Report on
The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP)
Conference
on
August
8-9, 2003,
Istanbul, Turkey
The
work of the Council is to identify issues in need of philosophical research, to
bring together the competencies need to study an issue, and to publish the
results of their work. This effort has resulted in the publication of over 100
studies which are available in complete text, both on the web at www.crvp.org
and in 350 university libraries worldwide.
Held
on the occasion of the quinquennial World Congress of Philosophy this conference
provided an occasion for over 100 participants from 20 nations to draw upon the
work done in the many regions of the world, subject it to intensive mutual
debate and critique, and develop onward planning. The work was intensive in
order to fit into two full days. This report will describe the program and
business meeting, outline future planning and extend an invitation to ongoing
participation.
I.
PROGRAM
1.
Opening:
The
conference was opened by three short statements by: Cetin Bolcal, Vice Rector of
Istanbul Kultur University which provided the venue, Prof. Safak Ural,
Chairperson of the Philosophy Department of Istanbul University, who served as
local organizer, and Prof. George F. McLean for the RVP.
The
work of the first morning was centered on three keynote speakers who introduced
the challenge of intercultural relations each from their distinctive horizon:
Prof. Z. Golobovic from the Balkans, Prof. S. Gueye from Africa, and Prof. V.
Shen from Asia. Each was followed by over a half hour of discussion so active
that it was necessary to suspend the debate before all could speak.
2.
Panels:
This
served as a perfect preparation for the main work of the conference as a true
meeting and exchange of minds. This consisted in 8 particularly vibrant panel
discussions, each with an average of 50 participants. These intensive two hour
sessions were fora in which all could speak in response not only to the
proposals of the panellists, but to all who joined in the discussion. The themes
were:
Panel
A. Ways of Thinking (Epistemology) and of Interpreting (Hermeneutics);
Panel
B. Person and Community: Rights and Duties; and Cultural Foundations for Civil
Society;
Panel
C. Global Horizons: Pluralism and Tolerance; and Hegemony vs Dialogue; and
Panel
D. Ethics: Aesthetics and the Bases of Values in Multiple Cultures; and
Implications for Issues of Environment and Public Service.
3.
Regional Caucuses:
One
session consisted of three concurrent regional caucuses focused respectively
upon Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. These explored ways of effectively working
together in the future.
What
has been most distinctive of the work of the Council and of this conference has
been the inversion of horizons. In the past work in philosophy had been
derivative of Western Graeco-Latin
cultural roots as mediated through the modern British, French or German
traditions. Now, as we enter into a period of intensive and inclusive global
interchange, philosophy becomes conscious of the cultural roots and formation of
human insight. This makes it possible for all civilizations to bring their
contribution to the process of philosophical reflection in a dynamic that is
less top down as in the past, than from the bottom up. This is less restricted
by modern abstractive rationalism, and builds on the many cultural traditions as
bearers of the rich lived experience and creativity of all peoples of the world.
The
challenge of the RVP has been to evolve a structure which will enable this
process through:
(a)
the development of local university teams for reflective dialogue applying
cultural heritages to the concrete issues;
(b)
providing for mutual critique between the teams in a region in order to focus
and test their insights; and in turn
(c)
joining the regional work in yet broader continental unions as integral units of
the global RVP network. The regional caucuses made it possible to delineate the
development of three major philosophical unions for Asia, Africa and Eastern
Europe and the Balkans respectively.
The
task ahead will be to develop on the part of the local teams the sense of
working together as integral parts of this structured RVP network on the
emergence of philosophy from culture. This will require (a) methodological
awareness in the local teams, (b) regular meetings between them on a regional
basis, (c) meetings of the continental union as the occasion presents itself,
and, of course, (d) the quinquennial meeting of all on the occasion of the World
Congress.
The
elements for this are already extensively in place as the result of the RVP’s
25 years of building cooperation in philosophy. This is reflected in the 15 to
20 volumes done by each of the 4 sets of teams in, e.g., Eastern Europe, China,
Islam, and Africa. There is need now to make the lines of cooperation clearer
and more conscious, to generate a greater sense of the local and global
cooperation which is ever more needed in this new age. This work is now under
active construction on the various continents and will be reported on
progressively as it evolves.
Conclusion
The
concluding session consisted of reports from the eight panel sessions divided
into four thematic groups: Prof. Tran Van Doan (Taiwan) for Panel A; Prof.
William Sweet (Canada) for Panel B; Prof. Ghazala Irfan (Pakistan) for Panel C;
and Prof. Ouyang Kang (China) for Panel D. To this was added the reports of the
regional caucuses, some of which had met a second time. A number of senior
philosophers were then called upon to indicate the significance of these new
developments against the backdrop of their life time of work in philosophy;
these speakers included Prof. S.R. Bhatt (India), Prof. V. Cauchy (Canada),
Prof. T. Imamichi (Japan).
The
final words were by Prof. Faruk Akyol, Assistant Chair of Philosophy of Istanbul
University, and Hu Yeping, Assistant Director for Operation of the RVP.
Following
the above program a brief business meeting was attended by the members of the
Council present and the area directors, and was open to all interested parties.
This was brief not only because of the pressure of time, but because the entire
conference had constituted an extended process of searching out the needs and
planning responses in philosophy. The agenda included:
1. Report
on activities for the last 5 years. This had been presented to all
participants in the form of a 150 page book presenting a description of: (a) the
RVP and its mission, (b) the pattern of its team research, (c) the annual 10
week seminars and the list of their participants, (d) the work on moral
education, (e) the 50 conferences held during that period, and (f) the 110 books
published by the RVP resulting from the team research and conferences. This
report was discussed and approved with note being made of the need to redevelop
the work in the Spanish speaking world, which had been intensive earlier.
2. Plans
for the future which had been developed in the regional caucuses and
presented in the concluding session were formally approved for implementation. A
significant member of offers had been made to develop local teams, regional
meetings or structural elements for the larger unions such as print and/or
electronic journals on the RVP website (www.crvp.org).
3.
Membership of the Council was renewed, special note being made of
deceased of Council members Paulus Gregorius and H.-G. Gadamer.
The
Academic Board:
M.
Avani, Tehran
S.R.
Bhatt, Delhi
V.
Cauchy, Montreal
K.
Gyekye, Legon
Pham
Minh Hac, Hanoi
T.
Imamichi, Tokyo
J.
Ladriére, Louvain
F.
Miro Quesada, Lima
H.
Nasr, Tehran/Washington
A.
Nysanbaev, Almaty
P.
Ricoeur, Paris
K.L.
Schmitz, Toronto
V.
Shen, Taipei/Toronto
Tang
Yijie, Beijing
M.
Zakzouk, Cairo
From
the above it is clear that the many years of work by the RVP is bearing fruit.
The Council was born as an action committee to implement a cooperative
philosophical response to the needs emerging in the transition in the post
colonial world of the 60s and 70s, in Eastern Europe in the 80s, in China in the
90s, and in Islam and the global meeting of cultures and civilizations in the
new millennia. This resulted in a network of productive research teams in the
different parts of the world, which together have produced the over 100 studies
published in the RVP series “Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change”. The
organization has been intentionally loose in order to generate a base that is
not controlled by a central idea, but reflective of the concerns and aspiration
of each of the many peoples and their cultural traditions. The conference in
Istanbul demonstrated the potential of the creative interaction of these teams
founded on the intensive cooperative work done by the local teams and published
by the RVP.
This
emerging importance of the global perspective suggests that in the next 5 years
emphasis should be given to the dialogue between these many cultural traditions
as to both structure and dynamic.
(a)
Structure: developing the levels of cooperation in themselves and as
parts of the larger whole: first the local teams; second a sense of
collaboration with other teams on a regional basis; and third the participation
of these regional units as integral components of larger continental unions:
e.g., an Asian Philosophical Union, an African Philosophical Union, etc. All
three levels constitute the integrating global network which has been under
development by the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy for the last 30
years and enable insight generated on the basis of local cultural awareness to
percolate upward and outward on a true global scale.
(b)
Thematic: The structural development is called for by a more fundamental
thematic need which emerged in the panel discussions. These evolved the
philosophical formulation of the dilemmas we face in our times and demonstrated
the creative potential of cooperative interchange between cultural traditions
for responding conjointly thereto. The reports on the panel discussions, as well
as the complete texts of the papers submitted by November 15, 2003, which will
appear as the proceeding should constitute a synthetic invitation, rather than
analytic disjunctions or deductive imperatives, for the path ahead.
The
interest of philosophers from over 20 countries participating in the conference
in Istanbul, the need to develop consciousness of engagement in a coordinated,
multicultural project for newly global times, and the urgency of the
philosophical issues revealed by the panel discussions: all suggest the need to
develop a mode of continuing information and cooperation among philosophers at
the different parts of the network.
In
view of this it is important that those interested in being associated with the
work of the Council’s teams, regions and unions, in order to play a productive
role therein and to know of their outcomes, should identify themselves by
returning the brief form below. As associate members of the Council (without
dues), it will be possible to receive continuing information on interested
scholars, projects and opportunities in their region, to make recommendations,
and to take part in the RVP research teams, conferences and annual 10 week
Washington seminars. Those interested are invited to fill in and return to cua-rvp@cua.edu
the following essential information.
Name:
___________________________________________________________
Position:
_________________________________________________________
Mailing
address: ___________________________________________________
Telephone:
_____ Fax: ________
Email: _________ Website: _______________
Area
of major philosophical interest(s) ____________________________________
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