The Dialogue of Cultural Traditions:
a global perspective
William Sweet
President, Canadian Philosophical Association
Professor of Philosophy
Director, Centre for Philosophy, Theology and Cultural
Traditions
St Francis Xavier University, Canada
Lecture 1
1.
General Introduction and Methodology
2.
What does it mean to have a dialogue of
cultural traditions?
3.
What is a ‘global perspective’?
4.
Definitions/descriptions of concepts
Introduction and Methodology
I. The theme/purpose of the course:
 what are the prospects for encounter and dialogue
on matters central to life together
 - i.e., on:
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a) ways of living (ethics, values, and politics)
b) ways of meaning (metaphysics, ideologies?, religion)
c) ways of knowing (reasoning, experience, insight, intuition)
Introduction and Methodology
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all are central aspects of culture
practical issues; they concern doing, acting, etc.
also theoretical issues
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theories underlie, orient, and correct our practice
these practices and theories have been challenged and
criticized
Introduction and Methodology
more specific aim:
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focus on ways of living
some recent issues in ethics and political
philosophy, in light of a number of recent criticisms
discussion is difficult because of disagreement
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incapable of proof
diversity of approaches
diversity of cultural, religious, historical, and philosophical traditions
Introduction and Methodology
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3 questions:
what are some of the major positions on issues of
ethics and political philosophy today?
what are some of the challenges raised against
these positions?
is there any way of responding to these challenges?
Introduction and Methodology
there is an answer
 involves dialogue
 also involves understanding the nature, place, and
function of culture and tradition
 ethics and political philosophy
 other areas as well, such as
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the nature of the person,
also epistemology, etc.
Introduction and Methodology
therefore, my conclusion
a dialogue about matters of ethics, values, and politics
requires retaining a place for culture and traditions
Introduction and Methodology
Method:
 - primarily this course is an attempt to answer some
questions
 - combine analytical, phenomenological, and
hermeneutical approaches
 - lecturing method open
What does it mean to have a dialogue
of cultural traditions?
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T. S. Eliot, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture,
London: Faber and Faber, 1948.
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Leslie Armour, “Culture and Philosophy” in
Philosophy, Culture, and Pluralism, ed. William
Sweet, Aylmer, QC: Editions du scribe, 2002.
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Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy,
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/nonfiction_u/arnol
dm_ca/ca_all.html
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Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture (Blackwell,
2000)
What does it mean to have a dialogue
of cultural traditions?
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“Culture and Pluralism in Philosophy,” in Philosophy, Culture,
and Pluralism, ed. William Sweet, Aylmer, QC: Editions du
scribe, 2002.
“Philosophy, Culture, and the Future of Tradition” in Dialogue
between Christian Philosophy and Chinese Culture, (ed.
Paschal Ting and George F. McLean), Washington, DC:
Council for Research and Values in Philosophy, 2002
"Globalization, Philosophy and the Model of Ecumenism," in
Philosophical Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization,
(ed. Oliva Blanchette, Tomonobu Imamichi, George F.
McLean), Washington, DC: Council for Research and Values
in Philosophy, 2001.
What does it mean to have a dialogue
of cultural traditions?
not clear; simply raise some questions (in no
particular order)
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What are ‘cultural traditions’, culture, and traditions?
What is such a dialogue?
What assumptions / presuppositions are being
made, about
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- the role and value of dialogue, culture, and tradition
- why we talk about this theme at all
What is a global perspective?
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Not a single perspective “above” all “local”
perspectives
Not (just) a summary of how dialogue occurs
around the world, using different perspectives
Not (just) an approach in “the age of globalization”
Rather, how dialogue can be carried out at a global
level
Some definitions/ descriptions
What is culture?
1. Background – conceptually
 what is the dialogue across cultures about, if it isn’t
culture?
 Is it just ‘what is there’?
Some definitions/ descriptions
What is culture?
1. Background – conceptually
 what is the dialogue across cultures about, if it isn’t
culture?
 Is it just ‘what is there’?
 No
 – if it is,
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Why is this important?
Why should anyone care?
‘everything’ does not tell us much
This does not mean ‘high culture’, but the ‘high
water mark of culture’
What is culture?
Background – the philosophical study of culture
 diversity and richness of world cultures are better
known
 in the English-speaking world, few have written it
 compare with earlier centuries / other parts of the
world
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Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), On the Aesthetic Education of
Man: in a series of letters
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), Reflections on the
Philosophy of the History of Mankind
Georg Simmel (1858-1918), Philosophische Kultur:
gesammelte Essais
What is culture?
Background – the philosophical study of culture
Since 1950 in sociology, history, and literary theory
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Ernest Gellner, Culture, Identity, and Politics (1987), Nations and
Nationalism (1983);
Fredric Jameson, The Cultural Turn: selected writings on the
postmodern (1998); Theory of Culture: lectures at Rikkyo (1994);
Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (1994);
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: selected essays
(1973);
Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture (2000).
What is culture?
Background – the philosophical study of culture
 some signs of change in contemporary AngloAmerican philosophy
 particularly studies of pluralism and multiculturalism.
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Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father’s House: Africa in the
Philosophy of Culture (1992)
Morton White, A Philosophy of Culture: the case for holistic
pragmatism (2002).
Definitions of culture
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some 164 different senses of the term
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Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions
(1952), Alfred L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn.
“Culture . . . is that complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.” :
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Edward Burnett Tylor, Primitive culture: researches into the
development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and
custom (1871).
Definitions of culture
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Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
 Poet, educator, literary critic, government official
 Culture and Anarchy, 1869
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culture: "contact with the best which has been
thought and said in the world"
Culture has “its origin in the love of perfection; it
is a study of perfection” Chapter 1, 3
Definitions of culture
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“the notion of perfection as culture brings us to
conceive it: a harmonious perfection, a perfection
in which the characters of beauty and intelligence
are both present, which unites 'the two noblest of
things,' [… which Arnold calls, following Jonathan
Swift] ‘sweetness and light.’
Thus, “culture has one great passion, the
passion for sweetness and light” (Ch. 1, 31)
Definitions of culture
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T.S. Eliot, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture
(1948)
‘culture’ is “what the anthropologists mean: the way
of life of a particular people living together in one
place”,
but “culture cannot altogether be brought to
consciousness; and the culture of which we are
wholly conscious is never the whole of culture”
Therefore, an elite is necessary to “bring about a
further development of the culture in organic
complexity”
Definitions of culture
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Max Weber (1864-1920)
“the concept of culture is a value-concept. Empirical
reality becomes "culture" to us because and insofar
as we relate it to value ideas.”
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“’Objectivity’ in Social Science and Social Policy”. [1904] in
The Methodology of the Social Sciences, 1949. Pp. 49-112
example of money – why do pieces of paper have
value?
Definitions of culture
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Alfred Schutz (1899-1959)
culture is that which is "taken for granted by a given
social group at a certain period of its historical
existence"
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"TS Eliot's Theory of Culture"
Definitions of culture
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Samuel P. Huntington (1927-)
“[c]ivilization and culture both refer to the overall
way of life of a people, and a civilization is a culture
writ large. They both involve the ‘values, norms,
institutions, and modes of thinking to which
successive generations in a given society have
attached primary importance.’
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The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
(London: Simon & Schuster, 1996), p. 41.
Definitions of culture
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Gong Qun:
“Culture is the living space and living field of human
beings”
Contains objective (material) elements in it, such as
churches, temples and so on.”
But also “institutions, rules, moralities, conventions
or customs”.
What is fundamental is value
Definitions of culture
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Gong Qun (continued)
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“In H. Rickert’s eyes, value is the root of life;
“without value, we are not alive. In other words,
without value, we would no longer have desire and
action because value gives us direction for our will
and action.”
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H. Rickert, System der Philosophie I (Tubingen, 1921), p.
120.
Definitions of culture
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Our definition
‘culture’ - ‘a collection of representations or ideas
shared by and pervasive through a group of
individuals’
- a set of ‘dominant ideas.’
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Bernard Bosanquet, “The Reality of the General Will,”
International Journal of Ethics, IV (1893–1894), p. 311
Presuppositions of culture
1. Is a culture something that we can isolate and
observe at a precise point in time?
 Or is ‘culture’ a ‘dynamic’ notion, that is
characterised by a telos or purpose?
Some questions
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2. Can we speak of cultures or traditions if
everything is changing?
3. Can a culture have unity?
3a. What about multiculturalism, the plurality of
cultures, sub-cultures?
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what is meant by ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’?
John Searle on multiculturalism
Richard Rorty
Some questions
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4. Is ‘culture’ a ‘dynamic’ notion, characterised by a
telos?
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Jean Ladrière: culture as a dynamic, processional unity – a
convergence of different perspectives – towards an eschaton
5. Does it make sense to talk of ‘culture’ in a more
general way – of ‘culture’ as such – in the
contemporary world?
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Is there a grand narrative?
Can there be any principles at all?
is the alternative relativism?
is there any possibility of cross-cultural norms?
Some questions
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6. Is culture just a ‘social construction’?
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7. Is individual (personal) identity possible without
culture?
The place and value of culture
What does culture provide?
 - culture gives us a language and values.
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i) a general conception of the good,
ii) a notion of public reason (usually exhibited in liberal
societies in the notion of the rule of law)
iii) a context for political and ethical choice
- culture influences the material environment in
which such questions are raised
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economic production permits the creation of goods and the
opportunities for leisure
The place and value of culture
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culture gives us a notion of meaningful order.
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cultures give us a discourse; set limits to what we
can express, how we can express it, etc.
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cultural belonging is a basic value
The place and value of culture
Will Kymlicka and John Rawls: cultures have value
but not fundamentally morally valuable
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(cultures are of value simply as part of an individual’s plan of
life, and all are equally valuable) (the ‘externalist’ view)
others say:
 a culture is “a mode of mutual recognition and is a
context in which individuals pursue their own longterm projects”
 a culture can impose obligations on its members
 some cultures may be superior to others
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(e.g., based on the extent to which it allows individuals to be
social agents, to show solidarity, to show loyalty towards the
community, and so on)
The place and value of culture
Culture also provides for the possibility of philosophy
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provides – or imposes – a discourse
culture sets up the problems that philosophers
pursue.
influences the material environment and the
opportunities for leisure (in which philosophy is done)
tells us what counts as philosophy (as distinct from
history and religion)
no reason to believe that the same culture will give
birth to similar philosophies. (e.g., Heideggerian
phenomenology, the Christian existentialism of Karl
Jaspers, and Moritz Schlick’s logical empiricism)
The place and value of culture
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influences in what ‘language’ philosophical
questions are expressed and answered
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Examples:
political philosophy in the United States
cultures in another philosophical contexts (e.g., western
culture in relation to Indian philosophy, or in relation to
African thought).
cultures may lead philosophers to ignore other cultures.
philosophy is not the prisoner of culture
What are traditions?
definition:
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- ambiguous; various kinds
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- political (e.g., liberal), ethical, religious
What are traditions?
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Alasdair MacIntyre (1929- ), After Virtue (1981;
1984), ch 3
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A living tradition ... is an historically extended, socially
embodied argument, and an argument precisely in part about
the goods which constitute that tradition. Within a tradition
the pursuit of goods extends through generations, sometimes
through many generations.
... the history of a practice in our time is generally and
characteristically embedded in and made intelligible in terms
of the larger and longer history of the tradition through which
the practice in its present form was conveyed to us; the
history of each of our own lives is generally and
characteristically embedded in and made intelligible in terms
of the larger and longer histories of a number of traditions
(AV, 222).
What are traditions?
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“an inherited, established, or customary pattern of
thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice
or a social custom)” that has a “continuity in social
attitudes, customs, and institutions.” I.e., practices
(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
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TRADITION is something present in, but also
‘greater than,’ individuals that, arguably, both
transcends and has a claim on them.
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tradition is normative.
Role of tradition
1. tradition determines our moral practices
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at the root of our morals;
our morals and moral norms were originally determined by
‘tradition’ (e.g., religious or cultural tradition).
For example:
 Christianity - Jesus of Nazareth / Matthew (5:1718). Jesus says:
 (17) “Think not that I have come to abolish the law
or the prophets; I have come not to abolish them
but to fulfil them. (18) For truly, I say to you, till
heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot,
will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
Role of tradition
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For example:
 Karl Marx
 “turned Hegel on his head”
 taken Hegel’s dialectical idealism, and turned it into a
dialectical materialism
 in place of the Hegelian notion of Mind or Spirit, Marx
substituted ‘the material world’--specifically, the
economic relations of human beings.
Role of tradition
2. necessary for knowledge to be possible.
 to understand, we need to relate it with our past
experience
 --vocabularies, stories, patterns of thought or ways
of thinking, self-understanding, understanding of
others
 legal, philosophical, and religious practices, are
either traditions or are embedded in traditions.
Role of tradition
3. Linguistic, cultural, religious, and other traditions,
are valuable
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put the present in a context
4. gives the unity to (a) human life.
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an individual is not just “a part of different narratives
and engages in different practices,” but “is also a part
of traditions.”
Provides a “definition of the good life for man”
5. tradition is inescapable.
Tradition and other issues
6. Is tradition dynamic?
7. A clear relation of tradition to culture
 Cultures and communities--be they political,
cultural, or religious--are defined by their normative
character, that is, by their values
Tradition and other issues
Problems
 - the restriction of individuality and the exercise of
autonomy or freedom.
 - traditional morals and morality are backward
looking and conventional
 - tradition (e.g., religious or cultural tradition) is
conservative, unimaginative, monolithic, inward
looking, overly reluctant to and intolerant of change,
ethnocentric or parochial, unworkable, and
sometimes simply wrong.
What is dialogue?
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Greek διά (diá,through) + λόγος
(logos,word,speech)
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A reciprocal exchange or conversation between 2 or
more persons
What is dialogue?
philosophy as dialogue
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- Plato & Socratic dialectic
- Rigveda dialogue hymns and the Indian epic
Mahabharata,
- Augustine and Boethius
- middle ages and the practice of disputatio
- Arabic philosophers
- Malbranche
- Berkeley
- Hume
- Buber
- Mikhail Bakhtin
What is dialogue?
various models of dialogue
 there is communication
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1. foundationalist/essentialist (Plato, Aquinas)
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2. wide reflective equilibrium (Rawls, Daniels)
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3. ecumenism; interreligious dialogue
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4. ‘fusion of horizons’ (Gadamer, Habermas,
Taylor)
What is dialogue?
presuppositions of dialogue
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interests, values, and ideas are shared
mutual recognition
dominant ideas (also make culture and tradition
possible)
What is dialogue?
the aim, purpose, and value of dialogue
 Truth
– aysymptotic
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- expressing the infinite
 Action and cooperation with others
 Understanding oneself
What is dialogue?
the place and value of dialogue
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in general
today