Philosophy has long ceased to be a way of being and has become a field of research, a detached analysis, a “philosophical speech”, or merely a subject of conversation. It no longer considers fundamental principles, nor does it deal with the conversion of thought into reality, the formation of the mind and the soul, or a person’s inner transformation. It has lost its influence on the world. Philosophy no longer generates ideas capable of changing the course of history. Today, many people talk about philosophy, study philosophy, and even teach philosophy, without having a philosophy of their own.

It is a known fact that almost all the early Greek philosophers were public figures, legislators, and, some of them, poets too. According to Plato, the state should be ruled by a philosopher, and only a philosopher. But where are the philosophers for whom thought and action are inseparable? Where are the philosophers who think, not in isolation from the world, but in terms of changing the world? Nowadays, such philosophers are hard to find. It is not easy these days to assume the role of a philosopher, ready to question the world order, the modern system of values, society, humanity, and what we used to consider the foundations of being. Wherever 2+2=4 is a fundamental law, novel, genuinely groundbreaking ideas run the risk of meeting resistance. But it is these ideas that will eventually shape the image of the future.

Few philosophers can claim they have no teachers and that the wisdom they share with the world comes from an inner source. Those who have such courage are carriers of an original world view and have a clear plan for reconstructing the world. Their task is to prava corrigere et recta corroborare et sancta sublimare (Latin: to correct what is wrong, to strengthen what is right, and to sublimate what is sacred).

After philosophy was humbled to the rank of “servant of theology” in the Middles Ages, when philosophy degenerated into the “gibberish” of the New Age and, finally, after the speculative manipulation of the Postmodern Era, philosophy is rising to the status of the “Art of Thinking”. This is the way in which Hares Youssef sees philosophy. And for him, it is not reduced to one of its attributes – logic. On the contrary, Hares considers logic such an imperfect tool of thought that it reduces it to “limiters” that deprive the mind of the freedom and desire to search for the truth. It often happens that something that is recognised in the scientific world as an unshakable law may one day be questioned (or even wholly refuted) by a new generation of scientists. As a result, it becomes clear that there are no constants in the world of racio.

Hares Youssef does not accept scientific laws as the truth; for him, they are like traps that human thinking falls into. We could say that he gravitates towards the form of knowledge that the French thinker René Guénon termed “intellectual intuition”. This is not the intuition related to the sensuous, sub-rational sphere, or the [Cartesian] concept of rationalistic epistemology. Intellectual intuition is super-rational; it implies the ability to penetrate the intelligible world, not by building a chain of logical reasoning, but by means of “instant insight.” This insight is akin to Plato’s Theory of Anamnesis.

Hares often says that he came into the world with this knowledge. It was given, received and obtained by “remembering”, and was always kept within him, without the need for an external source. Language plays a huge role in the process of cognition for Hares. It is through language, through the comparative analysis of meanings, that he reveals the true sense of words. Thus, economics in his picture of the world takes on an unusual form for most of us since Hares advocates a complete rethinking of such concepts as money, value, currency, capital, price, law, etc. Language gives him the key to restoring the original meaning of words.

Strictly speaking, we are talking about the creation of a new economic model.In its origins, economics was inseparable from the ethical, philosophical and political views of the thinkers who profoundly contributed to its formation. Therefore, economics is undoubtedly a much broader concept than is commonly believed, and it includes not only philosophical, ethical, political and scientific, but also psychological aspects. The New Economics of Hares Youssef can be called the “science of human existence,” based on the laws and principles that underlie existence itself. And this form of economics involves a re-evaluation of all basic concepts (in fact, a re-evaluation of values), in which a crucial role is played by cognitive linguistics, and language itself acts as the key to the processes of cognition.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle distinguished between economics and chrematistics. If by economics, he meant the creation of the benefits necessary for natural human needs, then with the term chrematistics, he was referring to the science of enrichment, the cult of profit. There is no doubt that today we are dealing exclusively with chrematistics masquerading as economics. Chrematistics rests on the foundation of the shadow financial system, which is opposed by Hares Youssef’s New Economics.

In the book Gaiia, Hares has outlined the contours of the world he plans to create. In this rather short book, fundamental ideas are expressed, each of which has the goal of being implemented. Moreover, every idea is a challenge. A challenge to the modern system of values, a challenge to the shadow financial model and its architects, a challenge to the approach to raising children, a challenge to the attitude to women in society, a challenge to science, a challenge to civilisation. These challenges can pull the ground from under your feet, call into question everything that yesterday seemed to you indisputable. To accept and comprehend these challenges, you need to have cognitive flexibility and the ability to make the transition from logical thinking to creative or lateral thinking. To understand these ideas, you need intellectual freedom.

The fundamental idea for Hares is duality . In Gaiia, he writes that in the Universe, all things exist in pairs, and “any object only acquires its exclusivity in symbiosis with its copy”. We all have our own inner ideal double, through whom we can find the way to ourselves, know ourselves, as the ancient Greeks taught (Γνῶθι σεαυτόν – Know yourself). Duality is the foundation of individuality and the basis of identity. Our double is precisely what makes us human, contributing to our development and growth. Transparency is a prerequisite for our contact with our inner counterpart. It is worth noting that the principle of transparency is at the heart of Hares’ philosophical, economic and scientific ideas. Transparency is the key to the complete transformation of human life.

There is another fundamental idea in Gaiia (you could even say that this is the central axis of Hares’ entire philosophical model). This is the idea of Humo. Humo is “the manifestation of each of us in everyone and everyone in each of us.” It is the pronoun We. It is an intermediary between each and every one of us, a mediator between man and the planet (Gaiia). Humo is “the totality of all of the souls of the prophets and gods”. It is impossible to know yourself, your Ego, until we know our Humo.

Reflecting on the place and role of women in society, Hares believes that a woman “should be a full economic contributor to society, on an equal footing with a man”. On the planet Gaiia, it is a woman who makes history. “…On Earth women are not fulfilled, neither in the West nor in the East, because they have not been given their share of the power in society. Your economy is of the masculine type. It has no room for women. For this reason, your civilisation looks like a bicycle with one wheel,”says Elena, the woman who makes history by telling people about the world on the planet Gaiia. “Gaiia is the soul of Nature, and Nature is the soul of life, and life, in turn, is our soul. Gaiia, Nature, life and the soul are Woman. Woman gives birth to both woman and man.”

If we recall the role that Plato assigns to women in his Ideal State, we will find that the philosopher insisted that the nature of women is no different from the nature of men, and the relationship between them should not be based on gender slavery, where women are destined to be oppressed. In Plato’s State, women can become guardians on an equal basis with men, which means they can distance themselves from household chores, which are usually imposed on them as “women’s duties”. Furthermore, they can engage in political activity and “the arts of the Muses”, which include not only poetry, rhetoric and music, but also philosophy. A woman can receive the same education as a man. Being inferior to him only in physical terms (although there are many exceptions here), a woman who has received an education based on Paideia’s idea will not be subordinate to a man in any other area. A man and a woman in Plato’s State are companions, not rivals.

In its attitude towards women, modern society makes a big mistake, in that it forms the offensive habit of assuming that all women have the same task and purpose, that all women, without exception, achieve true self-realisation through motherhood. This is a grave misconception. There are women whose self-realisation has nothing to do with motherhood and marriage. In Gaiia, Jelena emphasises that the times when the only purpose of a woman was to give birth to a child are consigned to history. A woman’s task is more than just a biological role. There is a difference between “giving birth” and “being a mother”, between “mother” and “mum”. The former gives birth, whereas the latter raises a child. Being a mum (or a dad) is not a biological role, but a profession. That’s right – a profession. And to attain it, you need to undergo the appropriate training and get a diploma. Hares often cites the example: “we can’t get behind the wheel of a car without a driving licence”, but isn’t parenting a more important process? It too is something that should be learned.

Hares Youssef’s ideas have transformational potential, as they are aimed at making significant changes in all areas of human life. He has his own view on economics, ecology, psychology, society, art, time, the problem of consciousness, new technologies, human relationships… Every thought expressed by him is always inextricably linked with action and, moreover, with projects to change the financial system, educational model, scientific picture of the world, value system, attitude to language, etc. He gives you the assurance of being a person who knows exactly what needs to be done with this world. Hares has a unique ability to recognise the global challenges and problems of this century, to view them through the prism of philosophy (as “the Art of Thinking”), and to find a way to solve them. This philosopher, poet, artist, writer and teacher has come to write a new page in the history of humanity.

Natella Speranskaya