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A
Conference on
Culture
and Cosmopolitanism:
To
What Extent Is Culture a Burden
June
30, 2005
Bandung,
Indonesia
We enter upon a global
age in which the ability to take full account of others, and to
interact with them, becomes a matter of success and, at times,
even of survival. At the same time the limitations of modern
rationalism, built exclusively upon the univocous, the universal
and the necessary have become so evident that we now look for a
‘post modernity’. The need then is to be able both to take
account of the uniqueness of each person and every people,
namely, of the diversity of persons, peoples and cultures, and
to do so for all. This restates for our lifetime the perennial
philosophical issue of ‘the one and the many’.
As
both unity and universality, on the one hand, and multiplicity
and diversity, on the other, are indispensable, it is essential
to avoid being trapped in a zero sum game. Then either could be
affirmed only at the expense of the other, in formal logic’s
inverse relation of extension and comprehension. Indeed, it was
characteristic of the modern mind to dismiss cultures as
irrelevant and indeed an impediment to true human progress.
Fortunately,
it is precisely the special ability of the human spirit to be
able to share its most precious truths without losing them.
Indeed, it is a requirement of the human spirit that it be able
to transcend itself and engage others in order to develop.
Our
search for the new cosmopolitanism imposes the question of how
to be citizens not only of one’s nation, but of the world as
well. This must be built of the deepest and most personal values
and commitments, yet they must both be shared with others in
quite different cultures and promote the welfare of humanity as
a whole.
The challenge of this
conference – as of our global world – is then to search for
a better understanding of the multiple dimensions of human
consciousness and symbolization whereby
the transition can be made to this new, more inclusive
and more rich cosmopolitan sense of life.
Contact:
Prof.
Bambang
Ignatius
Sugiharto
Department
of Philosophy and Religion
Catholic
University of Parahyangan
Bandung,
Indonesia
ignatiussugiharto@yahoo.com
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