People from one cultural background often find themselves wondering how those from a different cultural background could willingly live the way they do and/or criticize others for living in the way they do. How are we to explain this kind of mutual incomprehension? Three different possible explanations will be considered. The first is that such mutual incomprehension is sourced in a moral flaw. The flaw might be in one of the cultures, as certain cultures might be premised on (...) a moral mistake. Alternatively, the flaw might be a feature of the incomprehending individuals. If only they tried harder, they would come to appreciate the other’s point of view. The second possibility is that such mutual incomprehension is the product of principled limits on the interpretation of someone from another culture. Contrary to the first possibility, there might be no way for people from different cultures to even understand each other, let alone find fault in each other, because the culturally mediated ways in which they understand the world are inaccessible to each other. The third possibility is that the mutual incomprehension is sourced in metaphysics. Contrary to the second possibility, there might be some non-metaphorical sense in which people from different cultures inhabit different worlds. The main task of the chapter is to describe and evaluate these three possibilities with a view to ruling out the third. (shrink)

In discussions of medical decision making as it applies to people with disabilities, a major obstacle stands in the way: the perceptions and values of disabled people and of many nondisabled people, regarding virtually the whole range of current health and medical-ethical issues, seem frequently to conflict with one another. This divergence in part grows out of the sense, common among people with disabilities, that their interactions with “the helping professions,” medical and social service professionals, are adversarial. But those differences (...) of opinion also stem more basically from a clash of fundamental values.This paper addresses, in historical perspective, the ways in which the status of persons with disabilities as a stigmatized minority group affects medical decision making. It also examines the efforts of disability rights activists to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities in current medical culture. Finally, it raises questions about how the rights of people with disabilities will fare as new care standards are developed and implemented. (shrink)

In discussions of medical decision making as it applies to people with disabilities, a major obstacle stands in the way: the perceptions and values of disabled people and of many nondisabled people, regarding virtually the whole range of current health and medical-ethical issues, seem frequently to conflict with one another. This divergence in part grows out of the sense, common among people with disabilities, that their interactions with “the helping professions,” medical and social service professionals, are adversarial. But those differences (...) of opinion also stem more basically from a clash of fundamental values.This paper addresses, in historical perspective, the ways in which the status of persons with disabilities as a stigmatized minority group affects medical decision making. It also examines the efforts of disability rights activists to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities in current medical culture. Finally, it raises questions about how the rights of people with disabilities will fare as new care standards are developed and implemented. (shrink)

Beijing Olympic Games is a Globalization sports events, also is a great chance to show Chinese cultural heritage. Throughout the Western cultural. The Chinese cultural understanding has always stayed in "Orientalism" to the "Oriental fever" among the transition. How the Olympic Games as an opportunity to make the “Harmony Communication”？To achieve cultural heritage in China in the Context of Globalization be "reassessed." Further evaluation of role and significancein spreading about Chinese cultural Beijing Olympic Games.

An anthropologist describes how he found himself at the vortex of a “clash of medical civilizations:” neoliberalism and the international primary health care movement. His involvement in a $6 million social change initiative in medical education became a basis to unlock the hidden tensions, contradictions and movements within the “primary care” phenomenon. The essay is structured on five ethnographic stories, situated on a continuum from “natural” species-level primary care to “unnatural” neoliberal primary care. Food is an element of all (...) tales. Taking the long view of history/prehistory permits us to better recognize ideological distortions in order to more capably transform medicine. (shrink)

The article examines the `clash of civilizations' theory of history as developed recently by Samuel Huntington and Victor Lee Burke. It argues that this theory attempts to combine an historical sociology that sees states and war as the motors of human history with a notion of civilization as something solid and fixed. It contends that civilizations are fluid and amorphous entities that cannot be treated as states, and that `the ways of peace' such as cultural exchanges and trade are (...) just as important as war and conflict in any attempt to understand the history of humanity. (shrink)

In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and with the easing of East- West tensions, Samuel Huntington presented his theory of a “clash of civilizations.” He announced that conflicts between ideologies had come to an end and were to be replaced by a new kind of confrontation, this time between cultures and religions. This essay attempts to show how misled Huntington’s thesis can be by referring to forms of humanism from Africa as well as (...) to some ideas developed in Arabian-Islamic philosophy. In the early 1930s, African intellectuals such as Léopold Sédar Senghor or Aimé Césaire already tried to oppose their own conception of humanism to Western individualistic humanism. The distinction can be found in the concept of Ubuntu, or “African humanism,” which incorporates notions of respect for the other, collective responsibility and solidarity. The Arab-Islamic world has also had similar concerns from an early stage. Its heritage from classical Greek philosophy, which placed human being at the centre of its thinking and ethical acting, came indeed under the significant influence of Islamic values, such as equality, fraternity and the community. Thus the essay offers an alternative to Huntington’s post-modern model of “clash of civilizations” beyond the frontiers set by Western humanism and that is more relevant to our current globalising world – a new trans- and intercultural humanism that favours the ways human beings can relate to each other as persons regardless of race, culture and religion. Human dignity and respect for the “other,” including the environment, are therefore central to this new humanism. (shrink)

This book of tightly woven dialogues engages prominent thinkers in a discussion about the role of culture-broadly construed-in contemporary society and politics. Faced with the conceptual inflation of the notion of 'culture,' which now imposes itself as an indispensable issue in contemporary moral and political debates, these dynamic exchanges seek to rethink culture and critique beyond the schematic models that have often predominated, such as the opposition between "mainstream multiculturalism" and the "clash of civilizations." Prefaced by an introduction relating (...) current cultural debates to the critical theory tradition, this book examines the politics of culture and the spirit of critique from three different vantage points. To begin, Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller provide a stage-setting dialogue, followed by discussions with two major representatives of contemporary critical theory: Seyla Benhabib and Nancy Fraser. Working at the horizons of this tradition, Judith Butler, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Cornel West then provide important critical perspectives on cultural politics. The book's concluding section engages with Michael Sandel and Will Kymlicka, who work out of the Rawlsian tradition yet are uniquely concerned with the issue of culture, broadly understood. The epilogue, an interview with Axel Honneth, returns to the core issue of critical theory in cultural politics. Ranging from recent developments and progressive interventions in critical theory to dialogues that incorporate its insights into larger discussions of social and political philosophy, this book sharpens old critical tools while developing new strategies for rethinking the role of 'culture' in contemporary society. (shrink)

While globalization unifies the world, divisions re-emerge within it in the form of a spectacular separation between Islam and the West. How can it be that Huntingtonâes contested idea of a clash of civilizations became such a powerful political myth through which so many people look at the world? Bottici and Challand disentangle such a process of myth-making both in the West and in Muslim majority countries, and call for a renewed critical attitude towards it. By analysing a process (...) of elaboration of this myth that took place in academic books, arts and media, comics and Hollywood films, they show that the clash of civilizations has become a cognitive scheme through which people look at the world, a practical image on the basis of which they act on it, as well as a drama which mobilizes passions and emotions. Written in a concise and accessible way, this book is a timely and valuable contribution to the academic literature, and more generally, to the public debate. As such, it will be an important reference for scholars and students of political science, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, Middle Eastern politics and Islam. (shrink)

The purpose of this volume is to inaugurate a dialogue on the common elements of all three Abrahamic traditions - Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - that touch ...

The current gridlock around climate change and how to address our global sustainability issues can be understood as resulting from clashes in worldviews. This article summarizes some of the research on worldviews in the contemporary West, showing that these worldviews have different, and frequently complementary, potentials, as well as different pitfalls, with respect to addressing climate change. Simultaneously, the overview shows that, because of their innate reflexivity and their capacity to appreciate and synthesize multiple perspectives, individuals inhabiting integrative worldviews may (...) have particular potentials with respect to addressing climate change. In the conclusion I argue that the policy challenge is to develop strategies that inspire the different worldview groups to actualize their potentials while mitigating their pitfalls, as well as to unite and mobilize them around a single vision that speaks to them all. (shrink)

The cataclysm of September 11, 2001 created a universal reaction that the world would never be the same. Understandably, Washington unleashed a counterattack to find and extirpate the terrorists as an end in itself. But is terrorism essentially a senseless act of anarchy, or does it mask a malaise deeply held in various non-Western cultures? This paper contends that the horrendous events of September 11 precipitated a head-on clash of two competing worldviews and societal orders: Muslim Theism versus (...) secularized Western Humanism. Meanwhile, the latter is in turn being challenged in a second set of competing worldviews, not at the former site of the World Trade Center but wherever the World Trade Organization meets. Those outside the fenced perimeter are calling for implementation of a very different view of reality. This new paradigm with its own emerging attributes-Holism-builds upon humanistic traditions and values, but extends to all societies and cultures, henceforth perceived as systemically interdependent, and embracing all forms of life in an ecological matrix. For the first time in human evolution, all peoples are simultaneously being transformed in the direction of a new worldview that is global in its inclusiveness, and novel and innovative in its behaviour. (shrink)

In recent years, the notion of a ‘clash of civilizations’, first put forward by Samuel Huntington (1996), has been widely used to explain the contemporary dynamics of geo-political conflict. It has been argued that the fundamental source of conflict is no longer primarily ideological, or even economic, but cultural. Despite many trenchant and largely debilitating academic critiques of Huntington's argument, the popular appeal of the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis remains undiminished. In many parts of the world, the binary (...) it describes is often taken to be self-evident, especially after the tragic events of September 11. This paper uses the ideas of ‘social imaginary’ (Taylor, 2004) and ‘political myth’ (Blumenberg, 1984) to understand the popular appeal of the idea of civilizational conflict, and suggests that this appeal is unlikely to be punctured by theoretical arguments alone, but by an equally plausible political narrative located in an alternative social imaginary, acquired through cosmopolitan learning. (shrink)

This book is an eye-opening account of transnational advocacy, not by environmental and rights groups, but by conservative activists. Mobilizing around diverse issues, these networks challenge progressive foes across borders and within institutions. In these globalized battles, opponents struggle as much to advance their own causes as to destroy their rivals. Deploying exclusionary strategies, negative tactics and dissuasive ideas, they aim both to make and unmake policy. In this work, Clifford Bob chronicles combat over homosexuality and gun control in the (...) UN, the Americas, Europe and elsewhere. He investigates the 'Baptist-burqa' network of conservative believers attacking gay rights, and the global gun coalition blasting efforts to control firearms. Bob draws critical conclusions about norms, activists and institutions, and his broad findings extend beyond the culture wars. They will change how campaigners fight, scholars study policy wars, and all of us think about global politics. (shrink)

The culture of traditional clothing and jewelry is an integral part of the ancient Chinese civilization. Chinese traditional costume is distinguished by its rich content, relevance at any time, as well as its unique features. Traditional clothing was influenced by successive millennial dynasties that brought the chaos of war. Traditional Chinese clothing has not only become the embodiment of the Chinese concepts of "the unity of Heaven and man", "the ritual of respect for nature and harmonious coexistence with nature", but (...) also a visual representation of the cultural characteristics of different dynasties and the level of development of production. Chinese traditional costume carries the thinking of many Chinese philosophical teachings and schools, reflects the clash and synthesis of agrarian and nomadic cultures of different regions of China. The value of culture carried by the Chinese traditional costume goes beyond the costume itself, it reflects both the social hierarchy, and the peculiarities of society management, and the national spirit. In this article, based on the objective and subjective conditions of the formation of the culture of Chinese costume and accessories, on the basis of ornaments, patterns, colors of garments, as well as on the example of the Shenyi robe that violated previous traditions, the features of the embodiment of Chinese traditional cultural values in clothing are considered. (shrink)

Food irradiation has been acommercially viable postharvest technology fornearly 50 years (the actual idea of usingionizing radiation to extend the shelf-life offoods is over a century old), yet it has beenused only occasionally and sporadically.Interviews with reporters and the sources theyused at a Louisiana newspaper and a Floridanewspaper uncovered three cultural spherespresent in the debate over this post harvesttechnology – food, science/technology, andjournalism. Each of these spheres were pointsof contention for reporters and sources, andthis has had an affect on the (...) adoption of thetechnology among those involved in the foodindustry. Interviews with both reporters andthe individuals they relied on as sourceselucidate how different issues encompassedwithin different cultural spheres have beenlinked to this post harvest technology, andhave been used to help shape this debate. Thesecultural spheres offer various groups power tocontrol relations with reporters, though thatpower can be usurped by others, including thereporters themselves. Interviews with reportersand their sourses may help us understand howthe values attached to cultural spheres aremobilized by various groups to make sense of acontroversial topic, and how those groups gainentrance to public arenas and are then able tomaintain their presence. (shrink)

A wide variety of sources, including the Huntington literature and popular mass media, show that Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” idea actually has very little value in understanding the current global political context. The central assumption of Huntington’s view, that cultural kinship ties influence loyalties and agreements on a global scale, has little to do with the daily lives of American citizens and little to do with the decisions made by the current presidential administration. The mass media evidence from the (...) United States shows that the most important “kinship” ties are not religious or cultural, but economic. The argument involves a deeper analysis of the current trend towards religious programs on American television, a timeline of events relating to the Halliburton – Cheney relationship, and views expressed by members of the United States military in Stars and Stripes. (shrink)

I argue that an icon in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the “circle of candles” represents an alternative to Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilization” thesis. But I also put forward a public policy that initially may seem to contradict this alternative: group or cultural rights, beyond, and even sometimes conflicting with, individual rights. Such rights at first blush appear to ensconce the same sort of walled-in, homogeneous and exclusionary cultural entities that Huntington’s thesis (...) implies I begin by stating Huntington’s thesis and the opposition to it that Amartya Sen has voiced in a recent book. I then provide a way of understanding the circle of candles that reinforces but also goes beyond the multi-identity type of multiculturalism that Sen places in opposition to Huntington’s warring monocultures. This understanding of the circle of candles, I will argue, shows how group or cultural rights, properly construed, can be incorporated into the type of hybrid society–what I call a “multivoiced body”– that constitutes a compelling alternative to the exclusionist responses to 9/11. My argument is reinforced by consideration of the current Zapatistas movement and their demands for group rights. (shrink)

Although the historical process of globalization has promoted the nation-state as a universal cultural form, national ideologies are far from uniform. This article explores how the competing discourses of citizenship and nation-hood evolved in Southeastern Europe throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By comparing the articulation of Serb, Greek and Bulgarian identities, the essay examines how regional historical factors led to the concept of nationhood becoming central to the formation of national identity among the region's Eastern Orthodox Christians. It demonstrates (...) that the subsequent regional national rivalries have been the consequence of the local peoples' route towards modernity, and cannot be attributed to a 'clash of civilizations'. Rather, the history of Southeastern Europe suggests that the production of heterogeneity is inherent in the globalization process. (shrink)

With the rise of populism, European solidarity risks being eroded by a clash of solidarities based on nation and religion. Ranging from hospitality to hostility, ‘refugees welcome’ to ‘close the borders’, asylum seekers from Syria and other war-torn countries test the very ideas upon which the EU was founded: human rights, tolerance and the free movement of people. European solidarity is not only rooted in philosophical ideas of equality and freedom but also in the memory of nationalism, war and (...) violence. The response to refugees seeking asylum into Europe cannot only be resolved by appealing to emotions, moral sentiments and a politics of pity. Disenchantment with government, fear of terrorism and resentment towards foreigners weaken European solidarity at a time when it is needed most. (shrink)

The beating of Rodney King and the resulting riots in South Central Los Angeles. The violent clash between Hasidim and African-Americans in Crown Heights. The boats of Haitian refugees being turned away from the Land of Opportunity. These are among the many racially-charged images that have burst across our television screens in the last year alone, images that show that for all our complacent beliefs in a melting-pot society, race is as much of a problem as ever in America. (...) In this vastly important, widely-acclaimed volume, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Ghanaian philosopher who now teaches at Harvard, explores, in his words, "the possibilities and pitfalls of an African identity in the late twentieth century." In the process he sheds new light on what it means to be an African-American, on the many preconceptions that have muddled discussions of race, Africa, and Afrocentrism since the end of the nineteenth century, and, in the end, to move beyond the idea of race. (shrink)

Cultural rights constitute one of the most exciting new frontiers of human rights research and practice. Cultural rights are also the ultimate law and humanities topic. These are good enough reasons for making cultural rights the main focus of a book. But there are other reasons, too. Cultural rights are both transformative and empowering rights. They enable people to aspire to a better future for themselves, their families, and the society in which they live, and they play a key role (...) in realizing all other human rights. Furthermore, they provide a much-needed discourse or common forum in which we can explore, negotiate, and come to new cross-cultural understandings. All of this is supremely important today, at a time when respect for cultural diversity is a key concern worldwide, and when migration and advances in technology are increasing the level of cultural exchange but also fostering cultural clashes and incompatibilities previously masked by distance. (shrink)

To assert that a 'clash of civilizations' follows inexorably from the different religious convictions at the foundations of Western Judeo-Christian and Arabic-Islamic cultures means to deny that a common political rationality can articulate genuinely universal, albeit culturally situated values. The eleven contributions to the present volume take up this controversy by challenging its premise that the heritage of classical Greek thought is exclusively part of Western political identity. By exploring the tradition of Platonism informing both Arabic-Islamic and Western (...) political thought and intellectual history in key stations in their history, the contributors show how Platonic political theory can still bear fruit in the present day, especially in the context of dialogue between cultures. (shrink)

The purpose of this investigation is to define the central issues of the current and future relations between the Western and Chinese civilizations through the evaluation of the myths and realities of these relations. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the world scene, driven by the global economy and civilization with an attempt to compare both civilizations according to key criteria. Among the findings are: Today China has become a “robot” of the West. Due to its (...) old culture and ability to invent important civilizational tools, China is becoming an independent developer of its own economic power, and it is very probable that it will surpass its master sooner or later. Due to its transformation to a global civilization, Western civilization has lost its Christian values and adopted new ones based on business. It is probable that the economic success of China will lead to a clash between civilizations, both grasping for access to the strategic resources. Practical implication: Society should elaborate the path to the development of wise civilization driven by a new political system, ecoism.Social implication: It is probable that if the “1%” won’t self-correct its misbehavior, a social revolution by the “99%” cannot be excluded from the current calendar ofWestern civilization. Originality: This investigation, by providing the interdisciplinary and civilizational approach, expands the scope of the traditional relevant approach. (shrink)

The purpose of this investigation is to define the central issues of the current and future relations between the Western and Chinese civilizations through the evaluation of the myths and realities of these relations. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the world scene, driven by the global economy and civilization with an attempt to compare both civilizations according to key criteria. Among the findings are: Today China has become a “robot” of the West. Due to its (...) old culture and ability to invent important civilizational tools, China is becoming an independent developer of its own economic power, and it is very probable that it will surpass its master sooner or later. Due to its transformation to a global civilization, Western civilization has lost its Christian values and adopted new ones based on business. It is probable that the economic success of China will lead to a clash between civilizations, both grasping for access to the strategic resources. Practical implication: Society should elaborate the path to the development of wise civilization driven by a new political system, ecoism.Social implication: It is probable that if the “1%” won’t self-correct its misbehavior, a social revolution by the “99%” cannot be excluded from the current calendar ofWestern civilization. Originality: This investigation, by providing the interdisciplinary and civilizational approach, expands the scope of the traditional relevant approach. (shrink)

A total of 80 authors working in a variety of scientific disciplines commented on the theoretical model of CLimate, Aggression, and Self-control in Humans. The commentaries cover a wide range of issues, including the logic and assumptions of CLASH, the evidence in support of CLASH, and other possible causes of aggression and violence. Some commentaries also provide data relevant to CLASH. Here we clarify the logic and assumptions of CLASH and discusses its extensions and boundary conditions. (...) We also offer suggestions for future research. Regardless of whether none, some, or all of CLASH is found to be true, we hope it will stimulate future research on the link between climate and human behavior. Climate is one of the most presing issues of our time. (shrink)

Understood as an analysis of clashing argument cultures, C. P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” illuminates challenges to interdisciplinarity. Argument cultures involve not only distinct styles of argumentation and background assumptions, but also emotional attitudes and prejudices, including disdain for other argument cultures, that rest on ideals of inquiry and society. Case studies suggest that fruitful interdisciplinary work across such cultures requires institutionalized boundary contexts in which heterogeneous solidarity can develop.

It is amazing how polarizing and, at the same time, ahistorical narratives can be heard about the problems discussed, especially in Anglophone countries in recent times, and on social media: identity policy, cultural policy, racism, patriotism, white privilege, patriarchy, sexism, gender, and others. Stoic pragmatism is not in agreement with the most recent populism and neo-tribalistic class of narratives, which highlight division and the polarization of groups of people against other groups of people as the very axis of argumentation. Even (...) more importantly, stoic pragmatists, especially those who happen to have a Central and Eastern European sensibility, may insist on the specificity of the situation of the region as a whole, and the current war in Ukraine only makes this specificity much more articulated. What I mean is that it is difficult to confront active identity and diversity issues when historical contexts and the geographical space have their own narratives about identity, including national identity, in the name of which, for example, Ukrainians fight against Russians these days, and Poles and Balts fought not that long ago. (shrink)