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Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy Series Introduction Stephen Dawson One enduring legacy of the twentieth century will be the slow, certain transformation of the world from insular civilizations to interactive societies enmeshed in global systems of electronic communication, economics, and politics. Financial news from Thailand or Brazil is often more important globally than political events in the old centers of power. Some bemoan the uncertainty and flux of all this. However, the mutual definition of the world's societies presents an extraordinary opportunity to humanize a situation that all too quickly could degenerate into a Weberian 'iron cage' of truly global proportions. What contribution can the world's great philosophical traditions make toward humanity's common task of civilizing the rise of globalization? Here the ancient concept of paideia walks upon the stage of the twenty-first century. The Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy (held August 1998 in Boston, USA) took as its theme Paideia: Philosophy Educating Humanity. With over thirty-five hundred participants, it was surely the largest gathering of serious philosophers in history. (Gigantism is one of the marks of global interaction!) Yet, the Twentieth World Congress was not simply large, but inclusive. Philosophers representing all of the world's cultures assembled that hot August week in Boston. Not only were the most important representatives of the various major and minor Western schools of philosophy present, but distinguished leaders of thought from south and east Asian cultures were heard, as were the philosophers of the Islamic world, of the African, and of traditional cultures such as the Native American and the Oceanic. However, one would be incorrect to confuse the inclusiveness of the Congress with sheer diversity. In America, 'inclusiveness' and 'diversity' are politically-correct catchwords that enjoy a certain cachet. In fact, diversity often issues forth as a series of social problems that are simply exasperated by a heavy-handed emphasis on inclusion. No, philosophers from around the world did not assemble for the sake of diversity; rather, these philosophers met in order to engage in the serious business of conversation and dialogue. Sometimes these conversations had the character of consciousness-raising. Western thinkers were sometimes surprised to discover that there are other kinds of philosophy. Thinkers from the so-called second and third worlds were sometimes surprised to discover that others were interested in the philosophy of their heritage. Beyond consciousness-raising, however, the Congress witnessed numerous instances of genuine engagement and learning across cultures. Although these inter-cultural philosophic engagements were sometimes tentative, never again will it be possible to represent any one philosophical tradition as philosophy tout court. Never again will it be possible to say that some "other" culture's philosophy is not really philosophy in the proper sense. Never again will it be possible to assert the truth of one's own position without promising to defend it in a philosophical public that includes the heirs of all the world's philosophic cultures. The situation in philosophy now mirrors the emerging geopolitical reality at the turn of the twenty-first century: each philosophic culture defines itself in part by how it stands with regard to the other cultures, and the arguments made in one require attention in the others. Put differently, philosophy now is an indelibly inter-cultural activity. To be sure, the forms and genres in which we write philosophy do not yet reflect much of the changed situation. They mainly follow the stylistic trajectories of the separate philosophic cultures, sometimes with appended attention to cultural interactions. But there is now an underlying awareness-brought into sharp focus during the Congress-of the multiple dimensions of rationality that constitute public argument in a public increasingly comprised of many cultural traditions. John Silber, Chancellor of Boston University, opened the Congress with a fiery defense of philosophy as rational inquiry, arguing that various forms of irrationalism be eschewed. Of course, the forms of rationality put forward were far more various and daring than anyone could have enumerated at the beginning of the Congress. The nature of reason and philosophic inquiry was itself one of the chief concerns of the Congress. In fact, the Congress theme of paideia, upon reflection, is even better than "rationality" as an organizing principle: not only did the participants learn from one another about reason, but they learned in part how inter-cultural reasoning will have to take place in order to civilize a public of many intellectual heritages. At one extraordinary session honoring distinguished senior philosophers who were asked to speak about what we have learned in philosophy in the twentieth century, three analytic philosophers said they had come to appreciate the worldwide reach of philosophy; another said nothing about the topic, presumably because that is not a philosophic question for his kind of analysis; another philosopher reminded the others that they all assumed that analytic philosophy is all there is and noted the importance of Heidegger for global philosophy; and finally a Muslim philosopher pointed out that none of the speakers recognized the philosophic traditions of all the other world cultures and yet it is precisely those other philosophic traditions that are growing and burgeoning in educational institutions around the world. The last speaker was cheered. While one might be tempted to regard that session as a sad instance of Western cultural blindness, a much more productive perspective would be to see it as a transition to a much more encompassing and (dare we say it) inclusive vision of philosophy. Western thinkers have grown accustomed to thinking that the philosophy of the twentieth century belonged exclusively to them. Now they realize that their comfortable expectations no longer hold. The papers published in these volumes are a showcase of the vigor and health of philosophy around the world at the end of the twentieth century. We have organized the essays into twelve volumes which, taken together, bring some measure of coherence and focus to the work of the Congress as a whole. These volumes-and the more than 1,000 contributed papers which are posted at the World Congress website (www.bu.edu/wcp)-amply display the vigorous chaos of the encounter between hitherto unengaged philosophic approaches. Simply put, philosophic life is spreading beyond the cultivated gardens of the West. The Executive Board of the American Organizing Committee and the Editorial Board of Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy is pleased to present what we believe is the definitive picture of our discipline at the end of the twentieth century. For any large-scale project of this kind, there are numerous debts of gratitude owed by the end. First and foremost, we thank Chancellor John Silber and the administration of Boston University for providing the necessary support for organizing the Twentieth World Congress as well as publishing the Proceedings. Special thanks go to Drs. Kevin L. Stoehr and Mark D. Gedney, who supervised the day-to-day organization of the Congress. We thank our managing editor, Stephen Dawson, and his editorial staff: Helena Gourko, Tomoko Iwasawa, Brian McDonald, Georgia J. Maheras, Mark H. Grear Mann, Angela Turek, and Amos Yong. Our thanks as well go to the editors for each of the twelve volumes. We feel confident that the high standards of excellence established by Mark and Kevin in the organization of the Congress will be upheld in the publication of the Proceedings. Appreciation is also due to George Leaman and Lori Fells of the Philosophy Documentation Center. Both George and Lori bring a rich background in academic publishing to our project. Special thanks go to Lori for designing the layout for the Proceedings. But most of all, we salute our colleagues, the contributing scholars, who have made it possible to bring the publication of the Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy to fruition.
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