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1. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
M. Joseph Ciaudo Philosophizing on Culture in China at the Beginning of the Decade of 1920
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The aim of this paper is to present key elements of the philosophies of culture developed in China in the early 1920s. Focusing on major neoconservative authors such as Liang Qichao, Liang Shuming and Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang), I shall try to highlight the most original and innovative aspects of these intellectuals’ philosophy of culture. While stressing on the continuity between the European, and more specifically the German debates, over the concept of Culture, one will insist on the specificity of the ideas elaborated by Chinese scholars really versed into traditional teachings. Ranging from the articles and books published during the debate on Western and Chinese cultures to the controversy over Science and Metaphysics, I shall present the philosophical conceptual framework in which the question of Culture was raised. One will for instance stress on the use of Buddhist conception of “Will” or on the Confucian background of “the Unity of Man and Heaven”. Thought these intellectual productions have often been understood as materials dealing with political issues, I shall try to underline their real philosophical content. The way they address many conceptions of western philosophies of culture should be taken into consideration.
2. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Asli Cirakman Deveci Technologies of the Self: Understanding Veiling as both a Personal and a Social Process of Self-realization
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This paper engages with Michel Foucault’s concept of technologies of the self in an attempt to understand the practice of veiling in Turkey throughout the 2000s. Foucault defines technologies of the self as a form of truth regime or rather telling the truth about ourselves. The question is what do veiled women think they are doing when they are veiling? In other words how do women reflect on or interpret their own veiling. The literature on veiling treats the act of veiling either as an act of submission of women to tradition and patriarchal relations or as an act of resistance against secularism, and western way of life. However, this research revealed that the veiled women do neither protest anything nor feel misguided or manipulated. My point is that the process of veiling can be understood as a technology of the self in the Foucauldian sense. Women revise and update their position in terms of respectability, freedom, autonomy, modernity and vis-à-vis existing relations of domination, gendered disciplines and discourses.
3. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Da-ming Dai On Interrelationship of the Cultures, Eastern and Western: From the Perspective of Taiji
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The graph of Taiji is the Cosmological Model of ancient Chinese. Taiji (Yin-yang) theory is the basic idea on the world of Chinese Philosophy. From the perspective of the Taiji Theory, the earth is regarded as a Taiji sphere, which is composed of the two fundamental elements, namely, Yin and Yang. The naturally-formed Yin-Yang structure of the earth determines the respective nature of the two cultures and their interrelationship. In the earth of Taiji, the continent of Asia is located in the semi-sphere of Yin, while Europe, Americas and Africa, in the semi-sphere of Yang. Japan is located on the zone of Yin in the semi-sphere of Yin, namely, extreme Yin; while Africa on the zone of Yang in the semi-sphere of Yang, namely, extreme Yang. Everything can develop sound with longevity on condition of the balance of Yin and Yang, and only with the balance of the cultures, Eastern and Western, can the human races will continue developing.
4. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Maria Victoria de Vales Oliveros The Latin American Culture: Identity and Dependence
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This essay focuses on Latin American culture and its relationship to the notions of cultural identity and dependence. The objective is to analyze the particular characteristics of this culture which bring out a regional identity, although it is generally recognized as a marginal one, a subculture dependent on a dominate culture, that of the European countries. The “conquest” of America by Spain and other European powers is a fact that marks the beginning of Latin America’s cultural dependence on Europe, which remains today as an overall prejudice in the literature. The dimensions and characteristics of Latin American culture can be analyzed as an argument the case that despite being born as a subculture dependent on a dominate culture the region’s development incorporated native traits that gave Latin American culture its own identity. The theoretical concepts of modernity and postmodernity are also considered, as their deep cultural content is an essential reference in any socio-cultural and philosophical debate of the 20th and 21st centuries.
5. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
H. Daniel Dei Culture and Ecological Responsibility in the Global Era: A Philosophical Perspective from Latin America
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The proposal relates the ways of life of peoples and nations to the answer to the axial problem which faces mankind today: the ecological question. This question is not limited to the preservation of the environment or the sustainability of the planet resources. In fact since it is a question, it makes us responsible for the course of the events resulting from the exercise of our freedom and the different modalities of power with which we have historically exercised it. In our life, where our future is at stake, it is important to distinguish certain levels of responsibility. Thus, it is essential to wonder again, with Søren Kierkegaard, if the distinction between good and evil makes sense for the present world leaders, or if, with the philosophers’ help, the rhetorical games and strategic shifts have replaced ethics for them. Consequently, this paper considers the ecological responsibility as an existential commitment towards life. i.e., to guarantee our own conscience that life is worth living, that each life has a sense in the decisions and effective daily actions. The attitude towards life implies another spiritual disposition, which includes the presence of the other as a condition of the possibility of being in the world. I am and I do exist because of the other. The term other refers to other human beings and also to their underlying culture, because this culture includes what is generally referred to as nature. However, this is only understandable in the light of the values that shape culture; it is neither an alien nor it opposes it.
6. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Raikhan Doszhan Kazakh Culture in the Philosophical Outlook of Abay
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In this article is spoken about the appeal of Abay to the Russian and western literature, culture, science, philosophy. Having experience of two worlds, two civilizations: The East and the West, Abay is included surely into elite of world culture. Absorbing wisdom from perennial springs as East, and West, Abay remains that genius who made a start from the native soil, honoring wisdom of the native steppe, native culture.
7. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Katarzyna Dworakowska Nietzsche’s Riddle: Between Dionysus and Ariadne
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The paper is an attempt to answer the question about the role that the figure of Ariadne plays in Nietzsche’s philosophy, which the philosopher himself presents as a riddle. Such a question at the same time requires an analysis of Dionysian theme. Dionysus is presented in inseparable relationship with eternal becoming, therefore with the will to power and eternal motion, which are the ontological foundations of Nietzsche’s thought. From the perspective of the discussed issue, it is important to point out changes in Nietzsche’s way of thinking about character of Dionysus, occurring about 1886. Ariadne – the Lady of the Labyrinth would be the guardian of that what represents space of borders and of distance; that what is stopped in motion and that what is stopping the motion, therefore what is opposing to the Dionysian element. Interpretation of the myth, as well as interpretation of the relevant paragraphs from Nietzsche’s work allows to show the labyrinth as a non-existing. Therefore, in Nietzsche’s thought, relationship of Ariadne and Dionysus is representation of the tension between structure, necessary for humanity, and eternal motion. In regard to the above important is the theme of Nietzsche’s interpretation as well as the triumph of becoming, which can only proclaim its victory through structure, so that through Ariadne.
8. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
William Franke Thinking in the Gap between the Cultures of Greece and China: François Julien’s Apophatic Universalism
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Are there deep differences between these cultures in their ways of thinking? How can they be described? There is no neutral language for doing so. One can doubt all claims to deep essence as being metaphysical illusions and figments. However, the differences are certainly experienced. They can be characterized negatively. This is where Chinese and Western (apophatic) viewpoints meet. Whereas Jullien finds the cultural Other (China) enabling him to think otherwise and effectively to keep the recursive self-negating aspect of discourse active and alive in his own discourse, I attempt to do this by reference to the apophatic current underlying Western philosophical reflection in all its most radically critical and especially self-critical manifestations. Especially from consideration of Eastern approaches to universality, the apophatic wisdom that can be gathered here can serve to put us on guard against any universality that can be thought. Universality is not what it is thought to be by the universals that we can think. The naïve faith in thought and education as per se emancipatory is belied by history. The universal remains an ideal rather than a manifest fact in the course of history. It cannot be approached except always by way of the negative.
9. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Lara Denise Góes da Costa Is the Moral Decay by Knowledge Possible?: An Analysis of Rebuttals to Criticisms of the Discourse
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In the beginning of the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, Rousseau asks whether the restoration of the sciences and the arts have contributed to the improvement or to corruption of morals. In his speech, the modern development not only imprisoned even more human in a web of vanity and luxury, but degenerated in its most authentic game appearances and vanity. Permeating up historical examples, Rousseau clearly defends an ideal of human, which assigns the value of authenticity. However, nothing in this value relates to the search for knowledge that would be as natural as the activity of searching for what are useful to humans. For Rousseau, science or scientific knowledge has become harmful to human life, as it is the vanity outweighs the moral development that would come from philosophy. To support this thesis, Rousseau demonstrates how science emerged from our vices and not from the pursuit of virtue. We have developed “civilization” so that politeness and hypocrisy do not allow us to be what we are. In this article, I analyze the response to the main critics of Rousseau.
10. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Ping He Vico’s Philosophy of Culture and its Impact on China
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Vico was a philosopher in the Italian Enlightenment era of the 18th century of Enlightenment, also a key figure of the Counter-Enlightenment at that time. His prominent contribution was to found the philosophy of culture through making a research on human history. The thesis of his philosophy of culture was expressed by “metaphysics of human”, in which he constructed the historical reason to be against Descartes’ scientific reason. This thought has a major influence on the Chinese thought world. In the beginning of the 20th century, Li Dazhao used Vico’s thought to elucidate the ideas of the historical materialism, which had influence on the study of the Chinese modern history. In the latter half of the 20th century, Zhu Guangqian translated Vico’s New Science into Chinese, which promoted the study of Vico in China. In 1980s, Chinese academia had developed the multi-disciplinary study in philosophy of history, aesthetics and philosophy of culture by study of Vico. Since the 21st century, Chinese scholars have integrated the study of Vico with the critique of modernity to transform the Chinese philosophical tradition from the scientific reason to the historical reason, which shows the tendency of the Chinese philosophy in the present age.
11. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Xiaonan Hong The Value of Philosophy
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To understand philosophy better, we need to analyze the value of philosophy. Philosophy, as a systematized ideological system and world view, is the essence of the time spirit. Philosophy, as a world prospect (world view), is an overall grasp of the world, focusing on the relations between man and the world. Philosophy, as a cognitive method, is a “great cognition tool” of man, as well as the ideological weapon with which we understand and change the world. Philosophy, as a life style, is a kind of moral power that determines the direction and meaning of our effort, and helps us change the life attitude. Philosophy as cultural identity (humanistic spirit), shows people’s cultural consciousness. Philosophy, as a kind of ultimate care, is to satisfy modern people’s aspiration after a world view and the pursuit of philosophical faith. Philosophy as a state, could enrich or improve the mental state of people, and provide ultimate concern and settlement for their mind. Philosophy is neither, as people believed in the past, omnipotent (as in “omnipotent philosophy theory”, which advocates that philosophy could replace any specific science), nor, as people are worried about now, incapable (as in “useless philosophy theory”, which denies the guidance of philosophy to specific scientific studies). Philosophy can only do what it is bound to do, which is the return of philosophical spirit and also the eternal charm of philosophy.
12. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Li Houyi The Traditional Western Philosophy’s Turn to the “Life-World” and the Revival of the Cultural Philosophy of Eastern Nationalities: On the Theoretical Basis and Operational Method of Field Study on Ethnic Zhuang in Wenshan Prefecture of Yunnan Province in China
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This paper intends to explore and criticize the traditional Western philosophy which has been considered as a Eurocentric, closed, self-governed great study, and has its own theory and discourse grand system towards the ideology of the “Life-World”. On this base, the author tries to define and clear a refreshing ideological form----cultural philosophy, also tries to consider this form as the idiographic interpretations of a certain kind of cultural patterns or cultural spirits. These cultural styles and spirits are based on the Life-World (mainly refers to Everyday-Life World). And by this way, the revival of the Oriental culture philosophy has become an inexorable trend which underlines the status and values of various Eastern ethnic cultural philosophies. In the new era, the cultural status will be given even more attention in the world. This paper also intends to provide a theoretical and methodological guidance and instructions in the process of preparation and verification of philosophical field study so as to protect the local cultural resources and make a positive contribution to the development of cultural industries.
13. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Alloy S. Ihuah African Strategic Heritage Resource and the Challenge of Modernism: A Philosophical Rescue Mission
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This paper is an attempt to enter the discourse from an Africanist perspective. It draws attention to African Knowledge Systems (AKS) as a critical resource in the continent’s transformation challenge. The paper articulates the logic for African transformation and argues why the continent must reclaim its lost and threatened knowledges for integration into development efforts. It explores the ‘African’ educational system as a major challenge facing the acceptance and integration of AKS in the transformation process and concludes that the continent is better off if the development initiative is first and foremost foregrounded on African heritage and ways of knowing. The paper concludes by suggesting three major aspects of such an educational system that promotes knowledge through wisdom.
14. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Zengni Jin, Hongwei Li The Tracing to the Historical Source of Philosophy of Scientific Culture
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The discipline construction of philosophy of scientific culture is being found, but just as that history occurred earlier than science of history did, the history of scientific culture and philosophy of scientific culture have a distant source and a long stream. The important basic works of philosophy of scientific culture are to trace to the historical origins and its evolution of scientific culture and philosophy of scientific culture, set up the historical development of philosophical thought of scientific culture in order, harden the historical and philosophical base of philosophy of scientific culture.
15. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Marcin Kania The Illness of Greatness and Nothingness as Symbols of Twentieth Century Civilization
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My text concerns the human illness of being in nothingness and greatness, which I analyse on the basis of The Plague and The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. In The Plague the author writes about fate that organizes and rationalizes chaotic activities of humans. Natural disasters and catastrophes, as well as those produced by culture are present in our times. Sometimes the remedies used by culture can be worse than the disease itself. The human condition comprises another state – the need for self-divinization, a need for greater meaning and aim for our limited lives. In The Myth of Sisyphus I analyse three types characters (Don Juan, the actor and the winner) as symbols of autotelic life fulfilments which show the boundaries between human desires and their consciousness of actions.
16. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab Philosophy of Culture as an Inquiry into the Post-Ottoman Self: A Greek-Arab Comparison
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Contemporary Greeks and Arabs are heirs of a common empire which ruled the lives of their ancestors for long centuries before it ended at the beginning of the twentieth century. These heirs imagined, constructed and experienced their post-Ottoman nations in connection with the existential crises of the empire. Their national selves emerged from political and military struggles, and were fashioned by ideas about enlightenment, modernization, selfhood and emancipation. Their journeys to national statehood were shaped by the different positions they held in the empire; they were marked by different givens and different circumstances. Their post-independence eras witnessed numerous challenges and faced dramatic crises. They were often internally disenchanting and externally checked by geo-political pressures. But they were experienced in total isolation from each other’s situations. Today these journeys are critically reflected upon by the intellectuals of these nation-states but almost never in conjunction with the other’s experiences, despite their geographical contiguity, significant common historical past, and many shared social mores. This study looks at how these two estranged neighbors fared after they parted ways on their independence journeys in their definitions of cultural identity and practices of cultural critique, and compares these journeys, by establishing links that were rarely, if ever, made hitherto. It focuses on the respective contemporary debates on enlightenment and emancipation that look at the early ideas of independence and progress and assess their fate in the post-independence era to our present day. The study aims at revealing the commonalities and specificities of the struggles of these nation-states for enlightenment, emancipation, progress and modernization. It helps us raise a number of questions about the meaning of enlightenment in these post-Ottoman contexts.
17. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Larisa Lepeshkina Transcultural Research of Funeral Rites in Human Life Cycle
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In the paper funeral rites are considered as an integral part of the life cycle rites. These rites have a universal character no matter in which ethnic environment they arose. At the same time they have some special features that reflect originality of cultures. In support of this thesis the author compares funeral rites of the Germans, the Chuvashes and the Tatars, reveals general and specific elements of it. Strong emphasis on these rites is caused by their special position in human life cycle. They can rally their participants for joint overcoming of critical situations. In the author’s opinion, funeral rites continue to serve as a mechanism of cultural identification of various peoples despite leveling of traditional values of local ethnic communities in the age of globalization.
18. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Pablo López López A Culture of Love and a Love of Culture
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This is an essay on the relationship of love and culture. Our main conclusion is that we urgently need a culture of love based on love of culture. Indeed, culture and love merge solidly to give an incomparable sense of life to every human person and to every society. On the one hand, this conclusion is a fact: the more people develop a culture centred on love, the happier they are. On the other hand, it is also a task, a duty: we all still have to fully engage ourselves to build a culture of love, based on love of culture. We shall expound more the first idea, the concept of “culture”. Our aim in this brief paper is to properly approach the issue of the maturity of culture through love. Our main goal here is to understand the depth and breadth of “culture”. Given a sound understanding of culture, we can easily examine the central place of love in culture. Future research will enlarge on these reflections. We all still have to learn so much from the Platonic έρως, the Christian αγάπη or “charitas” and from many other wise traditions about love. Without love every culture is empty of real humanity. We are much more than mere instinct or utilitarian reason.
19. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Filip Maj Understanding the Concepts of ‘Disintegration’ and ‘Deconstruction’: (Kazimierz D·browski and Michel Foucault)
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The concepts of ‘disintegration’ and ‘deconstruction’ are analyzed in the writings of Kazimierz Dąbrowski and Michel Foucault. Dąbrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration lays out the deteriorating and constructive processes in man’s personality, which allows him to get to know himself and the world around him in contrast to his inner world. Foucault’s ‘discourse’ theory shows the variety of deconstructions man is subjected to due to cultural and psychological processes. Both concepts are entangled in the descriptions and usages of the concepts of ‘health’ and ‘illness’. Both health and illness show man’s drama of life, but are at the same time means of objectifying his subjectivity, which can dehumanize him or become his horizon of cognition and reevaluation. Dąbrowski underlines man’s multilevel and multidimensional development, while Foucault pays attention to man’s concealed objectification by society which takes place by means of his unification and exclusion.
20. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 47
Olga Marchenko The Artistic and Rhetorical: Creative Potential of the Art of Speech
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Both speech maker and actor use voice and body as instruments. Like any other professional, a speech maker has to master this tool, which would help meet his communication goals. The imaginative side of human nature can be harnessed by artistic techniques. In this respect the language of art requires ability. Knowledge and ability are taught through the Stanislavski’s artistic method.