THE
DIALOGUE OF CULTURAL TRADITIONS:
PANEL
THEMES
(For
background selections from related volumes in the series Cultural Heritage
and Contemporary Change published by The Council for Research in Values and
Philosophy (see http://www.crvp.org/conf/Istanbul/suggested_readings.htm).
I.
Ways of Thinking (Epistemology): Modern philosophy was initiated in a
rupture from earlier thought, e.g., Bacons smashing of the idols, Lockes
imagining the mind as a blank tablet, and Descartes systematic doubt. This
created an empty space reserved exclusively for clear and distinct ideas joined
in the rigorously deductive process of objective thinking essential to science.
More recently questions have been raised regarding, not the fruitfulness, but
the adequacy of this mode of thinking. Great effort is now being made to broaden
this field of knowledge to include human subjectivity and hence such other modes
of awareness as meditative thinking, creative imagination and phenomenological
investigation.
1.Balcomb (South Africa)
2.
Lopez (Spain)
3.
Noutsos (Greece)
4.
Yaran (Turkey)
5. Halil Rahman Açar (Turkey)
6.
Ömer
N. Soykan
7.
H. Mustafa Acikoz
II. Ways of Interpreting (Hermeneutics): In this way philosophy is
expanding to include the hermeneutic recognition, interpretation and relation
between the multiple values, cultures and civilizations of the many peoples of
the world and their varied modes of understanding. Philosophers now are
challenged to unveil at a deeper level the cumulative freedom by which we shape
ourselves in the subjective terms of values and virtues, which in turn
constitute cultures and their traditions. These constitute the hermeneutic
vantage points or horizons in terms of which we understand, interpret and
respond in the many dimensions of our life.
1.
Dolizde (Georgia)
2.
Ekosiwis
3. Alieva & Tischin (Kyrgyzstan)
4.Wendland (Poland)
5. Tatar (Turkey)
I.
Rights and Duties: Family and community have come under strong
disaggregating pressures of urban and industrial society. Individualist models
see all adscriptive duties and obligations as antithetic to human freedom. There
emerges then the issue of whether the individual and the social nature of the
human person are mutually antithetic or complementary. In most cultures social
concerns have been articulated in terms of duties to family and society, rather
than in terms of rights. There is then much work to do on the foundations of
human rights in order to relate these to duties and responsibilities and thereby
extend and adapt their applicability.
1.
Gripaldo (Philippines)
2.
Islam (India)
3.
Isiguzo (Nigeria)
4.
Koylu (Turkey)
5. Makariev (Bulgaria)
6. Mazouki (Tunisia/Malaysia)
II.
Cultural Foundations and Civil Society: Conversely in response to excessive centralization
personal initiative is needed in cooperation with others to respond to the needs
of the community. This inverts the previous social sense in which all was seen
as originating at a center and flowing down to the people. In contrast, the
importance and richness of the person has emerged along with appreciation of the
special dignity of the person whose freedom and responsibility must be respected
and protected. Thus civil society sees cohesive social action to flow upward as
people take responsibility for the quality of their life and constitute an
active civil society. There is need
for work in philosophy to be able to conceive humanity not as a set of
individuals or as a matter of social exchanges, but as a web of cooperation,
justice and love.
1. Gong Qun (China)
2.
Karas (Ukraine)
4. Gutorov (Russia)
5. Wokabi (Kenya)
6.
Blanchette
Globalization
is not only a matter of economic profit or political power, nor is it only
matter of the flow of information. Rather the new awareness of human
subjectivity and hermeneutics (Panels AI and AII above) manifest and even
constitute new dimensions of relatedness of peoples and the need for new ways of
understanding them. Where previously the issue was one of a contrived or
instrumental cooperation between people for external purposes, now in terms of a
global whole the many can be seen to be inherently related: the welfare of one
must now be the concern of all, and vice versa. This is the new cultural
universe in which we are destined to live. It is the task proper to philosophers
beyond any others to understand and explain this so that truly humane, peaceful
and cooperative decisions can be made in and for the future. This entails two
lines of problematic:
I. Pluralism and tolerance: The various forms of human community raise questions of their interrelation. What can the philosophical experience and creativity of the many peoples contribute to the political philosophy of how peoples large and small can live together? Writ small, this is the ability to bring together in harmony multiple minorities within the one nation; it is also the classical central European issue of pluralism and tolerance in terms of large and small nations.
1.
Abishev (Kazakstan)
2.
Kadyrzhanov
(Kazakstan)
3.
Nysanbaev (Kazakstan)
4.
Uzakbaevich (Kazakstan)
5.
Albertini
(U.S.A.)
6.
Pham
Minh Hac
1. Baryshnikov (Russia)
2.Bilen
(Turkey)
3.
Smith (U.S.A.)
4. Dyczewski (Poland)
5. Mohamed-Rashid Hassan (Somali)
6. Udeani (Nigeria/Austria)
7. Irmayanti Meliono (Indonesia)
Panel
D. Ethics: The Bases of Values in Multiple Cultures and Their Implications for
Issues of Environment and Public Service
I. Ethics and Aesthetics: As the global age brings new possibilities and
challenges we need now to think in much broader terms than ever before. Where in
the past ethics could be grounded in relatively restricted calculi of good and
evil according to the specific character of the persons, substances or natures
involved, now we find that actions have global effects and that these are
filtered through a massive array of cultures. What should be said about this
base? Is the global whole a compilation of individuals, or is it much more? What
does this mean for the modes of ethical reasoning?
Moreover, there is an
inherent dilemma in ethics. To the degree that ethics strives for normative and
directive value it tends to impose upon, rather than to evoke, human freedom,
and thus to reduce the inherently unique response of persons and peoples. Hence,
to ethics there needs to be added an aesthetic dimension in order that persons
and societies be truly mobilized to bring together their distinctive gifts in
order to work toward a global world marked by equity and balance, harmony and
peace.
1.
Djuric (Yugoslavia)
2.
Li Dongni (China)
3.
Rammer
4. Younesie (Iran)
II.
Ecology and Public Service: More concretely, the redevelopment of social
life in our times expands the agenda of ethics which Aristotle situated within
politics. From within it points to the importance of personal probity and
commitment to the values of justice and equality. It is true that perverted
structures can impede and frustrate good efforts, but conversely even good
structures can be made to serve exploitive purposes by personal corruption.
Hence, a major challenge for ethics in public life today is to change the image
of public administration from the horizon of personal enrichment to that of
public service. This requires reconceiving the relation of the person to
society; at base it is the fundamental ethical issue of transcending egoism.
The
power of technology enables agriculture and industry seriously to damage the
environment, its productivity and healthfulness, and for future as well as
present generations. Ecology -- a term which emerged within the last 40 years --
now challenges philosophy to develop this new dimension of ethics.
1. Bourouh (Algeria)
2. Chen Xia (China)
3. Karabatzaki (Greece)
4.
Morkuniene (Lithuania)
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