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Wisdom: Its Relevance to the Contemporary Crisis of Meaning Copyright © 2019 by the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Philosophy as Love of Wisdom: Its Relevance to the Contemporary Crisis of Meaning Copyright © 2019 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Names: Laude, Patrick, 1958 – editor. Title: Philosophy as Love of Wisdom: Its Relevance to the Contemporary Crisis of Meaning / edited by Patrick Laude & Peter Jonkers. Description: first [edition]. | Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2019. | Series: Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I, Culture and values; Volume 48 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019002150 | ISBN 9781565183391 (pbk.: alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy. | Meaning (Philosophy) | Love. | Political science – Philosophy. | Social sciences – Philosophy. Classification: LCC B21 .P5553 2019 | DDC 100 – dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002150 Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I. Culture and Values, Volume 48 Philosophy as Love of Wisdom: Its Relevance to the Contemporary Crisis of Meaning Edited by Patrick Laude & Peter Jonkers The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................ 11 Reflections on Re-learning to be Human in a Global Age Patrick Laude ............................................................................................ 13 PART I: Philosophy and Wisdom in Different Traditions ................. 25 1. Philosophy as a Way of Life Hu Yeping ........................................................................................... 27 2. Philosophy and (Christian) Wisdom Peter Jonkers ....................................................................................... 41 3. The Soteriological Meaning of Buddhist Wisdom with Regard to the Opposing Views on Agotrasattva: Based on Woncheuk’s View Gyu-Eon Jang ..................................................................................... 61 4. Wisdom and Compassion as Enduring Values in Shin Buddhism John Paraskevopoulos ........................................................................ 71 PART II: Comparative Studies on the Philosophy of Love ............... 81 5. Can Love Be a Principle of Tolerance? Confronting Locke, Augustine and Ghazcln Adrien Leites ....................................................................................... 83 6. The Ideal of Humanity: A Comparison of Confucius’ Jen and Gandhi’s AhiJs` Pochi Huang ....................................................................................... 103 7. From Al-Andalus to the Italian Renaissance: The Role of Ibn- Gabirol and Moses Maimonides in the Configuration of Leone Ebreo’s Philosophy of Love João J. Vila-Chã .................................................................................. 115 8. Love Comes First Edward Moad ..................................................................................... 137 9. Philosophy as Love of Being and Its Role in the Recovery of Meaning Today Joseph I. Fernando ............................................................................. 145 PART III: Socio-Political Challenges .................................................... 159 10. Morality, Moral Values in Traditional Yoruba Culture and their Imperative for the Global Quest for Meaning Olatunji Oyeshile ................................................................................ 161 11. Cultivating New Movements and Circles of Meaning Generation: Upholding our World, Regenerating Our Earth and the Calling of a Planetary Lokasangraha Ananta Kumar Giri ............................................................................ 181 12. Al-Farabi in the Nigerian Polity: Propositions for Virtue Politics and the Moderation of Identity Politics Benjamin Timi Olujohungbe .............................................................. 207 13. Do Humans Need to Make Clear and Proclaim What They Believe or Disbelieve? Martin Lu ........................................................................................... 225 List of Contributors ............................................................................... 241 Index ........................................................................................................ 249 Introduction Reflections on Re-Learning to be Human in a Global Age PATRICK LAUDE h y should one postulate a need to re-learn to be human? Is not “humanness” a given, which all human beings can claim? And W if not, how can we define what makes us authentically human? When we refer to a need to re-learn to be human, our presumption is that the essence of what is genuinely human has been lost. Thus, the lingering questions are: what is this genuine essence or nature, why has it been lost, and how can it be recovered? It may be that answers to the last two questions are to be found in the specific historical context of our predicament, stated above, i.e. the reference to our “global age.” The expression “global age” has become something of a stereotype. It conjures up a sense of growing unity and interconnection of the planet, if not a uniformization of world cultures, as well as the observation of a correlative collapse or waning of all that used to distinguish different “humankinds,” as it were. The “global ideal” does not necessarily entail an erasure of all cultural distinctions, but it certainly emphasizes unifying and homogenizing factors and means of communication and production over civilizational and cultural diversity. As a response, it has also led to the re-affirmation of cultural identities, including as political movements. So the “global world” is in fact one of tensions and oppositions between concepts of “human universality” and “ethno-cultural” identities. With respect to the “uniformizing” aspect of globalization, communication is indeed the keyword here, without it being always sufficiently clear what the contents of this communication might be. Globalization is in that sense more a form and a process than a clearly identifiable set of philosophical, ideological or ethical principles. Hence the question: what are the challenges and opportunities provided by this globalizing process, and how do those relate to the purpose of re-learning to be human? Such are the simple, yet difficult questions raised by the current volume. 14 PATRICK LAUDE The thirteen contributions included in this edited volume are address- ing these questions within different cultural areas and from a variety of points of view. The global outlook and implications of the issues at stake made it imperative to gather essays that involve meditations on the world treasure of philosophical reflections and wisdom traditions. Hence the rich array of civilizational areas that are brought to bear in the reflections that follow. This means that the concepts and practices of wisdom have been considered here beyond the confines of any parochialism. Thus the first part of the book – entitled “Philosophy and Wisdom in Different Tradi- tions” – provides the reader with a sense of this diversity by addressing some of the most central aspects of wisdom within different traditions the world over. Comparative approaches have been particularly highlighted in this respect inasmuch as they open the way to fruitful exchanges and a genuine search for common grounds. The second part – “Comparative Studies on the Philosophy of Love” – places love at the forefront of the quest for wisdom. In keeping with the Greek etymology of the term philosophy, love must be understood as a spiritual energy that animates, in various ways, the search for meaning. The classical Greek distinction between eros, agapg, philia and storgg already suggests, though, that love presents us with a manifold, and some- times contradictory, spectrum of meanings and modalities. The second part of this volume offers us comparative insights into this epistemo- logical and ethical plurality. Finally, the scope of this volume would not been fully relevant to the goals of its inquiry had not it included studies of the socio-cultural and political challenges of the day. This is the main focus of the third part, entiled “Socio-Political Challenges.” This final part provides us with attempts at articulating a reflection on the love of wisdom and the lessons that can be drawn from some traditional philosophical teachings with pressing contemporary issues that weigh upon societies, nations and cultures. The challenges and obstacles of the times that are addressed in this volume pertain to a sense of metaphysical, social and moral “de-linking.” Metaphysically, the age of globalism is the most recent stage in a gradual distancing, not only from the religious and spiritual collective identities of past civilizations, but also from the centrality of metaphysical concerns themselves. The traditional webs of identity and belonging have been eroded or destroyed by the industrial revolution, the colonization of African and Asian lands and cultures, the rise of capitalism and its logic of produc- tion and consumption as well as the Marxist Leninist social-engineering programs, claiming of promote a New Man disconnected from transcen- dence. Moreover, the pervasiveness of information technology and the Reflections on Re-Learning to be Human 15 social media has contributed further to alter the relationship of human-
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