Jun Otsuka, in his recent work Thinking About Statistics (2023), undertakes a philosophical investigation of fundamental statistical methodologies, with a particular emphasis on causal inference. In his ontological analysis of causal inference, Otsuka posits that causal analysis, within a given causal model, requires the modification of the underlying probabilistic distribution. This modification, he argues, effectively constitutes a transition between possible worlds. Consequently, Otsuka identifies the objective of causal inference as the discovery of inter-world laws that govern the relationships (...) between these distinct probabilistic models (Otsuka 2023, p.168). Granting Otsuka’s ontological commitments regarding causal and probabilistic models, his interpretation of certain causal analyses as inherently inter-worldly is indeed compelling. This perspective merits particular attention given the prevailing tendency to view such analyses to mere rules for estimating causal effects. While this review does not directly challenge Otsuka’s position, it aims to further explore and contribute to this stimulating concept. (shrink)

Laurence BonJour has recently proposed a novel and interesting approach to the problem of induction. He grants that it is contingent, and so not a priori, that our patterns of inductive inference are reliable. Nevertheless, he claims, it is necessary and a priori that those patterns are highly likely to be reliable, and that is enough to ground an a priori justification induction. This paper examines an important defect in BonJour's proposal. Once we make sense of the claim that inductive (...) inference is "necessarily highly likely" to be reliable, we find that it is not knowable a priori after all. (shrink)

This is a composite review of three intriguing and provocative books that address the interconnections between East Asian and Western philosophy. Firstly, in _Phenomenology and Intercultural Understanding: Toward a New Cultural Flesh_, Kwok-Ying Lau thinks that phenomenology can help construct a “cultural flesh” between civilizations that encourages East-West philosophical dialogues, and that China needs to adopt Western terminology to facilitate an intercultural engagement. Merleau-Ponty’s “inter-world” can help this bridge. Secondly, in _Fundamentals of Comparative and Intercultural Philosophy_, Lin Ma (...) and Jaap van Brakel argue that Chinese thinkers of the modern world invent “Chinese philosophy” in order to engage with Western thought. In a distinct fashion, they incorporate a Wittgenstein-inspired scenario whereby the necessary precondition for comparative intercultural philosophy is the “attitude-toward-a-soul principle” alongside the “family resemblance principle” which includes the “no need to speak the same language principle” or no need for one tradition to adopt another’s terminology. Thirdly, in _Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought_, Eric S. Nelson proposes that intertextual analysis opens multi-dimensional spaces of interpretation to situate changing views of East-West encounters in Germany ranging from Hegel and Kant to Buber and Heidegger. Daoism, Confucianism, Chan and Zen Buddhism are sites for examination by Western thinkers that open portals to East Asian culture and philosophy. (shrink)

This paper aims to lay out the main tenets of Bernhard Waldenfels’s analyses of the experience of the alien and to confront the philosophical thesis underwriting them with a central insight stemming from Merleau-Ponty’s late philosophy. In the first section, I reconstruct the outlines of the experience of the alien, as described by Waldenfels, and show that, on his account, this experience can function as a powerful impetus enabling us to call into question some of the most deeply held commitments (...) of Western philosophical tradition: the sovereignty of the ego, the supremacy of order, the priority of the whole. In the second section, I show how a patient analysis of this experience compels us to undertake an inquiry concerning the “inter-world,” understood as the place of the encounter and the threshold of separation between the own and the alien. Finally, drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s alternative description of the “inter-world,” I maintain that Waldenfels’s account is insufficiently radical and show that the in-between realm cannot be assimilated to an interstice lodged between two insulated spheres. Rather, the “inter-world” should be conceived of as a shared dimension, subtending the partition between the spheres of ownness and alienness, as the one inclusive world. (shrink)

In this paper my objective is two-fold. First, I will try to provide further arguments in favour of the view defended in my earlier paper¹. In particular, I will try to show (in § 1) that a plausible understanding of the notion of a complete concept, coupled with (what I take to be) a reasonable interpretation of Leibniz's intriguing talk of severa “possible Adams” (§ 2), leads quite naturally to the view that Leibniz was committed to the doctrine of (...) class='Hi'>world-bound individuals. Second, I will try to show (in § 3) that a suggestive way of saving contingency in the framework of Leibniz's theory of complete concepts is bound to fail : and the reasons for this failure will provide further evidence in favour of the view under present discussion. The remaining sections of the paper (§§ 4-6), will be concerned with fixing and making precise some of the loose ends of the previous three sections. Thus §§ 4 and 5 will be devoted to an analysis of Leibniz's use and understanding of the notions of contingency and necessity, and essence and accident, respectively. It will be shown that Leibniz's use and understanding of those notions is perfectly consistent with his commitment to the doctrine of world-bound individuals. In § 6, finally, I will try to indicate exactly how David Lewis' Counterpart Theory can be brought to bear upon Leibniz's theory of complete concepts, and, specifically, how it ought to be interpreted in that context. (shrink)

This paper presents a phenomenology of affect and discusses its relevance for organizational life-worlds. With Merleau-Ponty, affects are interpreted as bodily and embodied inter-relational phenomena, which have specific pathic, ecstatic and emotional qualities. Relationally, they will be situated as “inter-affection” that are part of the inter-corporeality of the “Flesh” of wild be(com)ing. Affect and inter-affectivity are then related to organizational life-worlds, through a critical exploration of different phenomena and effects generated by positive, negative and ambiguous dimensions. (...) Finally, the potentials of affects and affection as part of the nexus of an embodied responsive responsibility and sustainability are discussed and critical perspectives on affective becoming outlined. (shrink)

Humanity must continue to grow and develop together in a complex of reciprocal relationships. Such a view presumes an education which is ultimately philosophical. That is, philosophy, teaching and globalization together complement and mutually enrich humanity. In what follows, I discuss the ground, the goal, and potential developments for this project.

This article is a contribution to a festschrift in honor of Rev. Chris Ferguson's leadership of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. It engages the Accra Confession and suggests that the next step for bringing the Confession to bear on our current realities requires churches to consider what it means to be confessional and catholic. In doing so, it introduces inter-confessionality as a possible way forward, not only to address global challenges today, but how the Accra Confession can (...) help facilitate that mission. (shrink)

Inter-Church marriage remains a complex challenge to ecumenism, particularly within the Poumai Naga Churches of Northeast India, where Baptist and Roman Catholic traditions are predominant. While both traditions affirm marriage as sacred, theological and doctrinal differences, administrative practices, and concern over proselytism, identity, and otherness often create tension for couples and families. This study examines how Inter-Church marriages, though increasingly common, are frequently perceived as threats to church identity and unity. At the same time, they present opportunity for (...) dialogue, mutual understanding, and the renewal of Christian witness. Addressing these challenges requires openness, trust, and a renewed ecumenical spirit within Poumai Naga Churches. (shrink)

If we perceive of intercultural encounters as confrontations of preconceptions, we can ask for what dynamizes the exchange. Interest seems a promising candidate, as it suggests »being in between« of both the observer as well as the observed. This paper states that interest is, rather than one-sided intentionality, a primordial state of being in this world that corresponds to the »intermodal« character assumed for infants’ perception. Determination of a felt »I« as well as conceptual meaning are accomplished as accumulations (...) and abstractions of felt qualities. Our understanding of the world and the »I« is thus aesthetically coded and the »place of the I« is characterized by an aesthetic quality of »inter« – we are basically always in-between our inter-modal perception but usually dissociated thereof by habituated interpretive patterns. It is argued that the state of being interested can be practiced such that it resets those habituations and free ourselves for new familiarization. (shrink)

There is a meaningful difference between the understanding of the ideas of methodology and methods in socio-scientific studies. In reference to the Tawhidi IIE(θ(ε))-knowledge-induced worldview, this handbook has argued and proved that there exists a distinct contrariness in the philosophy of science between Islam and the occident in respect of the Tawhidi IIE(θ(ε))-knowledge-induced worldview. This difference is centered on the critical relevance of Tawhid as the divine and most exclusive law of the Qur’an as the socio-scientific episteme in contrariness to (...) the human-concocted foundation of rationalism in all other philosophies of science. This contrariness also pervades the fields of shari’ah and its fiqi groundwork that are misconstrued as the Islamic law. Likewise, the distinction is also with respect to the project of Islamization of knowledge having no substantive derivation, formalism, application, and sustainability in accordance with the Tawhidi episteme as the qur’anic law. However, when we invoke the field of method and methodical treatment of the methodological differences, two opposite inferences arise. Firstly, in the case of methods relating to the Tawhidi episteme, there is methodical use to study the Tawhidi abstraction, formalism, application, and sustainability of the entire epistemic framework. In such a case, there arises no problems of adopting such methods as technicalities. Secondly, in case where methods are used in response to methodological differences, then such methods have their origins in their differentiating epistemic origins in socio-scientific problems. In such a case, the resulting methods need to be scrutinized, reformed, or rejected and changed to meet the disparate epistemic demands of Tawhidi and non-Tawhidi epistemes. We have explained for such issues by invoking the example of the mathematical treatment of input-output analytic and the concepts of intra-system and inter-systems study of problems and issues in the light of the Tawhidi methodological worldview. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that Peter Fitzpatrick provides a unique contribution to international studies, most especially to contemporary interdisciplinary studies of International Law (IL) and International Relations (IR). Peter provides a significant theoretical contribution to the interdisciplinary study of IL and IR not only as a critical thinker of modern law, but also as a critical thinker of the modern international. On the one hand, his supplementary critical legal thinking contributes to a ‘decolonial deconstructionist’ rethinking of the politics of (...) international law. His close reading of how modern international law (auto)grounds ‘itself’, for instance, offers a strident critique of the racist, imperial, and colonial lines of discrimination involved in the negative (auto)constitution of this (supposedly) universal legal being. On the other hand, he provides a conception of the ‘(inter)national’ which displaces conventional, modern understandings of the legal and political organization of ‘humanity’ and ‘the world’, problematizing their foundational assumptions and spatialized geometrical frames as being based on oppositional dualisms (‘inside/outside’, ‘national/international’, ‘empire/modernity’, ‘theological/secular’, etc.), while offering a deconstructionist engagement with the ‘constitutive outside’ of the modern (inter)national. As a form of postcolonial counter-archive, Peter’s work enacts a decolonial deconstruction of ‘our’ (inter)national ‘selves’, including the (inter)national commonality ‘itself’. Before an incalculable, quasi-ontological heteronomy, a dissymmetrical Law of originary sociability which I (re)articulate here with/as the ‘and’ of the world(s), Peter’s supplementary critical thinking of the (inter)national contributes to imagining the world, humanity, and our social being(s), including law and language, otherwise. (shrink)

What does it mean “playing music together”? Is this action guided by cognitive or pre-inferential skills? The aim of this paper is to unveil the different components that are implied in a collective action such as “playing music together”. The idea which will be supported is that embodiment and temporality are the main important structures that guide the subject. In the first part, we will emphasize the centrality of corporeality in the development of self-awareness and intercorporeal understanding. In particular, drawing (...) on Merleau-Ponty’s work, we will argue that the cognitive layer of our consciousness and the pre-inferential one are simply the product of our being embodied. Another central structure for the development of selfhood and intersubjectivity is temporality: as we will show, our selfhood and our attunement with the world can be also described in terms of rhythm, whereby implicit body memory allows for the sedimentation of habits, and synchrony, when my bodily and temporalized self is able to automatically tune in with others. In the second part, we will show how these components are at stake in an action like “playing music together”: attending music therapy sessions with patients who suffer indeed from an (inter)corporeal detachment allowed us to observe the centrality of those components described in the first part of our work, that is, to show how pre-reflective features (such as implicit body memory, intercorporeality, rhythm and synchrony) are necessary for the development of higher social (and cognitive) abilities.In fact, first person reports collected through a qualitative interview applied to patients allow to support the priority of the pre-reflective, affective and (inter)bodily components over the reflective ones. (shrink)

Due to a much more closely connected world, there is an accelerated interchange of cultures in the clinical setting. Alongside a pluralism of cultural beliefs for health and illness is a greater effort to value and respect freedoms for thoughts and belief pertaining to differing identities from legal, moral, societal and activist initiatives. When treating culture as part of the clinical consultation, there is a need for conceptual frameworks, communication skills, guidelines and policies to be implemented in a context (...) where there are certain dominant narratives such as scientific medicine and biomedical frameworks of the human body and mind that typically bracket out culture. The encounter of the clinic with culture is an ethical endeavour that requires expertise training and education; thus, the role of inter-culturality and cultural competence is significant for setting precedents in the translation from theory to practice. In this chapter, I discuss challenges for global bioethics in responding to culture in the clinic. (shrink)

Artistic representation is an instrument of historical memory that, unlike history, serves to transfer the emotional imprint that historical records leave behind for the sake of objectivity. Art memorializes achievements and success, but also tragic moments of death and destruction. Cultural differences between China and the West lead to varied perspectives and patterns of expression in the Fine Arts. This paper offers several examples showing how art has dealt with epidemic and pandemic. No one is immune to such tragedies in (...) our increasingly globalized world. By looking back at the memories recorded in artistic representation, we can learn from the past and cooperate in order to face future crises successfully. However, cooperation is only possible if we are aware of cultural differences. This paper provides a brief example on how Chinese and European art face inter-artistic plague narratives in different ways. (shrink)

Responding to a deep and universal need of philosophizing in the context of intensive intercultural interaction among all philosophical traditions in the process of globalization, this timely book offers a unique collection of excellent papers on inter-translatability, art, and ethics; subjects which are most crucial for intercultural conversations today. Instead of opting for a "comparative philosophy" that suggests the superiority of philosophy in comparison with other forms of thought, this book explores "inter-translatability" between East and West, given that (...) any dialogue between heterogeneous cultures and systems of thought has to start with translation, which constitutes the first part of this book. Art and ethics are the two areas that most obviously link philosophies of the past and the present and constitute a fundamental part of Chinese long-living and practical philosophy. The value of art and aesthetic appreciation, no less than ethics, is at the core of Chinese culture and, indeed, promises a great deal for the future world. Thus, they are dealt with here in the second and third parts. This book is also relevant to inter-culturalism in philosophy itself, as the contributors, firstly, come from several different continents and, secondly, though most of them are philosophers, all contributors are well-versed in other disciplines, such as anthropology, literature, religion, aesthetics, history of art, sinology, cognitive sciences, and social sciences. (shrink)

The essay explicates the phenomenological problematic of intersubjectivity on the level of bodily interaction with the world and with others. On this level, the concept of visibility is transformed in terms of the primacy of bodily “I can” and the kinaesthetic awareness that pervades all perceptual fields. In addition, the investigations into kinaesthetic awareness lead to the understanding that one’s own bodily action is extended as well as varied by the kinaesthetic activities of others and thus form an (...) class='Hi'>inter-corporeal field wherein visibility is located. Such an extended awareness is the bodily counterpart of transcendental domain. (shrink)

Philosophy of religion, approached from a comparative perspective, can be a valuable tool for advancing inter-religious dialogue. Unfortunately, “comparative religion” today is usually characterised by two extreme positions: 1) Comparing religions in order to come to the conclusion that one's own religion is superior 2) Arguing for a type of “religious pluralism” that relativises all religious truth claims. The former approach reduces religion to a confrontational form of apologetics, theatrical “debates” and polemics, while the latter reduces religion to a (...) mere acceptance of pragmatically useful perspectivist narratives devoid of absolute reality or truth. Inter-religious dialogue should follow a middle path between these two extremes by engaging with underlying philosophical themes that are common to all religious traditions instead of emphasising the comparison of theological and soteriological arguments that may depend on justifications that are exclusive to a particular religious practice. The philosophical theme explored here is that of dissatisfaction and existential suffering in an imperfect world, a theme found in all “world religions”. Indeed, the diagnosis of this existential predicament and the hope that religious practice may allow one to overcome it appears to be universal, while its causes and the prescribed remedies differ considerably among religious traditions. Nevertheless, inter-religious dialogue beginning from a conviction that all religious practitioners strive for truth and salvation in response to a common existential experience may lead to a more compassionate and productive dialogue between religious communities. This type of inter-religious dialogue avoids accusations of falling into religious syncretism or relativism while encouraging diverse religious communities to address contemporary issues from areas of philosophical common ground. This allows for a more fruitful type of inter-religious dialogue and comparative study of religion that can be pursued while maintaining one's own distinct religious identities and particular religious truths. (shrink)

O diálogo inter-religioso apresenta-se como um dos grandes desafios para o terceiro milênio. Num tempo marcado pelo recrudescimento da violência e da intolerância, o diálogo significa uma possibilidade alternativa. Não há outro caminho possível para a paz no mundo senão mediante o entendimento mútuo e a abertura para a alteridade. O presente artigo busca traduzir o significado do diálogo no contexto da globalização e suas condições de exercício. Palavras-chave: Diálogo; Religião; Globalização; Pluralismo; Alteridade; Comunicação. ABSTRACT Inter-religions dialogue is (...) one of the great challenges of the third millennium. In a time when violence and intolerance have taken momentum, dialogue means an alternativepossibility. There is no other way towards peace in the world but mutual understanding and the openness to alterity. This paper aims at translating the meaning of dialogue within the context of globalization and its conditions of exercise. Key words: Dialogue; Religion; Globalization; Pluralism; Alterity; Communication. (shrink)

The article presents the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Healthy Urban Systems”, published in 2023, which was designed for international students from the fields of urban and transport planning and health. Using multidimensional and multiscale approaches, the MOOC teaches students how to work with system models and visualizations with regard to new perspectives for urban policy. Through her involvement in the ISC Urban Health Commission, the International Society of Urban Health and the WHO, World Health Organization, Céline Rozenblat initiated (...) and coordinated over 30 recognized international scientists to develop this MOOC. Module four of the total of six modules uses short video sequences and software tools to illustrate the practical application of Frederic Vester’s holistic systems approach for students and practitioners in the context of “Healthy Urban Systems”. (shrink)

The text investigates singularities of political understanding in Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s thought elucidates that the understanding of violence associated to the policy reduces the power to relations of domination and fear, destroying human plurality, disabling the action in concert. The living-together refers to the responsibility for the world which is discussed by the text in five topics: living- together and communicability; living-together and plurality and singularity; living-together opposite the predominance of consumers and violence; living-together versus isolation and loneliness; living-together (...) and the power of forgiving, the power of promising and the possibility to begin. Therefore, the aim of this text is to elucidate the centrality of the political understanding in Arendt’s thought, which not lies in humans, but among humans, as possibilities of living-together, the relationship between different human beings. (shrink)

Interfaith dialogue has been a border issue in theology at least in the last five decades of the last century. Different theoretical possibilities of approaches to such a question have been raised, e.g., exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism. Therefore, there are remarkable contributions to this from a Catholic perspective, by Westerner theologians: Europeans, Americans, Brazilians and by Asians alike. Technical literature in Brazil has its focus mainly on this Catholic contribution. As a consequence, not much about the Protestant understanding of the (...) theme has been said. Therefore, this article intends to present some Protestant contributions to the theory of interfaith dialogue. (shrink)

Inspired by earthquakes in the world, I attempt to clarify the relationship between human beings and Nature. Many architects, such as Tange and Isozaki from 1963 until 2005, built modern cities under the idea of urbanism. However, in Eco-ethica, we propose a new concept “urbanica.” It suggests a new relationship—not “city-center and suburbs” but free relations among communities. New relationships must be clarified in ethics. I try to make clear the relationship between inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity. I analyze (...) this through a Noh play, “Yamanba,” which is a symbol of one natural phenomenon, “wind”: a personified figure of “wind” should link inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity. Nature itself makes reality, the real world, by the potential movement of wind. (shrink)

In the present epoch of tensions between civilizations, challenges being brought by globalization processes and the necessity of the coexistence of various cultures and traditions, the subject of inter-religious dialogue seems to be particularly significant. Can religions remain isolated islands? Are their claims of being the only source of theological truth justified? Or should it rather be understood as an effect of interaction between different points of view and common effort of looking for the answers to the questions about (...) God and his relations to the world? What is the role of dialogue? Is it only a politically correct element or maybe something more essential - the basis of reasonable existence and development of religion? Should the direction traced by 20th century's partisans of ecumenical movements be widened in order to embrace also non Christian religions? What is the orthodoxy and where are its boundaries? The process philosophy creates a convenient and favorable atmosphere for this kind of considerations. The articles of this selection represent different points of view of the discussed topic. The book is addressed to all who deal with the inter-religious dialogue: both clergy and laymen as well as scholars and students interested in the subject. (shrink)

Ethics is being asked to respond to the globalization of the economy, and among the various responses one can see the emergence of inter-religious approaches including lay groups. This article examines certain of these concrete attempts to integrate ethics, spirituality and economics, and problematizes some of the theoretical underpinnings of these activities, specifically the question of beliefs.In January, 1998, two inter-religious and interdisciplinary organizations — Avicenne and the World Conference on Religion and Peace — participated for the (...) first time in the European Commission's conference on the future of Europe's economic and social order. It was recognized at this meeting that inter-religious dialogue constituted a paradigmatic example for the construction of a European society that must integrate different cultures. But paradigmatic does not mean it actually exists, for the inter-religious dynamic is still hesitating between globalization and integrationism. Nevertheless, religious plurality is apparent in the economy. The IMF recently hosted representatives of different religions, surpassing the framework of Christianity. In France, the University of Paris IX has planned a series of lectures on “Morality, Spirituality and Business Life”. Before looking at the theoretical questions connected with the emergence of a planetary, inter-religious ethics, let us come back to the question of the Christian religions and the social and economic order. I will restrict myself to mentioning some problematic points in order to defend the necessity of an inter-religious, interdisciplinary approach.Among the positions adopted by the churches at the January, 1998 conference, three points bear some examination: the dignity of labour and the community as specifically Christian values, and Europe constructed on the base of Christian values. (shrink)

How did one man living on an island come to acquire information about the rest of the vast archipelago? This article traces the inter-island information networks of Georg Everhard Rumphius (1627–1702), an employee of the Dutch East India Company, who was able to explore the natural world of the wider archipelago without ever leaving the Moluccan island of Ambon. This article demonstrates the complexities of Rumphius's inter-island networks, as he collected information about plants and objects from islands (...) near and far. Using his administrative, commercial and household networks, Rumphius was able to interact with local actors from across the social spectrum, whose own active collection, mediation and circulation of objects and information overlapped with imperial activities in the archipelago. This article examines Rumphius as both a collector and a mediator, who negotiated between multiple economies of exchange and translated information from different islands for his distant European readership. Such practices of localized translation demonstrate how knowledge produced on one island was the product of criss-crossing inter-island networks, as the information concerned underwent its own complicated processes of transmission and transformation within the archipelago before reaching its intended audience in Europe. (shrink)

The internationalization of professional practices and the export of western technology and higher education are accompanied by a need to establish international standards of ethics across different professions. This pioneering and provocative group of essays constitutes essential reading for those interested in understanding, formulating, and teaching ethical standards for professions in an international and particularly cross-cultural context.

A consensus has emerged among many normative theorists of cultural pluralism that dialogue is the key to securing just relations among ethnic or cultural groups. However, few normative theorists have explored the conditions or incentives that enable inter-group dialogue versus those that encourage inter-group conflict. To address this problem, I use Habermas’s distinction between communicative and strategic action, since many models of inter-group dialogue implicitly rely upon communicative action, while many accounts of inter-group conflict rest upon (...) strategic action. Drawing on explanatory accounts of inter-group conflict, I outline five strategic logics of group conflict, what I call the resource, political, information, positional, and security logics. I then argue that these strategic logics cannot be overcome by three motivations commonly thought to support communicative action: moral-cognitive consistency, the normative characteristics of modernity, and publicity constraints. At this point, I turn to an empirical case, the reception of African-American concerns within the Jewish public sphere prior to the Second World War, in order to suggest that, although strategic incentives might hinder inter-group dialogue, they may also encourage it. In conclusion, I provide three recommendations for how theorists might utilize strategic incentives in order to recognize which actors, policies, or institutions can encourage inter-group dialogue. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider an important objection to moral motivation of believers. It is the objection that their acts are motivated by self-interest,i.e. their personal salvation. Such motivation is sometimes identified as selfish. Therefore, I demonstrate the distinction between self-interest and selfishness. I would like to remind the reader that the critique of self-interest as moral motivation of believers appears within the very traditions of the major world religions. Then, I argue that some contemporary forms of secular ethics (...) still refer to a certain form of self-interest. (shrink)

This article provides an introduction to the special issue of Contemporary Buddhism entitled ‘Buddhism and Film’. Since the silent movie The Light of Asia, a 1925 German-Indian co-production released in the USA in 1928, increasing numbers of films have been produced across the globe that are related in some way to Buddhism. In the specific conditions of the modern period and an increasingly globalised world a new field of research gradually formed, which has continued to develop to the present (...) day. The present special issue is devoted to this research field. The introduction will sketch its contours and give as examples particular films, especially (but not exclusively) dramas and documentaries on Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. I cannot provide here the detail and nuance which the complexity of this field truly demands, but will rather offer an introduction by picking out certain select aspects and points of view for discussion. The following eight articles of the special issue will provide more detail. The volume takes account of the topic's complexity by including contributions from various academic disciplines (theology, religious studies and cultural anthropology; literary, film and media studies) as well as from filmmakers themselves. Its goal is to make clear how rewarding it is to study this steadily expanding field, and to encourage more in-depth interdisciplinary studies that will be able to explore the complex reciprocal relationship of Buddhism and film. (shrink)

Historians of science have often presented the inter-war period as a time when British scientific communities radically questioned existing scholarship on ‘race’. The ascendancy of genetics, and the perceived need to challenge Nazi ‘racial’ theory have been highlighted as pivotal issues in shaping this British revision of ‘racial’ ideas. This article offers a detailed analysis of British scientific thinking in the inter-war period. It questions whether historians have exaggerated or oversimplified the prevalence of anti-‘racial’ reform. It uses a (...) wide range of scientific writings to consider issues of continuity and change in ‘racial’ thinking in mainstream British scientific communities. The article probes the relationship between science and politics, focusing on the extent to which ideological factors affected both the scientific agenda and conclusions as regards ‘racial’ issues. Far from dismissing the idea that events in the inter-war period triggered changes in the way in which British scientists dealt with ‘race’, the article argues that the seeds of the post-Second World War international scientific rejection of ‘race’ were sown in inter-war Britain amid considerable ambivalence and discord.We must remember that the investigator, whether a biologist, an economist, or a sociologist, is himself a part of history, and that if he ever forgets he is a part of history he will deceive his audience and deceive himself.J. B. S. Haldane, Heredity and Politics, 1938. (shrink)

Recent debate in the intersection between philosophy and cognitive sciences have underlined the relevance of emotions in our lives. Emotions seem to play several different roles: from our inner and personal experience of the world, especially in all its alleged value aspects, to our relations to others. Yet, philosophical and scientific debate has not reached a consensus on what emotions are and on their specific contribution to our personal and social lives. In this introductory chapter we present the different (...) debates on emotions this issue focuses on and we briefly summarize the papers collected here. (shrink)

An effective and enriching discourse on comparative historiography invests itself in understanding the distinctness and identity that have created various civilizations. Very often, infected by bias, ideology, and cultural one-upmanship, we encounter a presumptuousness that is redolent of impatience with the cultural other and of an ingrained refusal to acknowledge what one’s own history and culture fail to provide. This “failure” need not be the inspiration to subsume the other within one’s own understanding of the world and history and, (...) thereby, neuter the possibilities of knowledge-sharing and cultural interface. It is a realization of the “lack” that provokes and generates encounters among civilizations. It should goad us to move away from what we have universalized and, hence, normalized into an axis of dialogue and mutuality. What Indians would claim as itihasa need not be rudely frowned upon because it does not chime perfectly with what the West or the Chinese know as history. Accepting the truth that our ways of understanding the past, the sense of the past, and historical sense-generation vary with different cultures and civilizations will enable us to consider itihasa from a perspective different from the Hegelian modes of doing history and hence preclude its subsumption under the totalitarian rubric of world history. How have Indians “done” their history differently? What distinctiveness have they been able to weave into their discourses and understanding of the past? Does the fact of their proceeding differently from how the West or the Chinese conceptualize history delegitimize and render inferior the subcontinental consciousness of “encounters with past” and its ways of being “moved by the past”? This article expatiates on the distinctiveness of itihasa and argues in favor of relocating its epistemological and ideological persuasions within a comparative historiographical discourse. (shrink)

This paper explores cross-cultural semiotics in adaptation in order to rethink the relationships between China and the West. The multi-dimensional model of cross-cultural research presented defends a temporal semiotic orientation, rather than a purely spatial approach for intercultural interpretation. The paper insists that in the age of globalization, cultural identity is unavoidably a very sharp question, and that multiple layers of meanings are involved in cultural identity. Thus, it explores differences and parallelisms between Western and Chinese semiotics, conservative and as (...) well as unconventional approaches – misappropriation, transplantation, transfer and transformation – which appear in adaptations such as Journey to the West and Wolf Totem. Adaptations are contemplated as intercultural avenues for learning about the West and exporting Chinese culture to the world, showing the complexity of cross-cultural exchanges which are never merely one-directional and which include temporal mappings. (shrink)

The article approaches the phenomenon of love from a theoretical perspective in which the interconnectedness of religions is constitutive of every religion, including Christianity, in its relative singularity. It explores a historical context in which Christianity with its unique message of love does not stand alone among the religions of the world, and a theoretical context that could account for that historical context, without abandoning or diluting the Christian vision, but enriching it, adding depth to the notion ‘Christianity’ in (...) its most essential sense. The argument is developed by first introducing seven religious perspectives on love. This is followed by metaphysical-mystical reflections in which the concept ‘Infinitude’ features. The argument proceeds concentrically outwards, starting from Christianity as centre, seen as one magnificent dewdrop reflecting an infinite net of interdependence. (shrink)

The following extracts come from a memoir of philosophical life between the wars and after, written in the 1970s by the Anglo-Scottish philosopher Louis Arnaud Reid (1895–1986).2 Today Reid is best known for his writings on aesthetics, and as the holder of the foundation chair in the philosophy of education at the University of London. Reid will also be familiar to those who have read A.J. Ayer's account of Ayer's appointment to the chair of philosophy at London, for Reid was (...) the candidate strongly preferred by the philosophers on the selection committee.3 Reid regretted the rise of logical positivism in the later 1930s because it introduced a break with the earlier world of humane philosophical discourse.In these extracts, edited by his grandson, Reid begins by giving a sense of the breadth of topics covered in philosophical conferences in the 1920s, before sketching some of the characters involved. He mentions of course a number of figures still familiar to us, from Moore to Russell to Wittgenstein, but tries more generally to give an impression of a philosophical world which is now largely lost. These are themes he continues elsewhere in the book, where he discusses the people he knew at Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, Liverpool, Newcastle and London. (shrink)

International relations and global politics of the modern world have entered a state of certain turbulence over the past few years. Theoretical reflections and forecasts of many past scholars regarding possible prospects and directions of transformation of the post-bipolar world are currently being realized in the open confrontation between the coalition of countries of the free world and countries with authoritarian political systems. Clearly, the authoritarian regimes of the russian federation, the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic (...) Republic of Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have challenged the established norms of international law and the international political order that emerged after the end of World War II. At the same time, we also observe the undermined (questioned) authority of the United States as an international arbitrator in resolving complex global problems. Thus, the system of global international relations is experiencing today a state of inter-civilizational tension that threatens to grow into a global clash, as predicted in the 1990s by Samuel Huntington. Under such circumstances, it is particularly important to understand the fundamental principles of organization of both Western and other civilizations alternative to the West, as well as the content of the most significant differences between them. Niall Ferguson’s research helps to form such an understanding quite convincingly, as he managed to collect extremely informative material for a clear explanation of the process of formation of modern world civilization, which is built on the foundations of the Western world, Western civilization. At the same time, N.Ferguson reveals the essence of the main problems that have now brought Western civilization to a state of internal crisis and weakened its position in the world. (shrink)

Dance has traditionally been viewed from a Eurocentric perspective as a mode of self-expression that involves the human body moving through space, performed for the purposes of art, and viewed by an audience. In this Hypothesis and Theory article, we synthesize findings from anthropology, sociology, psychology, dance pedagogy, and neuroscience to propose The Synchronicity Hypothesis of Dance, which states that humans dance to enhance both intra- and inter-brain synchrony. We outline a neurocentric definition of dance, which suggests that dance (...) involves neurobehavioral processes in seven distinct areas including sensory, motor, cognitive, social, emotional, rhythmic, and creative. We explore The Synchronicity Hypothesis of Dance through several avenues. First, we examine evolutionary theories of dance, which suggest that dance drives interpersonal coordination. Second, we examine fundamental movement patterns, which emerge throughout development and are omnipresent across cultures of the world. Third, we examine how each of the seven neurobehaviors increases intra- and inter-brain synchrony. Fourth, we examine the neuroimaging literature on dance to identify the brain regions most involved in and affected by dance. The findings presented here support our hypothesis that we engage in dance for the purpose of intrinsic reward, which as a result of dance-induced increases in neural synchrony, leads to enhanced interpersonal coordination. This hypothesis suggests that dance may be helpful to repattern oscillatory activity, leading to clinical improvements in autism spectrum disorder and other disorders with oscillatory activity impairments. Finally, we offer suggestions for future directions and discuss the idea that our consciousness can be redefined not just as an individual process but as a shared experience that we can positively influence by dancing together. (shrink)

With this article, I seek to demonstrate how the analysis of Jewish magical texts may aid in the identification of hidden aspects of premodern Jewish women’s everyday life and material culture. I do so by focusing on the interplay between magic and childbirth among premodern Italian Jews. I analyze a magical recipe for avoiding a stillbirth preserved in a Hebrew codex of magical interest penned in central Italy at the end of the eighteenth century. Along with providing an edition and (...) English translation of the recipe, I reflect on the trajectories of the circulation and transmission of this childbirth tradition both at an inter- and intra-cultural level. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:530 BOOK REVIEWS I think none of these books contains a wholly satisfactory treatment of the particular issues it takes up. Taken together, however, they do show that evil presents not just one but many problems to reflective religious minds. In addition, they make it perfectly evident that not just one but many academic disciplines continue to have helpful things to say in response to these gripping perplexities. University (...) of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana PHILIP L. QUINN Di,alogue with the Other: The Inter-religious Dialogue. By DAVID TRACY. Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs, 1. Louvain : Peeters; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990. Pp. 123. $12.95. With this book David Tracy continues the hermeneutical project he launched in the Analogical Imagination: a concern to converse with the classics and to encounter the ' other '. However, here the ' other ' is extended beyond the traditional Western classics to the religions of the world and the often neglected archaic traditions. Tracy is surely correct when he says: " I believe that we are fast approaching the day when it will not be possible to attempt Christian systematic theology except in serious conversation with the other great ways" (p. xi). Here he follows a pioneering line drawn in Chicago by Tillich, Eliade and Kitagawa. Tracy brings to this venerable tradition his particular concern with hermeneutics and his experience with Jewish-Christian and Buddhist-Christian dialogue. The essays are further united by Tracy's desire to restore the unity between the mystical and prophetic within the Christian tradition. Employing Kenneth Burke's analysis of rhetoric, Chapter one shows that Freud and Lacan can be interpreted in terms of a clash of prophetic and mystical rhetorics respectively. Both are concerned with the ' other ', Freud more instrumentally and didactically and Lacan more subversively and anarchically but not nihilistically or in the way of Zen. In this chapter Tracy has a tendency towards overdetermination. Still, the brunt of his argument is that all discourse has concealed foundations, the archaeology of which will help illuminate the opera· tive rhetoric. Furthermore, the mystical/prophetic typology used in religion can illuminate secular issues, viz., the debate between Freud and Lacan. However, Tracy does not pay full attention to the nature of the 'other', but too easily assimilates it. For instance, is Freud's attention to the subconscious analogous to religious rhetoric's regarding the otherness of God? And does it really serve Tracy's purpose to start BOOK REVIEWS 531 the book by remammg within such very western waters despite the brave navigational direction he charted in the introduction? Chapter two revisits the classics: he uses the writings of William James to throw light on the criteria for interreligious dialogue. These criteria are used to affirm the authenticity of religions; these are not intended to " replace the dialogue but, at best, heuristically to inform it" (p. 27). Tracy offers a good and sensitive appreciation of James (despite his anachronistic elements), but his conclusions are somewhat thinly related to James's work and relate more closely to Tracy's own hermeneutical approach. The three criteria that he advances are: first, the notion of " immediate luminousness," understood as manifestation in a Heideggerian sense (and in keeping with von Balthasar) ; second, the necessity of coherence, understood as the compatibility of religious belief with science, art, and other humanistic traditions; and third, an ethical-pragmatic criterion related to James's notion of "fruits." With regard to the second, Tracy is aware of the problem of assuming a neutral form of "reason" in adjudicating such coherence. Still, his study would have been more helpful with specific examples to highlight some of the intractable problems in such a task. For instance, autonomy has been granted to the sciences by most western Christians but has not been by some other religious traditions in certain parts of the world, and so the notion of coherence begs the question. Tracy needs to grapple with the issues raised by Macintyre and Winch (among others) to move beyond the potentially sterile dichotomy implied in his notion of coherence. With regard to the third criterion there is question begging, too. Would Abraham have passed this test in his willingness to kill his son? Or... (shrink)

This paper examines the points of disagreement between Petrus Camper and J. W. von Goethe regarding the existence of the inter-maxillary bone in humans as the link between man and the rest of nature. This historical case illustrates the fundamental role of aesthetic judgements in scientific discovery. Thus, I shall show how the eighteenth century discovery of the inter-maxillary bone in humans was largely determined by aesthetic factors—specifically, those sets of assumptions and criteria implied in the aesthetic schemata (...) of Camper and Goethe. I argue that the relevance of scientifically ascertainable morphological properties that count as evidence for the existence of bona fide anatomical structures depend on the aesthetic schema adopted by the communities assessing the classification. At the same time, I propose and explain mechanisms by which aesthetic considerations might determine the acceptability of empirical claims about the world. Based on the reconstruction of the arguments of Camper and Goethe, I conclude that aesthetic considerations play a substantive role in both the generation and preliminary evaluation of scientific hypotheses. This paper suggests a complementary relation between the mediation of aesthetic criteria in theory choice and in scientific discovery in that while aesthetic considerations in theory choice lead to conservatism; in the context of discovery they often lead to innovation. (shrink)

The present study intends to offer another perspective over the inter-religious dialogue emphasising the spiritual state of exomologesis as an essential means of accomplishing a better and real understanding of a participant in dialogue. It makes some short analysis of penitential confession as homologation with the Logos, of the prayer as inner dialogue or confession or exomologesis with the Logos and of the confessions as a literary style, which all engages the deep, spiritual dimensions of communion with the Logos (...) and finally analyses and exemplifies the ecstatic and existential spiritual dimensions of the exomologesis as an absolute form of standing in dialogue. CONTRIBUTION: The study offers the necessary spiritual understanding and impulse for a more efficient inter-confessional and inter-religious dialogue, promoting HTS Journal as a herald of this dialogue essential and indispensable for the life of the world. (shrink)

Brief consideration of (1) Peirce’s ‘logic of vagueness’, (2) his categories, and (3) the concepts of overdetermination and underdetermination, vagueness and generality, and inconsistency and incompleteness, along with (4) the abrogation of classical Aristotelian principles of logic, bear out the complexity of all relatively rich sign systems. Given this complexity, there is semiotic indeterminacy, which suggests sign limitations, and at the same time it promises semiotic freedom, giving rise to sign proliferation the yield of which is pluralistic, inter-relational semiosis. (...) This proliferation of signs owes its perpetual flowing change in time to the inapplicability of classical logical principles, namely Non-Contradiction and Excluded-Middle, with respect to elements of vagueness and generality in all signs. Hempel’s ‘Inductivity Paradox’ and Goodman’s ‘New Riddle of Induction’ bear out the limitation and freedom of sign making and sign taking. A concrete cultural example, the Spaniards’ world including the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Aztecs world including their Goddess, Tonantzín, are given a Hempel-Goodman interpretation to reveal the ambiguous, vague, and complex nature of intercultural sign systems, further suggesting pluralism. In fact, when taking the ‘limitativetheorems’ of Gödel, Turing, and Chaitin into account, pluralism becomes undeniable, in view of the inconsistency-incompleteness of complex systems. A model for embracing and coping with pluralism suggests itself in the form of contextualized novelty seeking relativism. This form of pluralism takes overdetermination, largely characteristic of Peirce’s Firstness, and underdetermination largely characteristic of Peirce’s Thirdness, into its embrace to reveal a global context capable of elucidating local contexts the collection of which is considerably less than that global view. The entirety of this global context is impossible to encompass, given our inevitable finitude and fallibilism. Yet, we usually manage to cope with processual pluralism, within the play of semiosis. (shrink)

This paper presents the metaphysics of the Vietnamese Buddhist Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He interprets the Buddhist principle of interdependent arising in terms of interbeing, the idea that everything depends for its existence on everything else. On his view, everything “inter-is” with everything else, or “to be is to inter-be.” His interpretation is particularly interesting in light of the contemporary debate on fundamentality in western metaphysics. By embracing the idea of interbeing, he opposes the view that there (...) are fundamental entities which do not depend for their existence on anything else. I give an outline of Thich Nhat Hanh’s views, answer an objection, and explain his reasons for adopting his standpoint. My aim is not to offer a full defense of his views, but only to show that the often neglected position of metaphysical coherentism, which Thich Nhat Hanh adopts, deserves further consideration. (shrink)