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Notes
from the Sixth Meeting: Reconsidering the Universalist
Message of the Enlightenment - 4 April 1998
Section
1 | Section
2 | Section
3 | Section 4
VI.
Virtues and Responsibilities of the Public Intellectual
Although the idea of the intellectual in the modern
west emerged in Tsarist Russia in the 19th century,
[the public intellectuals of today, from the East or
the West] tap a broader cultural source for their self-definition.
Entomologically, the term intellectual is derived from
the social stratum of the Russian intelligentsia. In
their conception, an intellectual is an activist, if
not a revolutionary, who is politically concerned, socially
engaged and politically sensitive. Neither philosopher
nor prophet, the public intellectual is, however, a
reflective person with a farsighted vision who is dedicated
to the creative transformation of society from within.
The
East Asian idea of the educated person offers the best
reference for the discussion of public intellectuals
in the public domain of the globalized society. In the
Confucian tradition, concern from politics, engagement
in society and sensitivity in cultural matters as salient
features of being educated. Scholar officials in China,
Samurai in Japan, and the yangban in Korea were supposed
to be responsible not only for their own self-cultivation
but also for the regulation of families, governance
of states, and peace under Heaven. In short, they were
obliged by their power, status and influence to serve
as guardians of the social fabric. They shared a common
faith in the improvability of the human condition and
the efficacy of a communitarian effort to bring about
peace and prosperity. Motivated by a strong moral sense
to transform the world from within, they tried through
exemplary teaching, to inspire an ever expanding network
of people to involve themselves in the educational process
of human flourishing. T.W. [The Humanities and the
Public Intellectual]
Virtues of the public
intellectual
The
role of the intellectual as a critic of society is essential.
There is an absolute necessity to look at what lurks
in the shadowy implications of actions that have an
impact on the welfare of society. To carry out this
function properly, the critic must possess or respect
a number of traditional and perhaps not so traditional
virtues.
The
first is humility. The second is the will to seek truth.
The common skepticism and cynicism that pervade the
modern world are totally incompatible with the function
of the responsible intellectual; not everything is equal
and not everything is interesting. One should be happy
to be wrong when one's prediction of some negative occurrence
proves to be wrong. One should also recognize the great
responsibility one has to the world when one has the
necessary talent to offer some vision and wisdom and
be willing to devote considerable time to thinking and
reflection.
The
third virtue is to be able to recognize and respect
continuity between private virtues and public action.
One of most questionable dichotomies in western culture
is the implicit distinction between the way one accomplishes
his/her daily task and his/her responsibility in public
life. In all contemporary struggles, for example the
fight against corruption, there is no apparent solution
possible unless it is realized that there is a continuum
between private and public actions.
Specific
roles to be filled by public intellectuals
Political processes around the globe need to be reinforced.
Public intellectuals, those who have the background
and opportunity to carefully study issues and have the
will to seek and communicate suggestions for solutions,
can strengthen new governance processes. In academic
circles, they can promote the concept of holism, which
is to see problems, events, and issues in their fuller
contexts. This is different from an earlier Enlightenment
tradition which favored dividing intellectual thinking
into self-contained disciplines.
In
related fashion, the public intellectual should explain
the need for inclusive thinking. Increasingly since
the 18th century, society has operated along the lines
suggested by Adam Smith, according to which each person
or institution seeking his/her own good would contribute
to the greater good of society. This approach led to
the present organization of societies on foundations
of open markets with governments charged with minimal
functions of preserving rights and freedoms and providing
security for the system. This approach yielded considerable
creativity and general well being so long as the markets
remained openly competitive and easily accessible within
caring and mutually supportive communities. But the
global market is not generally inclusive of all peoples
and societies. Society cannot lose sight of the need
to ensure that the interests and perspectives of those
outside the market be considered. Thus while society
needs independent and self-seeking institutions to insure
creativity, it also has need for a good amount of inclusive
thinking. "Holism" expresses the intellectual
aspect of this problem. Inclusiveness implies coordinating
efforts.
Another
task for the public intellectual is to explain the precautionary
principle laid down in Rio De Janeiro. The precautionary
principle is simply this: given ignorance about the
consequences of new technologies and new initiatives,
one better take precautionary actions to prevent serious
unknowable and unforeseeable potential consequences.
This approach is fundamentally different from traditional
economical thinking with its implicit confidence in
the technological progress and its calculations of interest
rates based on the most productive use of scarce capital
and assumed increases of productivity. These rates take
no account of potential negative externalities. The
reasoning of the public intellectual ecologists, for
example, is different. They are not prepared to take
risks that there will always be new technologies to
solve problems of scarcity, damage to the environment,
and so on.
The
precautionary principle puts a systematic check on economic
thinking.
The public intellectual can also play a vital role in
preserving cultural diversity. People need help to protect
their roots and to preserve their own identity. If people
have lost their cultural identity and their unique institutions
they cannot express themselves and they lose their sense
of self esteem and even sense of purpose. Diversity
in culture is the source of creativity and is the power
of its expression. One of the most outstanding features
of American colleges and universities, at least in these
last ten years, has been the debate on inclusion, especially
with respect to culture and what one ought to study
in any curricula involving a study of cultures, and
the debate is this; whether or not western civilization
has an exclusive monopoly on civilization and the study
of cultures or whether, at least in the American context,
study of civilization ought not to be broadened to at
least include one of the other dominant aspects of American
culture; contributions made by the slaves and the former
slaves, the continent of Africa, the so called Afro-centric
idea.
Through
the devices formulated and refined during the western
Enlightenment, and earlier in different regions of Asia
[before the 13th century], the leadership of the public
intellectuals can be brought to bear creatively to get
institutions like the financial markets of the world
to begin a discourse with the public and its social
institutions so that there is a junction in society
between its wealth and its culture, so as to create
an enlightened and humane global society.
VII.
Valuing a Diversity of Cultures
The cultural nuances of the world are comparable to
a magnificent tapestry, with all the colors that give
strength and pleasure, not only at home but also in
the whole world. What is culture worth? V.F.
It is a well-known fact that the world is losing languages
every day. Losing languages also means losing culture.
In Iceland, for example, there are 280,000 people, a
very small nation but it so happens that the people
of this country speak a language that has not changed
for eleven hundred years. Icelandic is the Latin of
the north. It also happens to be a very poetic language,
very rich in vivid concepts. It is in the vernacular
of this language that the sagas are written. The sagas
are the great literary heritage of the Nordic countries.
This great poetry in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
century has been preserved in manuscripts.
Although
the Icelandic people who have inherited these manuscripts
are few, they have nevertheless derived a great deal
of strength from them over the centuries. They have
given these people a voice in the world. Inspired by
their traditions and their sagas they have become somebody
in this huge world. Of course, Icelanders as peoples
of many other smaller nations have a sense of inferiority
vis a vis the peoples of larger and more powerful nations.
Stirred by their sagas however they soon forget their
relative smallness and consider themselves the world
itself. The fact, is, one never asks how many heads
are behind something that is true, because for something
found to be true and something found to be of value,
it is never asked whether it is the view of thousands
or of millions of people. V.F.
In
today's world where the prime mover of civilization
has become the economy, values have changed in such
a way that the smaller entities are pressured to think
that strength lies in the economy, in military might
and pecuniary fortunes. Identity, however, creates the
culture. The benefit of diversity is that every artist
has the opportunity to create his or her culture in
his or her language. Strength actually lies in knowing
oneself, and lies in having roots, knowing where one
wants to go, and having a voice. Identity is linked
to that voice; identity comes from within. If identity
is imposed from the outside, then identity is lost.
Culture
cannot be measured in monetary terms. The Iceland experience
is also instructive here. One economist in Iceland,
last year, analyzed how much money would be saved in
Iceland if the Icelandic language would be dropped and
English adopted as the national language. English is
commonplace in Iceland as it is too expensive to dub
the vast amount of English television and electronic
transmissions into Icelandic. There has been a great
deal of concern because children watching television
are bilingual but cannot read well. The economist discovered
that there would initially be a large investment to
train the first generation but there would be immediate
savings from not having to teach Icelandic. The economic
returns in this investment would appear at once. However,
the economist underscored that this was purely theoretical.
He did not advocate abandoning the Icelandic language
in the interest of saving monetary resources because
he esteemed culture to be worth something more than
money.
The
cultural heritage of Iceland reflected in the sagas,
poems and literature by artists in the expression of
their mother tongue is both valuable and rewarding.
This is a truth for every nation cherishing its integrity.
A Nobel Prize winner, a 20th century saga writer, gave
expression and honor to this idea. He noted that when
a nation stops cherishing its uniqueness and independence,
and is swept into superpower nationhood, the world is
impoverished. Referring to Iceland he said, "when
the last old woman who can recite in Icelandic verse
is dead, then the world has become poorer and the superpower
that swallowed us would not be left any richer for it."
V.F.
Measures
to protect diversity
The problem with developing institutions and channels
to promote diversity can be examined in the first instance
in the American context. Here, the institutions responsible,
on the one hand, for economic and communal development,
and the other for the promotion of culture including
arts, language, music, and the use of leisure time,
hardly communicate with each other. This problem may
be illustrated by using two different, but extremely
influential institutions in the U.S., Wall Street and
the Black church.
Wall
Street is that collection of capital markets that funds
and finances technological progress, land development
and the industrial superstructure. The Black church
is a single creation embracing the National Baptist
Convention USA and the African Methodist Episcopal church.
Its most prominent characteristics are its focus on
spirituality, its real grasp of a sense of redemptive
suffering and its continuing regard for the non-material
in life.
Important
contributions each of these institutions have made towards
inclusion in society are reflected in the US government's
reaction to the bombing of the World Trade Center and
to the bombings of the black churches. In both instances,
effective legislation or actions were taken forthwith
and resources provided to repair the damage.
Yet,
the only time that these institutions communicate with
each other, if at all, is through culturally diverse
individuals who participate in both institutions. But,
even then, the communication is during very exclusive
times: work week on Wall Street or Sunday morning in
the Black church. If there could be found, at least
in the American context, a vehicle through which Wall
Street and the Black church could dialogue, society
would have come a long way toward achieving the beginning
of the kinds of discussions that would change the complexion
of a complicated society.
On
a more positive note nurturing the civil society in
Europe is considered the way to protect diversity in
Europe. In the future of Europe, the civic society will
play a strong role in which the cultural diversity of
regions, languages and cultures are to be protected.
Yet, the Europeans will feel that they belong to a unique
common civilization vis a vis the rest of the world.
Beyond a monetary-fiscal union, it is not intended to
transfer more power to Brussels from the nation-states.
The civil society will take more time to develop in
a Europe, economically and materially linked, but wherein
each nation-state lives according to its own identity
in an open relationship. To this end the organizations
of the civil society need nurturing and support. Life
on the whole, through the advances of service and technology,
and the open market-place, has vastly improved material
living standards over the past sixty years for most
all societies and there is reason for optimism.
Yet,
one can question whether a common culture on one level
is a viable possibility for the future in Europe. For
many centuries in this millennium, Europe was organized
under a single religious order which deteriorated into
warring units and was gradually succeeded by a political
order of units called nation-states, and then there
were wars. Now it is economics, technology, business
organizations and their countervailing groups and organizations
of civil societies that are emerging as the binding
body politique not only in Europe but also in the rest
of the world.
It
is difficult to predict what this new order will bring.
But something is going awry with this order as witnessed
by financial market failures in Asia, Latin America,
and Russia. Moreover, there is a looming environmental
crisis which is exacerbated by the more than doubling
of the world population, the concomitant threat to food
and water resources and the natural environment, as
these billions aspire to the level of living attained
by the most affluent that gives cause of great concern.
Future rivalries will be based on economic and environmental
survival. The question is; what organizations will deal
most effectively with these issues: nation-states, profit
oriented business organizations, civil society, international
organizations? Perhaps religions should be considered
again. They have proved to be remarkably resilient over
the past 2000 years.
Social
consensus and development
"A major problem in considering channels and institutions
for effective governance is the building of a social
consensus from the grassroots up." J.D.
Development
has not worked in many parts of the world because masses
of people have been governed by elites according to
the mandates of culturally foreign systems. These governments
could not relate to the general populations and their
grassroots needs, and cannot make the best use of the
wealth of their human resources. It is vital to consider
the basic socio-cultural foundations of societies when
constructing development projects for economic or social
progress on local, national, and international scales.
In South East Asia, Malaysia or Indonesia, for example,
the questions to be posed are whether it is the people
or their elite institutions which are working for economic
development: whether the development targets are located
in macro-level institutions serving the elite according
to their moral and ethical norms or whether they are
at the micro-level according to peoples time honored
customs and aspirations. A closer look would probably
show that the strongest base to build on is at the micro-level.
The thrift, skills, and habits of working together are
so positive that by relying and nurturing them those
economies will grow.
VIII.
Marking Paths to the Future
As described above, there are enormous hurdles to be
overcome, sensitivities to be protected, and the human
spirit to be ennobled, before the global village can
even aspire to becoming an "enlightened universal
community." While a totally different philosophy
is not advocated, there are many ideas for further thinking
and action.
The
need for a unifying myth
There is need for a new unifying myth to understand
human commonality that is scientifically based but also
has the inspirational quality to suggest that if humanity
is in a 4.5 billion year old process on the planet,
in a larger universe of meaning, then there is need
for an evolutionary ethic consistent with that extraordinary
process. Work is underway on this project. This initiative
is promoted by a movement focused on the epic of the
evolution of society which has just recently been formed
and is building on ideas drawn from the works of E.O.
Wilson, Thomas Barry, Niles Eldridge, and others in
the scientific and the humanities communities. At the
Field Museum in Chicago in November 1997, leading scientists
and humanists came together to present these ideas and
to suggest ways in which this type of dialogue can take
place.
A
better understanding of history
The Bosnian conflict has to do with historical memory.
For a while it was under control but now historical
memory has worked towards sustaining conflict. Whether
memory stops at six hundred years, one thousand years,
or beyond, perceptions are sustained by myths of that
period. If one goes back six thousand years, they will
find a different myth. In the Balkans, there were no
Muslims, no Christians, but there were all sorts of
people speaking related languages; they came from different
tribes of Indo-Europeans. By going back to earlier times
justification for grudges that support divisions in
peoples= consciences may be lost. Introducing the concepts
of history older than the currently known history is
extremely important. While European languages have spread
all over, they are all the same at an earlier point
in history. Changing the myths and memories will take
a couple of generations, but myths can be unlearned.
If they were learned they can be unlearned. O.Y.
History is an important aspect of every child's education.
In the United States, children learn early on in their
careers about the colonists and their struggle for independence
from the monarchy. Just as the children of the United
States learn of their forefathers, the children of other
nations learn of theirs. In the Balkans, the children
learn about the Bogamills, the Turks, and the Ottoman
Empire.
History
affects the way people act because of the popular beliefs
it causes. Every child within the Balkans learns of
a war that occurred in the Balkans over seven hundred
years ago when the Turks invaded and a portion of the
population became Islamic, and are seen as traitors.
One of the problems within the Balkans is that when
history started to be written in the 18th century, it
was written with a nationalistic view point and this
distorted the good aspects of the Ottoman Empire because
they were overlooked, meaning the ideals were overlooked.
The
notion of common humanity is to be attained through
a better understanding of history which will demonstrate
the unfounded oasis of contemporary conflicts. History
should be taught in a way that avoids emphasizing mistakes
and prejudices.
Sense
of purpose in life
When there was no separation between reason and conscience,
somebody like Erasmus could say that the purpose of
life was to serve God. Today the questions: What is
the objective of life? And, what are we here for?,--
are certainly important in trying to enrich human lives
and cultures.
Related to that is also a conviction that humankind
should not be simply manipulated, pushed, or guided
by technology but should try to orient its future, rather
than submit to the inevitable, that is, to refuse the
determinism that appears to mold and control modern
culture.
A
reconstruction movement
Such a movement is necessary to overcome the loss of
the vertical dimension of humanism occurring as the
Enlightenment trajectory took off, decoupling religion,
spirituality, and the sacred from science, technology,
progress, and materialism. Reconstruction means to go
back and reexamine the Enlightenment, bring back the
lost pieces, and fill in where there were no pieces.
At the same time, it means to reexamine the history
of religion, seeking the positive impact of study and
commitment to the sacred and the spirit on human communities.
Balance
between integration and identity
While the globalizing tendencies of the human community
and the whole notion of the emergence of a global community
is widely accepted in many parts of the world, the social
and political reality of this phenomenon is not simply
integration, interconnection, intercommunication, and
interchange, but also the emergence of sharp differences
and the play of outright discrimination. The globalization
process somehow intersects with the continuous presence
and even the more intense association with the primordial
past; ethnicity, language, gender, land, age, class,
and religious orientation. In this complex interplay
between globalization and localization — integrating
and communicating on the one hand and the search for
identity and rootedness on the other — the world
has to be able to think in both perspectives and to
seek out the possibilities for fuller integration, rather
than to tolerate the tension-driven conflicts between
these two processes. For these reasons, researchers
are exploring long term reflections rooted in all forms
of human spirituality and ethical considerations as
an integral part of the discourse on development, science
and technology, capitalism, and human rights.
Code
of conduct for sustainability
The three current trends of capitalism, scientific and
technological progress, and the human rights discourse
are very much focused on the present and, for the future,
on the gratification of what modern human beings ought
to have. There is not enough consideration for the questions
of distributive justice, of sympathy and empathy, and
of the notion of ritual — especially rituals that
have helped societies to sustain and develop over the
ages. Nor is there much attention to the question of
responsibility and the group spirit.
Is
technology going to shape the future without guidance
or is society going to use a value system of some sort
to shape technology itself? How can humankind enlighten
itself as it approaches the twenty-first century? Can
science, economics, development, and right reason co-exist?
Where will human codes of conduct come from for the
twenty-first century and how can they be evaluated?
Perhaps an evolutionary type of reasoning is the place
to start to lay out a code of conduct for the future.
Codes
reflect values. The values for the 21st century should
be aimed at maintaining ecological security and a certain
ecological equilibrium between humankind and everything
else on the earth.
Future equilibrium must be based on four kinds of harmonies
that reflect traditional values essential to the survival
of the human race throughout the next couple hundred
years. These four harmonies constitute a source of values
for the future. The first harmony is between homo sapiens
and nature; that is the maintenance of equilibrium between
people and their material demands from nature. Second,
there is the harmony between human beings and micro
organisms of which there are millions; some are useful
and others are pathogenic. The third is the harmony
between homo sapiens and other species; the so-called
vanishing species dimension. Finally, there is the harmony
between different human populations as they are brought
together by globalization.
Another
source of values comes from the belief that there is
an evolutionary faculty in human consciousness. Even
more primitive human beings, historically, adopted value
systems because of evolutionary factors and their experience
with the physical environment. The acknowledgment of
human rights as aspirations for people permits people
to choose collectively how to organize themselves in
the face of existing limitations with the help of science
and technology. The species-- homo sapiens, has the
confidence and is in a position to define rights and
responsibilities. Since people are conscious of themselves,
understand the world in which they live, and now understand
that they can have aspirations and enjoy an abundance
that is unprecedented in human history, their higher
aspirations should become a strong source of values
as humanity moves into the twenty-first century.
Twelve
years ago when I became Prime Minister of the Netherlands,
we had a substantial problem in terms of the economy,
including rising unemployment, a large budget deficit,
and similar typical European welfare state problems.
We tried to improve that. If you come around now in
the Netherlands you don't see this problem at all. There
is low inflation and a very small budget deficit and
there is no unemployment. But there is something strange
going on: the average number of hours that the people
work in the Netherlands at paid jobs is substantially
lower than in other matured economies, especially in
the United States.
I
will not say we are poor because our efficiency per
hour is higher than in the United States. So we are
a modern country in that sense, but we have developed
a model in which people are not really going to the
utmost to maximize their personal income. We have many
families with one and a half jobs, so they are not maximizing
their income potential. It means that there is a lot
more time for non paid work and, also, for cultural
activities. My point is that the "Dutch model"
suggests that it is possible to convince each other
that you have more quality to life if you do not maximize
your Gross National product.
This
is not accepted wisdom. People find it strange but,
nevertheless, there is the beginning of change in the
dominant mentality in one country. Perhaps this is possible
for other countries. R.L.
The
universality of human rights
The
extension of human rights throughout the world is desirable
but not simple. Debate continues on the universality
of human rights. In a world where cultures are at differing
levels of consciousness, how is it possible to impose
a homogenized view on other peoples? In some religions,
for example, it was not only accepted, but also seen
as honorable, to sacrifice an adolescent member of one's
family. Western civilization views this practice as
barbaric and wrong. However, to that group of religious
people, it was part of a long standing tradition. Should
not have this been seen as their right to their own
religious practices? Who outside of each particular
culture has a right to decide on the absolute value
of one right or another? One answer is that cultural
relativeness has limits beyond which it cannot be tolerated
for humanity=s sake. Humankind has come together to
say that certain principles, rights and values are fundamental
for all human beings, e.g. that all people have the
right not to be tortured. These have been declared by
international consensus, specifically in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and the subsequent treaties,
signed and ratified by a large plurality of states.
I
always find it interesting that on this question of
rights and duties, when we speak of individuals we always
start with the word rights and when we talk of institutions
we always start with the word duties. Perhaps what we
need to do is when we speak of individuals, start with
the concept of duties and let rights emerge from the
sense of duty that we have as members of the human race.
I don't know if that leads to a global awareness, but
it seems to me we tend to start with rights and then
duties take a second seat; when, however, it concerns
what someone owes us, our view shifts a bit. J.F.
Rights
should not be claimed without acknowledging some sense
of duty as well. All too often the parallelism between
right and duty is forgotten. It can help lead humankind
to a much needed, broader consensus on what is truly
a universal right. Perhaps what is required in such
consensus building is a minimum amount of accepted responsibilities
that are voluntarily assumed but are, at the same time,
delicate enough so as not to jeopardize established
rights. Without a consensus on morality, this process
is reduced to a slow-going venture. In the end, all
people are free, in certain fundamental ways, no matter
what their culture may dictate.
Notes
prepared by Barbara Baudot, Secretary and Coordinator
of the Triglav Circle.
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role of the intellectual as a critic of society
is essential. There is an absolute necessity to
look at what lurks in the shadowy implications of
actions that have an impact on the welfare of society." |
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