Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series III Asia, Volume 25 General Editor George F. McLean Dialogue of Philosophies, Religions and Civilizations in the Era of Globalization Chinese Philosophical Studies, XXV Edited by Zhao Dunhua Department of Philosophy, Peking University The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2007 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Box 261 Cardinal Station Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dialogues of philosophies, religions, and civilizations in the era of globalization : Chinese philosophical studies, XXV / edited by Zhao Dunhua, George F. McLean. p. cm. -- (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series III, Asia ; v. 25) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Comparative--Congresses. 2. Philosophy, Modern--20th century--Congresses. 3. Religions--Congresses. 4. Comparative civilization--Congresses. I. Dunhua, Zhao. II. McLean, George F. III. Title. IV. Series. B799.D53 2007 2007006771 109--dc22 CIP ISBN 978-1-56518-243-1 (pbk.) Table of Contents Foreword Zhao Dunhua vii Introduction George F. McLean 1 Prologue: Toward a Dialogical Civilization: 11 Identity, Difference and Harmony: Dialogue between Tu Weiming and Gianni Vattimo Part I. Dialogue between Eastern and Western Philosophies Chapter I. Constructing “Chinese Philosophy” in 21 the Sino-Euro Cultural Exchange Tang Yijie Chapter II. “Getting Rid of God:” A Prolegomenon to 29 Dialogue between Chinese and Western Philosophy in an Era of Globalization Roger T. Ames Chapter III. The Conception of Divinity in Early Confucianism 47 Kelly James Clark Commentaries: 1. Philosophical Globalization as Reciprocal Valuation 65 and Mutual Integration: Comments on the Papers of Tang Yijie and Roger Ames Cheng Chungying 2. Making Sense of Cross-Cultural Dialogue: Comments on 77 the Papers of Tang Yijie and Roger Ames Yu Jiyuan 3. Comments on the Papers of Tang Yijie and Roger Ames 85 Yuann Jeujenq Chapter IV. Western Unacceptance of “Chinese Philosophy”: 91 The Legitimacy of an Illegitimate Position Carine Defoort Appendix I: Some Progressive and Problematic Features of 99 Current Philosophy in China Zhao Dunhua iv Table of Contents Chapter V. Dialogue Between Eastern and 111 Western Mathematics and Medicine Sasaki Chikara Appendix II: The Complementarity of Science and Religion 119 Meville Y. Stewart Part II. Dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity Chapter VI. An “Anthropocosmic” Perspective on Creativity 143 Tu Weiming Commentaries: 1. Ancient Hebrew and Early Confucian Conceptions of Divinity: 155 A Comment on the Paper of Tu Weiming Kelly James Clark 2. Is the Confucian Concept of “Heaven” still Relevant Today? 161 A Comment on the Paper of Tu Weiming Li Chenyang 3. A Comment on the Paper of Tu Weiming 165 Tran Van Doan 4. A Comment on the Paper of Tu Weiming 169 Chloë Starr 5. A Comment on the Paper of Tu Weiming 169 Christopher Hancock Chapter VII. Globalization, Christianity and Confucianism: 179 On Strangification andGenerosity to the Other Vincent Shen Commentaries: 1. The Element of Equality in the Global Era: 199 A Comment on the Paper of Vincent Shen Li Chenyang 2. A Comment on the Paper of Vincent Shen 203 Chloë Starr Chapter VIII. The Goodness of Human Nature and Original Sin: 205 A Point of Convergence in Chinese and Western Cultures Zhao Dunhua Table of Contents v Commentaries: 1. Comments on the Papers of Tu Weiming, Vincent Shen 213 and Zhao Dunhua: From a Historian’s Point of View Daniel H. Bays 2. Comments on the Papers of Tu Weiming, Vincent Shen 217 and Zhao Dunhua: From a Theological Point of View Evyn Adams Part III. Dialogue between Islamic and Western Civilizations Chapter IX. Advances and Deadlocks of the Dialogue of 221 Philosophies in an Era of Globalization Seyyed Mohammed Khamenei Chapter X. Is a Dialogue between Western and Islamic 229 Civilizations Possible? Marietta Stepanyants Commentaries: 1. Similarities between Christianity and Islamism: 239 A Comment on the Paper of Marietta Stepanyants Mel Stewart 2. A Response to the Paper of Marietta Stepanyants 243 Miikka Ruokanen Chapter XI. Al-Ghazali as Philosophical Theologian 245 David Burrell Commentary: Comments on the Papers of Marietta Stepanyants and David Burrell 255 William C. Chittick Chapter XII. Islam and Christianity in the Social Context of China 261 Wang Jianping Chapter XIII. Islam and the West: Clash in Dialogue or 279 Dialogue in Clash Gholamreza Aavani Chapter XIV. Islam as Perceived from the West: 291 Secular and Religious Views George F. McLean Contributors 303 Index 305 Foreword Zhao Dunhua This book is edited from the Proceeding of the Philosophy Session of the 2005 Beijing Forum. Starting in the year of 2004, the annual Beijing Forum has been organized by Peking University and Beijing Municipal Education Commission, with support from the SK Group in Korea. The purpose of the Forum is to strengthen the cultural exchanges and mutual understandings among nations throughout the world, especially between Eastern Asia and the West. For this purpose, the general theme of the Forum was designed as “Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All in Globalization”. As this theme suggests interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies, almost all faculties of humanities and social sciences at Peking University were involved in the Forum, of which philosophy, is, of course, one of major divisions. Philosophy is the hard core of long living cultures and the deep soul of civilizations in the post Axial Age (namely, the history after the time between 800 BC and 200 BC.). No harmony of civilizations could be achieved without a fruitful dialogue between the imbedded philosophies, and no prosperity for all could be expected without the devoted exchange of spirits and ideas. In our times, globalization has witnessed a standardization of rules for the market and international cooperation in the economic domain; the integration of folk cultures becomes a common style of human life as well. Contrary to optimistic expectations, there have been pessimistic and regressive aspects of globalization: a clash of civilizations, conflict in the international politics, systematic confrontation of beliefs and values, and violent struggles among groups or nations, etc. For those who reasonably trust globalization to be a progressive force in this crucial time of human history, three things are clear enough. First, those phenomena of counter-globalization are caused by the value and/or belief systems which have lagged far behind the process of worldly modernization. Second, those resistant systems have been supported either by some philosophies (pre-modern or post-modern ones), or by some unchanged traditional religions. Lastly and most importantly, the resistance to globalization by certain philosophies and religions can be softened temporally, or resolved ultimately, only through the dialogue regarding the raison d’être between different philosophies, religions and civilizations. In the above considerations, the Philosophy Session of the 2005 Beijing Forum focused upon the topic of “Dialogues of Philosophies, Religions and Civilizations in the Era of Globalization,” the title of the present book. This title sounds like a “great narrative,” but in view of the above I want to emphasize that it fits the purpose and feature of the Beijing Forum. The Forum is not a purely academic conference on topics discussed only in an “ivory tower”; it is also concerned practically with public affairs and worldly history. Since we hope to commit ourselves to mutual understanding among peoples, viii Foreword our voices in dialogue do not float in a world beyond, but can be heard by, and have influence on, the people in the street. As matter of fact, philosophers’ discussions around the topic of our Session attracted public attention. Many media, including China Central TV, People’s Daily, China Daily, reported on the process of the Sessions and introduced some of its participants and their ideas. The great success of our Sessions proved the active and public role played by philosophers in our society and the constructive function of philosophy in globalization. In order for more persons who are willing to listen to the philosophers’ voice to share these fruitful discussions, we have collected, edited and published all papers of the Sessions. The Philosophy Session was divided into three panels as follows. I. Dialogue between Eastern and Western Philosophies. II. Dialogue between Confucianism and Christianity. III. Dialogue between Islamic and Western Civilizations. It is worth noting that the three panel divisions do not correlate to philosophy, religion and civilization respectively. Each panel was engaged in cross-cultural studies of philosophy and inter-faith dialogues of religions. Consequently, the comparative approach of philosophy and religious studies was always presented. The comparative approach has always been perplexing, as noted by Zhuangzi two thousand five hundred years ago.Zhuangzi said then, “Looked at from their differences, liver and gall are as far apart as the states Chu and Yue (two neighbor centuries in the middle and eastern China in that time). Looked at from their sameness, the ten thousand things are all one.”1 The audience of the Forum and readers as well can see the contrast between “seeing from difference” and “seeing from similarity” in presentations and discussions. In each panel there were three or four keynote speakers, followed by comments and discussions. It should not be surprising that most commentators expressed their disagreements with the keynote speeches, since philosophers are arguers by nature. Though it may be held that not all philosophical arguments are meaningful, there should be no question that the philosophical argument on the issue of globalization is of great significance. The papers of Professors Tang Yijie, Roger Ames and Kelly Clark in the first panel deal with the peculiarity of Chinese philosophy vis-à- vis Western philosophy. Professor Roger Ames especially criticized the universalistic views of philosophy in the West. This standpoint received many critical comments.