During the congress, philosophers working in every branch and field gave more than 2,500 presentations (in the four main languages of the event--English, French, German, and Spanish--and many others) on myriad topics concerning philosophy and its relationship to dozens of other fields of inquiry. Writing in The Humanist (March-April 1998) about the aims of the congress, one of its organizers, Kevin Stroehr, observed, "the congress should not only serve as an occasion for reflection on the major issues and problems of the past century but . . .should play a role in presenting new ideas and possible solutions for the new century and millennium. Philosophical issues -- like political dilemmas, psychological problems, religious conflicts, and cultural misunderstandings -- require that certain parties come together and forge new perspectives."
That the Congress achieved these goals is apparent in one of its welcome by-products, the founding of what has become a very useful destination on the Internet for students of philosophy, The Paideia Project On-Line . An effort to literally take the World Congress online, the Paideia site has grown into a massive archive documenting the proceedings of the Congress. According to Paideia webmaster Thomas Stone, "The Paideia Project On-Line is likely to be the largest online publishing project in philosophy to date." (Note: Readers who would like to know more about the background of this effort will find this article by Stone published in The Philosopher's Magazine to be of interest.).
The Paideia Papers Archive is a publicly accessible repository of more than 900 philosophy papers. The archive is fully searchable and provides visitors with direct-access links to papers sorted into 45 philosophical categories. The largest such philosophy archive in the world, it is a boon to both philosophers and students, a collective index of the cross-currents of contemporary philosophy, and, to state the obvious, a feast for the mind.
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