Project date: 1988
This project was proposed to UNESCO in relation to the Decade on Cultural Development.
This proposal arose from the perceived need for a summary, culture by culture, of the special insights which are perceived as characteristic of the mental framework or attitude of each such culture, namely the way people are empowered to think and organize their environment.
The UIA proposed to initiate a project to collect (culture by culture and/or language by language) the uniquely valuable insights or modes of thought that different cultures have contributed to humanity, especially as a resource with which to respond in new ways to the world problematique. It was thought that solutions, or at least more fruitful approaches, to many of humanity's problems may well emerge from modes of thinking already practiced by inadequately appreciated cultures.
The resulting entries were intended to be published in the form of a printed Encyclopedia.