagte van hoop op een of ander wyse gehelp om toekomsverwagtinge te artikuleer, hoop van filosowe, van teoloë, van psigoloë en selfs van rewolusionêres. Die hoop het mense laat voortgaan. Utopiese verwagtinge is gekoester en verkondig. Al hierdie intellektuele oefeninge is menslike denkhandelinge. Iets baie besonders word deur die toekoms van die denke gevra en dit vra weer vir 'n spesiale soort denke : allesomvattende denke, verbeeldingryke denke, of eintlik inventiewe denke, geïnspireer deur die noëtiese vermoëns van mense. Hierdie denke, ten einde te floreer en na behore te ontplooi, het taal nodig. Sonder taal sou die denke verstar en die toekoms versper gevind word. Taal help om die toekoms oop te maak, maar dan nie taal as gereedskap nie, maar wel taal as die spreker en denker in en deur mense. ENGLISH: The future poses unavoidable challenges to human beings. We have to take on these challenges; we have to confront the future; we have to figure out how to deal with it; we have to develop strategies to secure a sensible future for ourselves. We do not hold the future in our hands. It happens to us and very often in unexpected ways. These ways are most likely different from our plans and scenarios. Many maintain that the future contains something catastrophic and monstrous; thinking about the future is often loaded with despair, not to be separated from a kind of death wish. Despite the despair, the catastrophic, the monstrous and the death wish, human life can only be lived by directing the attention to the future in an imperturbable way.
The significance of empirical data, of the demonstrable, to help us in this endeavour is limited, and so is its value. We must apply our capacity of thought to deal with the challenges. The urgency of thorough reflection can hardly be denied. This urgency is of a conceptual nature before it becomes political or ethical. But then thought and reflection of a specific quality are required. It must be reflection in the sense of comprehensive thinking, or inventive thinking, as the only mode of thinking that is capable of dealing with the complexity and enormity of the challenges. Thought as calculation is insufficient and needs the support and complementary input of thought as reflection, meditation and invention.
