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• Culture and Civilizations
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International
Conference on AGENDA
1. Reciprocal knowledge and interaction The goal of this workshop is to embrace those aspects which promote confidence in productive communication among various civilisational units. Writers will find this workshop especially attractive, as it will provide the floor for those speakers whose personal experiences goes beyond the civilisational boundaries and reach millions of readers throughout the world, thus promoting a better understanding of otherness. Questions to be explored include: What do we know about other civilisations and their interpretative structures of self and of the world around us? How can we acquire a verifiable and referential knowledge of the intellectual and moral sensibilities of other civilisations? Is civilisation, as the largest socio-cultural unit for historical and sociological study, a self-asserting, self-contained, and self-sufficient entity? If not, what is the role of reciprocal knowledge and human interaction in the XXIst century world? 2. Globalisation and cultural diversity Globalisation implies that the world around us becomes a single place. Yet it does not mean that human creative diversity and cultural plurality are put into question. Globalisation should not be regarded as just another term for a uniform and faceless world devoid of intellectual and cultural plurality. The following questions will be addressed during this workshop: How does globalisation affect civilisational processes of human interaction, self-comprehension, and modes of discourse? May it be perceived as the point of intersection of world civilisations? Can we add an important aspect to globalisation by interpreting it as a discovery of other cultures, civilisations, and their sensibilities? These issues might be the crucial points when discussing the relationship between globalisation and cultural plurality. 3. Plural identities and common values Much of the present world can be called a melting pot of different cultures. This workshop is intended as a thorough examination of the pro and cons of this phenomenon by exploring the experience attained in sharing the same geographical space, while maintaining cultural differences. A phenomenon of multiple, communicating identities, which is inherent in present-day individuals and social groups, will also be closely analysed. The main foci of this workshop will include the following issues: At what kind of common values can people arrive, while sustaining their primary identities or loyalties and doing them justice? Is cross-cultural and inter-civilisation tolerance a code word for such values? What is the way a common universe of discourse comes into being? 4. Trade, science, and cultural exchange Throughout the history of humanity, trade has been a means to familiarise oneself with distinct cultures, literatures, symbolic and moral codes, and modes of thinking and speaking. Trade may well be said to have always been a way to discover and experience the human world distinct from one’s own environment. Through travels and overseas trade people of remote cultures came into close contacts, from which they benefited even more than from immediate economic gain. In more than one way, trade has facilitated artistic and scientific exchange, thus transforming arts and sciences into trans-cultural and even trans-civilisational phenomena. Customs, mores, beliefs, and daily practices have also been passed on from one culture to another by merchants and travellers. This workshop will address a range of issues not solely confined to the history of trade and science. Among other issues, it will discuss the phenomenon of the discovery of the world, including self-discovery. 5. Otherness An extremely challenging and provocative workshop which will serve as the floor for those speakers who have been engaged in the analysis of issues pertaining to the reflection of the Other. The Other may refer here to an other social group or an other society or an other culture or just another human individual. How do representations and misrepresentations of otherness originate? Why and how is the demonisation of other cultures and civilisations possible? What are the political and moral implications of such a demonisation of otherness? What are metaphysical, ethical, logical, and linguistic premises of otherness as a dimension of human existence? The workshop will address a number of thought-provoking issues, ranging from the miracle of human dialogue to the forms of hatred, such as racism, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories of society, and xenophobia. 6. Concepts of civilisation for the XXIst century This workshop will carefully examine contemporary concepts of civilisation, and perspectives concerning the future of the comparative study of civilisations, thus reflecting on the traditions of civilisation analysis and to discern those aspects that could be useful for an inclusive concept of civilisation. The concept of civilisation can serve as a means of symbolic and even actual exclusion, not only inclusion. Focus will be placed on the political and moral implications of ways of understanding ourselves and others. Since the civilisational dimension constitutes an interpretative framework for world religions, arts, intellectual and moral sensibilities, scholarship, and mundane experiences, the importance of history, religion, tradition, innovation, and local sensibility will also be discussed. This workshop is designed to allow a scholarly comparison of western and non-western concepts of civilisation, and also an effort at a civilisational dialogue of scholars in practice.
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