At this turn of millennia the life of humanity is becoming increasingly global and for a number of important reasons. Physically, we have developed the capacity to transform the environment of the entire earth -- though often for the worse, rather than the better. Indeed, we now have even the nuclear capability to destroy broad species, including humankind as a whole. Economically, with the end of the Cold War the world  is no longer divided between two world systems, but now constitutes one economy so that collapse at any point has a ripple effect throughout. Politically, the needs of a particular nation, through alliances and international systems can have determinative impact upon the lives of people everywhere. Culturally, through the communication media the same pervasive power is at work.

                Is the overall effect good or bad? Both can be argued -- and indeed were deeply explored at a conference entitled "Philosophical Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization." This was held in Boston on the occasion of The World Congress of Philosophy and was co-sponsored by The International Society for Metaphysics, The World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies, The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy and Boston College.

                This conference responded to the fact that rationalism had long considered philosophy to be an individual endeavor conducted abstractly in the privacy of a closed study or within the confines of a certain national spirit. In certain respects philosophy will retain something of this. But, in the face of globalization understood culturally as well as economically, philosophy must deepen human self-understanding corporately through joint phenomenological reflection and interchange upon the conscious human experiences of all peoples. The conference brought together philosophers from all parts of the world for just such concentrated discussion and critical evaluation of globalization itself.

                Globalization is a new phenomenon with economic, political and cultural-philosophical dimensions. Economically, it is in interlocking supra-national system with power to effect the development and underdevelopment of the different parts of the world, rich as well as poor. As a system, it has certain overarching tendencies in relation to such higher human interests and values as personal identity, social justice, national sovereignty and the various conceptions of cultural and religious life. It can marginalize not only people in various parts of the world, but also things, social as well as individual, which are valued by people as human beings.

                Politically, it constitutes a system of interchange of power with which peoples in all parts of the world must contend, each in their own ways, in order democratically to maintain their human identities in cooperation with others.

                Culturally, globalization allows a new openness of the human spirit which may present opportunity as well as challenge. In retrospect, the last millennium could be interpreted as a great project of human reason, beginning from the high middle ages with the reintroduction of the Aristotelian corpus and the great Summas. This focus upon reason was radicalized in the Enlightenment with many undoubted good effects enabling the world to support a burgeoning population through inventions ranging from nutrition, to communication, to law. But this radicalization has remained largely Euro-centric in its thinking, marginalizing other forms of thought and culture and leaving them far from liberated.

                Soon after Descartes, J.B. Vico noted that so radical and exclusive a focus upon reason in the laboratory of clear and distinct ideas would not allow for the development of other, properly human dimensions of human awareness, but instead would generate brutes -- intellectual brutes, but brutes nonetheless. Recently, especially with the collapse of the cold war, we have become more sensitive to the limitations of the abstractive power of this Euro-centric technical reason which channeled social understanding toward the extremes of individualism and communism. Looking back, there appears now to be a fairly universal consensus that we do not want to repeat the last century with its world wars, hot and cold; its pogroms, holocausts and mass -- even atomic -- bombings; and its economic and cultural exploitation.

                This philosophical critique now extends across the entire modern project from left to right so that it is common to refer to present times as postmodern, if not post-European. But as life cannot be built upon skepticism, this opens a radically new opportunity, namely to regain and reintegrate other dimensions of reason, deeper reaches of the human personality and a broader range of sensibilities into more complete senses of life, diverse cultures, minorities, women and the environment. Whereas "postmodern" bespeaks criticism of what preceded, "globalization" points forward to a new philosophical agenda, namely, both horizontally to broaden awareness to include all peoples and cultures, and vertically to deepen to the metaphysical and religious dimensions of meaning and values where humanity dwells in the Spirit.

                At the turn of the millennia, therefore, this conference explored the expansion of this sphere in which we live, and move, and have our being. This was an exercise of human responsibility for the reflective dimension of civil society. Among others the topics implied in this theme included a critical appreciation of reason and of the new reaches of human awareness; the implications of cultural awareness for the enrichment and extension of philosophy; and the responsibility of philosophy in the evolution from conflictual to peaceful human interchange -- not only economic and political, but especially social, cultural and religious.

                Hence the structure of the investigation of globalization in the volume begins with Part I on "Economic and Political Globalization," proceeds to Part II on "Culture and Globalization," and concludes with Part III on "Globalization and Metaphysics, Ethics and Religion."

                Part I on "Economic and Political Globalization" contains a variety of contrasting views. It begins with a set of critiques of economic globalization. Some are quite strong; together they reflect views from both North and South.

                Chapter I by Oliva Blanchette, "Globalization or Humanization: A Question of Priorities in Human Development," presents a view of the economic order as oligarchic and exploitive of the poor.

                Chapter II by Pablo Lopez Lopez, "Old and New Globalization," is equally strong in its critique of globalization as an imposition of the ideology of liberal capitalism upon other parts of the world. In this he presents a vigorous critique of Chapter V below by Gary Madison.

                Chapter III by Fredrico Jose Alvarez, "The Deconstruction of the Antilles," describes what the above means concretely, using the example of his own Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.

                Chapter IV by Chibueze C. Udeani, "African Cultural Identity in the Context of Globalization: Opportunities and Dangers," confirms the above by describing the effects of this process upon Africa, beginning from the period of political colonization and continuing today by economic means.

                The above critical stance is strongly questioned by the positive description of globalization presented in Chapter V by Gary Madison "Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities." He presents globalization not as a process of suppression of differences and of peoples, but as opening new possibilities -- he would think, the only possibilities -- for them to thrive. This explains why participation in the global economic system is so ardently, if begrudgingly sought.

                Chapter VI by Mervyn Fernando, "Violence and the Rising Tide of Globalization: A Teilhardian Perspective," would attempt to understand the violence which accompanies this process as a harsh, but passing phase of a generally progressive evolution in terms of the evolutionary of Teilhard de Chardin.

                Finally Chapter VII by Nguyen Trong Chuan, "Globalization: Opportunities and Challenges," presents an overview of globalization in its benefits and burdens, which bridges from Part I to Part II.

                Part II on "Cultural Globalization" focuses on the deeper cultural issues of globalization. It is true that globalization is shaped by issues of environment, economy and politics. But beneath these, culture operates at a deeper level to shape the responses of peoples to these challenges.

                Chapter VIII by Tomonobu Imamichi, "Contraries and Compatibilities in a Time of Cultural Globalization," looks with great wisdom and insight into the character of the cultural interaction entailed by globalization or even the heart of globalization as the profound human phenomenon of our times.

                Chapter IX by Vincent Shen, "Construction of a Meaningful World in I Ching," looks deeply into the roots of Chinese culture to find potential resources for this work, and even for the possibilities for developing virtual worlds in our future.

                Chapter X by R. Balasubramamian, "Traditional Cultural and Modernization," views this from the perspective of classical Hindu thought and the potentialities of Indian cultures for globalization.

                If this is to be a humane and creative process realized by humanity rather than imposed thereupon by the blind hand of the market and the profit motive or by the harsh hand of politics grasping for power, then it is necessary to see how the spirit works deeply. The following three chapters take up this challenge.

                Chapter XI by Jean Ladrière, "The Aesthetic Dimension of Science," in a veritable tour de force faces this on the least promising terrain by looking deeply into science as mathematical to discern even there the role of the aesthetic. On a quite different level this path is followed in Chapter XII by Ghislaine Florival, "Reconstruction of the Subject in View of Contemporary Globalization," where she shows the role of the subject in the contemporary process of globalization, especially as this constitutes a human and hence ethical work. Chapter XIII by Nguyen Van Huyen, "Art and Its Suggestion to Man's Creative Potential," extends this to the aesthetic order.

                Chapter XIV by A.T. Dalfovo, "From Global Interests to Cultural Values," looks at this from an African perspective and follows the deepening of insight from global economic interests to the progressive evolution of cultural values.

                Chapter XV by Kirti Buchua, "Creation of New Philosophy in the Age of the Global Village," discusses how globalization implies a new approaches to the work of philosophizing itself in order not to suppress or ignore the culture of peoples, but to draw upon them.

                Finally, Part III, "Globalization and Metaphysics, Ethics and Religion," takes the discussions deeper still to the level of metaphysics and religion. Samuel Huntington in his now famous Clash of Civilizations notes that each great civilization is founded upon a great religion and conversely that each great religion (except Buddhism) has generated a civilization. If there is truth to this analysis then understanding the challenges and opportunities of globalization requires a deeper inspection of the roots of the cultures involved.

                Chapter XVI by Margaret Chatterjee, "Religion and Social Harmony," begins this search by pointing out a new and perhaps paradoxical phenomenon in this regard. While the great religions were universal in intent they were strongly transcendent in their orientation to a life above and beyond this globe. Now the horizon shifts so that the emphasis is rather imminent than transcendent, and is experienced phenomenologically as a matter of ultimate concern.

                Chapter XVII by Mihaela Pop, "The Promethean Man: Eastward or Westward?," suggests another alternative, namely, that of those who, turning away from the transcendent, fall into the secular humanism of the modern West.

                Chapter XVIII by Duan Dezhi, "On the History, Theoretical Difficulties and Prospects of Subjectivity in Western Theory," combats this danger of all becoming merely a matter of human subjectivity in which the reality of the divine as more than human would disappear.

                Chapter XIX by Tran Van Doan, "Maritain's Concept of Integral Humanism," attempts to bridge this divide by pointing to a missing link in Maritain's integral humanism. This sees human transcendence as a deification through the Incarnation of Christ as God-man, but it does not carry out the parallel reasoning to show how the human, though not divine, is essentially oriented to transcendence.

                Chapter XX by Errol E. Harris, "The Problem of Sovereignty in International Relations," sets globalization in tension with national sovereignty. In fact we do not now have structures for a simple transfer of power from nations to supra-national entities. But this may not be so necessary if life and hence responsibility is conceived in broader terms, along with our sense of responsibility. This can be especially true to the degree that social cooperation is included from within and below, rather than being imposed coercively from without and above.

                Chapter XXI by H. Daniel Dei, "Identity and Globalization: The Metaphysical Question for the 21st Century," carries this line of argumentation to its culmination by bringing to light the ontological underpinning of human life. This relates man to God while assuring the ontological distinction of both. In this way he lays the deep metaphysical ground for globalization as not suppressing but enhancing persons in their being and cultural identities.

                Chapter XXII by R. Magliola, " Two Models of Trinity -- French Post-Structuralist versus the Historical Critical: Argued in the Form of a Dialogue," goes still further to carry the discussion into the life of the Trinity. He does this in a way that illustrates the potential benefits of globalization. He opens the issue of the Trinity by a positive use of postmodern thought and then engages Buddhist thought to enable the human spirit to relate more fully to the Trinitarian life.

                Chapter XXIII by William Sweet, "Globalization, Philosophy and the Model of Ecumenism," considers globalization as a process lived by people and illustrates this by the form of dialogue already emerging between religions.

                Chapter XXIV by George F. McLean, "Globalization as Diversity in Unity," draws on the thought of Nicholas of Cusa to model a new way of thinking, now not in analytic terms of the parts but in synthetic terms of the whole.

                In sum, the volume itself reaches across boundaries and reflects a global vision, not only through the combined dialectic of the studies, but through the origin of its authors. In both these ways it opens the way for the exploration of human comity upon which we enter in the new millennium.