Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series III, Asian Philosophical Studies, Volume 34 Reconstruction of Values and Morality in Global Times Chinese Philosophical Studies, XXXIV Edited by Liu Yong & Zhang Zhixiang The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2018 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Names: Liu, Yong, 1958- editor. Title: Reconstruction of values and morality in global times / edited by Liu Yong, Zhang Zhixiang. Description: First edition. | Washington, DC : The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2018. | Series: Cultural heritage and contemporary change series III. Asian philosophical studies ; Volume 34 | Series: Chinese philosophical studies ; XXXIV | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018009470 | ISBN 9781565183278 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy, Chinese--21st century. | Values. | Ethics. | Philosophy--History--21st century. Classification: LCC B5231 .R43 2018 | DDC 181/.11--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018009470 Table of Contents Introduction 1 Liu Yong & Zhang Zhixiang 1. Confucian Altruism, Generosity and Justice: 13 A Response to Globalization Vincent Shen 2. On the New Features of Cultural Diversity and 29 the Building of a Value Consensus Xie Xiaojuan 3. Human Desire and International Global Capitalism: 41 Challenges and Opportunities Edward Alam 4. Freedom in the Core Values of Contemporary China 51 Yuan Jiuhong 5. Anti-Essentialism and Tathagatagarbha: A Parallel between 65 “Critical Buddhism” and Continental Philosophy Tu Xiaofei 6. The “Non Inscription” Phenomenon: A Modern Way 75 of Avoiding a Reconstruction of Values Alexandre Palma 7. Mutual Recognition and Modern State Governance 87 Tang Huiling 8. A Modern Approach to Morality and Values 93 in Times of Global Change Igor I. Kondrashin 9. Metaphysical Reflections in the Age of 115 Commercial Knowledge Production for Markets Edward Wamala iv Table of Contents 10. Advancing the Integration between Marxism and 123 the “Excellent” Traditional Chinese Culture Fang Guangshun 11. Is Freedom (Liberty) Always the Supreme Universal Value? 129 Xu Keqian 12. Spirituality: Role in Understanding Reality and 147 Shaping Values Dan Chițoiu 13. Human Comprehensive Development is 155 the Core Value of Socialism Wang Xiaohong 14. Reconstructing Values in Times of Radical Pluralism 163 Peter Jonkers 15. The Relevance of Love in the Era of Globalization: 177 A Multicultural Perspective Selecta Mishra 16. Relationship between Traditional Culture and 211 the Rule of Law in Core Socialist Values Wang Yonggui & Chen Yanqiu 17. Lei Feng’s “Spirit” from the Perspective of Citizenship 219 Shi Jiaxian & Zhang Changwei Index 227 Introduction LIU YONG & ZHANG ZHIXIANG Ethics and values are core components in the development of cultural traditions and a nation’s heritage. It is important to carry on and reconstruct these important components according to our changing times and circumstances. In the era of globalization, one indisputable and inevitable fact is that different cultures and civiliza- tions must interact and learn from each other in order to enrich and to be enriched through mutual understanding. This includes mutual recognition and mutual knowledge of ethics and values. This interaction requires open dialogue among scholars from different backgrounds and different countries. It explores how to build a common search and understanding based on mutual respect and consensus among different nations, cultures and peoples on the issue of ethics and values. Particularly, in the situation of today’s growing global crises we need to think together about the meaning of ethics and values, and even construct a new ethics and new values based on common concerns for human destiny, mutual care, and respect for the entire human community. This demands overcoming cultural arrogance and superiority in order to search for new mean- ings and aspirations for the future. Only then, might we have a chance to solve the global crisis of ethics and values through multicultural dialogue. The international academic conferences of “Reconstruction of Morality and Value Systems in the Time of Globalization” and “Value Conflict and Consensus in the Context of Cultural Diversity” were hosted by the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy and undertaken by Yangzhou University and Liaoning University from December 17 to 19, 2014. The delegates were from different countries of five continents, such as America, Canada, Holland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Austria, China, India, Lebanon, and Uganda. They dis- cussed the topic of “Reconstruction of Morality and Value Systems in the Time of Globalization” from five aspects, Globalization and Tradi- tional Cultural Values, Cultural Traditional Values and Modernity, Cultural Values and Contemporary Society, Reconstruction of Morali- 2 Liu Yong & Zhang Zhixiang ty and Value Systems in a Multicultural Context and the Comparative Study of Morality and Value Systems. The aim of this conference was to clarify fundamental issues related to ethics and values in different cultures and circumstances, to study the main challenges facing the era of globalization, to learn the latest achievements of international academic research, to promote cultural exchanges and cooperation among scholars from different disciplines and to encourage young scholars to go deeper into these core issues in order to improve academic standards and capabilities. Globalization and Traditional Cultural Values Vincent Shen, professor of philosophy at the University of Toron- to, analyzes traditional cultural values in the process of globalization from the angle of Confucian altruism, generosity and justice. Con- fucian “strangification” (waitui), in the sense of reaching out from oneself to other people (tui ji ji ren) and “he who practices shu knows how to strangify” (shu zhe shan tui) is a possible strategy for com- munication among different civilizations. In Chinese, the etymologi- cal meaning of this is the act of going outside of oneself to meet multiple others, or going beyond that with which one is familiar to strangeness, to many strangers. Three types of strangification are dis- cussed here: linguistic, pragmatic and ontological. The virtues of being able to step out of one’s self-enclosure and be generous to many others are the most essential in the process of globalization. In Con- fucianism, shu could be seen as such a basic virtue. With shu, one extends one’s existence to even larger circles. It is the act of always going beyond oneself to many others: from self to family, from family to community, from community to the state, and from the state to all under heaven. In the global times, the original generosity implied by ren and shu should be seen as the conditio sine qua non of all reciprocal relationships. From ren, Confucius derived yi, rightness; from yi, Confucius derived li, the ritual or proprieties. In Confucian terms, the concept of distributional justice is based on the moral righteousness, which comes from ren. When the reciprocal relationships, developed from ren, are extended, by the strangification of shu, justice can be realized. Introduction 3 Xie Xiaojuan of Liaoning University, China, discusses the new features of cultural diversity and the building of value consensus. Cultural diversity is a basic form of existence of human civilization and the motivation for progress in human society. Contemporary cul- tural exchanges present new features along with the emergence of globalization and the Internet. Globalization has brought world cultures more closely together, both in exchanges and collisions. The internet makes all kinds of cultural transfers faster, achieving instant sharing of cultural products. Because of this, the impact of culture on all levels of society is more prominent, and beliefs, customs, morals and ideas are all affected thereby. Facing the coexistence of cultural diversity, conflict has intensified. Internal conflict is usually between different values and paths of development. Meanwhile, different countries are facing common tasks and problems so that the value consensus becomes more possible. Therefore, from a cultural per- spective, we should break the thinking mode of binary opposition, construct equal dialogue and communication mechanisms, and adopt cultural exchange activities that build a value consensus so as to advance human civilization. Edward Alam, professor at Notre Dame University in Lebanon, analyzes the challenges and opportunities from the angle of human desire and international global capitalism. Drawing upon both ancient and modern philosophical insights into human nature and desire, he argues that it is necessary to curb the tide of international global capitalism and its corresponding industries by means of structurally channeling human desire beginning with early childhood education and the family value towards what Aristotle would call the transcendentals of being and “the good life.” This calls for deep philosophical reflection on the categories of imitation and desire which presuppose and are presupposed by the mystery of human freedom. Such reflection can help to re-build the structures which will allow this channeling to take place. Yuan Jiuhong of Southeast University, China, discusses the idea of freedom as a socialist