Rethinking nature, culture, and freedom

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Jan, 2007 by Steven V. Hicks

ON JULY 15, 2005, scholars from around the world gathered together at the University of Helsinki, Finland, for the Sixth World Congress of the International Society for Universal Dialogue (ISUD). This special invited issue of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology is derived, in part, from a select group of papers that were originally presented at this World Congress. For those readers who may be unfamiliar with the work of the ISUD, the main purpose of this international philosophical society is to promote, both in theory and in practice, the ideals of universal dialogue as the most effective means for promoting the gradual realization of a more decent, peaceful, and just world order. Founded at the University of Warsaw, Poland, on November 9, 1989 (the day of the collapse of the Berlin Wall), the ISUD now includes more than 300 scholars and educators from Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as well as Europe. In the words of its constitution, the ISUD was created "in order to investigate and articulate the basic principles of universality [and dialogue], systematically, rationally, and comprehensively--with an effort to promote a global understanding of these principles, striving to help generate [a] universal world consciousness towards the gradual emergence of a decent world order, and aspiring to actualize the highest and richest human values" in the arts, natural and social sciences, politics, education, and social and cultural life. (1) To help achieve these lofty goals, the members of the ISUD strive by means of their scholarly efforts--via regional and international conferences and symposia, via individual and collective works--to "explore and share important areas of human knowledge and experience." We do this in order to "evoke and invigorate a global consciousness," that is, an "existential awareness that all of the peoples of the world belong to one species, the human species, and accordingly, have the same fundamental stock of needs, aspirations, and capacities." (2) The ISUD is committed to promoting the recognition that these shared "needs, aspirations, and capacities cannot be adequately realized under [the current] conditions of selfish competition, violence, and exploitation," but only under conditions of "peace, cooperation, and freedom." We also acknowledge our responsibility to other species and to future generations, and "to the preservation and restoration of the health and beauty of all eco-systems on the planet." (3)

Since 2004, the ISUD has been one of 103 full members of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP), a nongovernmental organization that unifies various national and international philosophical organizations and that is linked with the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (ICPHS) and with UNESCO. The goals of the ISUD are very much in line with the main objectives of EISP, ICPHS, and UNESCO: namely, to promote philosophical education on a global scale, and to generate a greater awareness of the social and global problems that confront us in order to break through the impasse in which humanity finds itself in the early 21st century. But what are the main world problems that we face today?

This question brings us to the theme of this special issue of the AJES: "The Challenges of Globalization: Rethinking Nature, Culture, and Freedom." As the title of this volume implies, humanity at the beginning of the 21st century faces serious global challenges that call for a radical rethinking and repositioning of many basic ideas that influence personal, governmental, and natural relationships that, in turn, define modern society. Escalating social and global problems--such as the proliferation of wars in a world full of weapons of mass destruction, the neglect of the developing world and the pressing needs of those living in extreme poverty, and ecological degradation--threaten the future of humanity; the solution to such problems clearly requires the joint efforts of all of the nations of the world. Yet the current policies of so many of the mare players on the international scene--policies of preemptive wars in the name of freedom and democracy, confrontation. and polarization--threaten to destabilize the world rather than to offer solutions to our current difficulties. Humanity must find creative ways to break the vicious cycle of dominance and (economic/ ecological/cultural) destruction and to build a more peaceful and prosperous world through dialogue and collaboration. But how should we proceed in the face of the enormity of these problems?

In pondering these questions, I am reminded of the young Friedrich Nietzsche who, following his "ghastly" experiences in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, wrote to his friend Gersdorff, "I am terribly concerned about the impending state of [modern] culture.... Between you and me, I now consider [Prussian nationalism] a power that is extremely dangerous for [contemporary] culture." (4) Contemplating the collapse of the traditional supports of value and the "crisis of modern ethics" that he identified with the "Death of God, the mounting belief in "social Darwinism" (which blurred the distinction between human and animal), and the uncritical faith in the human species' unchecked technological capabilities, Nietzsche predicted disaster: "Our whole European culture has been moving towards a disaster, with a tortured tension that is growing decade to decade." (5) Moreover, he boldly predicted that power politics, brutal "constructs [and ideologies] of domination," and vicious "wars the like of which have never yet been seen on earth" would be the wave of the future (20th) century. (6) Sadly, he was not entirely mistaken in his dire predictions.