Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions Vol. 5 2008-2009 ISSN 1609-2392 ______________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Theme: Philosophy Emerging from Culture Theme Editors: Edward J. Alam and William Sweet Introduction.......................................................................................................7 Edward J. Alam (Lebanon) and William Sweet (Canada) Religion, Science and the Culture of Credulity...............................................11 Jānis Ozolins (Australia) Globalization and the Emergence of Philosophy in Southeast Asia...............31 Tran Van Doan (Taiwan) Building Cultural Bridges in the Era of Globalization....................................47 Joseph C. A. Agbakoba (Nigeria) Holistic Postmodernism: A New Paradigm for the Integration of the One and the Many..........................................................................................................57 Warayuth Sriwarakuel (Thailand) Reality Thought, Reality Lived.......................................................................71 Richard Khuri (Lebanon) Facing the Global Crisis: The Role of Philosophy in Challenging Economic Powers……………………………………………………………………….87 Silja Graupe (Germany) Rehabilitating Value: Questions of Meaning and Adequacy ...……………107 Karim Crow (Malaysia) What Remains of Modernity? Philosophy and Culture in the Transition to a Global Era......................................................................................................119 William Sweet (Canada) 2 Non-thematic papers Rethinking Philosophy in an Oriental Way ..................................................137 Gholamreza Aavani (Iran) Ordinary Language Analysis and African Philosophy: Some Comments on Method...........................................................................................................143 Moses Oke (Nigeria) A War on Distrust: Reinventing the Mode of Togetherness in the Age of Conflict..........................................................................................................151 Donny Gahral Adian (Indonesia) Human Rights, Practices, and Codes of Ethics ............................................159 David Lorenzo Izquierdo (Spain / USA) The Argumentative Tradition in Indian Philosophy......................................173 Balaganapathi Devarakonda (India) Book Reviews Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement...............................................187 John Hogan (USA) Karim Douglas Crow, ed., Islam, Cultural Transformation, and the Re- Emergence of Falsafah: Studies Honoring Professor George Francis McLean on his Eightieth Birthday ………….............................................................189 Robbie Moser (Canada/USA) CONTRIBUTORS Gholamreza Aavani is President of the Iranian Institute of Philosophy and of the Iranian Philosophical Society. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP) Donny Gahral Adian is the Secretary General of the Indonesian Philosophical Association and a Lecturer in Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia. Joseph C. A. Agbakoba is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Karim Crow is a Principal Research Fellow at the the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He studied at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University, Montreal, Canada and at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Balaganapathi Devarakonda is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Dravidian University, Kuppam, India. Silja Graupe is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Economics, Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, Alfter, Germany. Richard Khuri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, American Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. David Lorenzo Izquierdo is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (Puerto Rico, USA) Moses Òkè is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. His areas of specialization are Epistemology, Metaphysics, African Philosophy and Wittgenstein. Jānis (John) Ozolins is Professor of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia. Warayuth Sriwarakuel is Assistant Professor and Dean of Philosophy at Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand. William Sweet is Professor of Philosophy at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, and President of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies and of the Istituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain. 4 Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions Tran Van Doan is Professor of Philosophy at the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, and President of the Asian Association of Christian Philosophers. Born in Vietnam, he studied in Italy, Austria, Germany, and France, and has taught at the Universities of Vienna and Beijing. EDITORIAL Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions (PCT) is a publication of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies. A multi-lingual philosophical journal, it appears annually in print format. Selected papers, along with a supplementary volume, are published in an electronic format. Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions draws on the important contribution of Catholic Christianity to philosophy. Since it aims at the fruitful exchange of ideas among philosophy and religious and cultural traditions, it also includes studies outside the Catholic Christian traditions. The journal publishes manuscripts in all areas of philosophy, although each issue will contain a number of articles devoted to a specific theme of particular philosophical interest. To encourage dialogue and exchange, the journal will include scholars from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe, and will represent a range of philosophical traditions. Of course, some may ask ‘Why another philosophy journal?’ The aim of the World Union is to bring scholars from the Catholic Christian traditions into contact and exchange with one another, but equally with philosophers from other religious and cultural traditions. More broadly, its aims are (i) to initiate and develop contacts with individuals and associations who are engaged philosophical research and study in, or in areas related to, Catholic Christian traditions – and particularly with those who, for social or political reasons or on account of geographical location, have not been able to do enter into close relationship with philosophers elsewhere; (ii) to serve as a conduit of information about meetings, conferences, and other matters of common interest; (iii) to help, when asked, and as far as possible, in organizing and sponsoring lectures and educational exchanges, particularly in those regions where there is an interest in the Catholic Christian philosophical traditions; (iv) to help, when asked and as far as possible, in the publicity and organisation of conferences on themes consistent with the work of the World Union and, especially, with world congresses of Christian philosophers Most philosophy journals have little interest in drawing explicitly on religious and cultural traditions, or in pursuing exchanges of ideas between philosophy and these traditions – and some might even be said to be opposed to this. Again, while some philosophy journals are published by Christian philosophical organisations or through religiously-affiliated universities, Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions aims explicitly to promote exchanges between religious traditions and cultures, and philosophy. Finally, to encourage the principle of exchange, Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions will be thematic. 6 Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions This orientation reflects the intentions of the encyclical Fides et ratio, and the view that such exchange is of mutual benefit to philosophy and religious and cultural traditions, without interfering with the proper autonomy of the philosophical enterprise itself. Articles appearing in the journal will be of a serious scholarly character and more than just commentaries on issues of contemporary concern. Nevertheless, PCT is open with regard to methodology and approach. The supplementary volume, published on the Internet, will include more general articles, discussion notes, interventions, as well as a selection of articles from the printed volume. The aim of this supplementary volume is to provide additional opportunities for the exchange of ideas. The World Union hopes that PCT will provide a useful means of bringing scholars from across the globe into closer contact with one another – in a way that draws on insights and values to be found in the Catholic Christian and other religious and cultural traditions. William Sweet INTRODUCTION Some fifty years ago, while developing what may be called his ‘philosophy of culture’, the French philosopher Jacques Maritain wrote, “The unity of a culture is determined in the first place and above all by a certain common philosophical structure, a certain metaphysical and moral attitude, a certain common scale of values, in a word, a certain common conception of the universe, of man and human life, of which social, linguistic, and juridical structures are, so to speak, the embodiment.”1 Such a formulation suggests that culture has emerged from philosophy, not the other way around. And yet, there seems to be little doubt that philosophy emerges from culture – that culture gives rise to the sorts