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• Culture and Civilizations
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International
Conference on Paper
presented by Session
III : Plural Identities and Common Values 1.
Our task is to give concrete substance and content to the celebration of
the United Nation Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. In the globalizing
world of today, dialogue is a necessity
rather than a choice. For most of human history, perhaps until the 19th
Century, different civilizations, each with a distinct world-views,
coexisted in various parts of the globe, and the intercourse between those
not sharing such world views was rather limited. Each of these
civilizations claimed to be universal, with the ideas, values and
practices needed for its survival and prospering. With the emergence of a
civilization with an excessive proselytizing zeal, a particular
civilization was imposed on others, even to the extent of their
extinction. Today we live in a global village. No culture can live in
splendid isolation. We live in daily contact with culture different from
ours. If the relations between civilizations is not to deteriorate once
again into one of imposition of one upon another, there must be a
dialogue of civilizations as equal partners. 2.
At the heart of the dialogue among civilization lies the
issue of ethical values and principles. Challenges facing humanity,
such as poverty, environmental degradation, nuclear proliferation,
religious and ethnic fragmentation, are problems that can only be dealt
with effectively at the global level. There is today growing consensus
that, if nation and societies can be bound and motivated by a set of
values and principles that are common to them and shared by them, the
process of discussion and negotiation essential for solution to these
problems would be that much easier. There is today a truly remarkable
surge in demand for universally shareable ethical values and principles
that would help humanity deal with the problems facing it. 3.
One of the essential preconditions for realizing the dialogue of
civilizations for common values is an
all-out effort to clarify the bases of discord among civilizations and
regions. As we engage ever more seriously in the dialogue, it is
important to identify and consider those factors which hinder a true
dialogue among civilizations as well as among different groups within the
same civilization. The question of
historical perspective is unquestionably one of the most important of
such factors. The particular interpretive, narrative and discursive
practices and perspectives, philosophies of history, differ not only among
civilizations, but also among cultural and national communities within the
same civilization. To lay bare and thereby correct the prejudice, the
biases, and misconceptions, both conscious and unconscious, would be a way
toward a true intercultural as well as intercivilizational dialogue, and
would clear the way for identification and emergence of common values. 4.
Another consideration, which is intimately connected with the above, is
how we can adequately conceptualize the
idea of universality for this age diversity. If our celebration of
diversity and multiplicity is not to be a mere lip service, the problem of
how the very notion of universality is to be understood cannot be avoided,
particularly in view of the deep roots of suspicion regarding
universalistic projects as expressions of hegemonic intentions. We must be
able to construct, culling from both Western and un-Western philosophical
literature, a notion of
universality which does not exclude, but one which is able to include
differences, even contrary ones. It must be a conception of
universality that is inclusive. An intercivilizational search for common
values that does not grapple with this fundamental issue is built on sand. 5.
There are today many encouraging signs that humanity is now ready to
engage in this dialogue of civilizations with a view to establishing a
common base on which to build the future. In recent years, a number of
studies have drawn attention to the need to articulate universal common
values and principles that could serve as the bases for peaceful and
productive interaction among nations and societies. In 1993,
representatives of more than 120 religions of the world, meeting for the
first time in one hundred years in the Parliament of the World’s
Religions in Chicago, adopted a “Declaration towards a Global Ethic”. Our
Global Neighborhood, the report of the Commission on Global
Governance, came out strongly in 1995 for a “global civic ethic” as
the foundation for cooperation among different societies and cultures
facing common global problems. Also in 1995, the World Commission on
Culture and Development published its report Our
Creative Diversity, making a plea for a “global ethics,” a core of
shared ethical values and principles that would provide the minimum moral
guidance the world needs in its efforts to deal with global issues. In
1997, some thirty former heads of state and government who constitute the
InterAction Council submitted a draft of a “Universal Declaration of
Human Responsibilities” to all heads of state and government and to the
United Nation and UNESCO. Most recently, in 1999, UNESCO published “A
Common Framework for the Ethics of the 21st Century.” 6.
All these efforts are at best starting-points
of a long and arduous evolutionary process of a dialogue among
civilizations and a conversation of mankind, such that a common
ethical vision can emerge out of the
process of dialogue, mutual learning, and above all, good will. It is
essential for the success of this evolutionary process that all the
regions of the world with their characteristic civilizational identity
participate actively in it.
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