Socio-Economic Dimensions of the Pandemic: a Philosophical Analysis

Abstract

The current global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has already become a challenge for individual national economies, as well as the global world system as a whole. The eminent English historian Toynbee (1987) wrote that the viability of a civilization depends on the extent to which its elite (“the creative minority”) can mobilize its intellectual, moral, and physical strength to respond adequately to the challenges. Therefore, challenges are necessary for humanity since without them one would deal with spiritual and intellectual stagnation. Indeed, that which does not kill us makes us stronger. This aphorism becomes especially relevant in present times when the world is concerned with what the “post-covid” world will be, what transformations the values and worldview of individuals will undergo. The coronavirus pandemic acts in this case as a catalyst and accelerator for change and forces one to pay attention to them. As Toffler (1971) once pointed out, “The inhabitants of the earth are divided not only by race, nation, religion or ideology, but also, in a sense, by their position in time”. The future is rapidly coming, although only a few per cent of the entire human population “live” in the future, that is, are psychologically ready for it. The vast majority of people (more than 70 per cent of the population) live with old ideas, stereotypes, and norms of past generations. This does not mean that one should break “the link of times” and recklessly erase the historical past. However, one cannot ignore the fact that a new era is being replaced by a new one.