Synopses & Reviews
Globalization brings people and cultures together, producing, in addition to deep and rich encounters, exclusion, racism, xenophobia and asymmetries. The present book takes these issues implicitly as its starting point by thoroughly reflecting on them from a perspective of worldviews, as one of many approaches. More specifically, it focuses on people's implicit and explicit interpretations and assumptions of the world, of themselves and of others. Often deeply rooted and hard to change, they have an important function, for without them we would continually need to question what we do and what we think. In their absolutist form, these assumptions may become a barrier for open-mindedness, and hence for deep intercultural understanding and exchange. We need to find a balance between both stances. Intercultural philosophy tries to fulfil this role, on the one hand by comparing different cultures on a deep philosophical level, and as a way to better understand each other's core assumptions, and on the other hand by arguing for an intercultural philosophy grounded in specific cases. The contributions of this book conceive of "another possible world" which does not condemn cultural and religious diversity as a detonator for "Clashes of Civilizations", but rather welcomes it as a source of inspiration for all and of respect for the "different".
Review
Aus den Rezensionen: "... Der band beschäftigt sich mit der orientierenden Funktion von weltanschauungen, mit verschiedenen »Modellen« von Weltanschauungen sowie mit dem Umgang mit den Anderen aus interkulturellel Perspektive. ... Die Herausgeberinnen begrüßen die Diversität der zum Teil sehr verschieden ausgerichteten Texte, ... Diese inhaltliche/Methodologische Heterogenität der Texte ist durchaus interressant Lediglich die Sorgfaltigkeit des Lektorats lasst für den überaus stolzen preis leider zu wünschen übrig. Immerhin besteht die Möglichkeit, beim Verlag samtliche Beitrage einzeln als elektronische Version (PDF) zu beziehen." (Caroline Herfert, in: polylog Zeitschrift für Interkulturelles Philosophieren, 2010, Vol. 23, S. 146 f.)
Synopsis
Globalization brings people and cultures together but also produces exclusion, racism, xenophobia and asymmetries. Taking these issues as its starting point, this book comprehensively reflects on them from a worldview perspective, as one of many approaches.
About the Author
Nicole Note
Born in Belgium, studied Cultures and Languages of South America in Leiden, the Nederlands, worked during more than 10 years in different NGO’s (international NG0 South-North Network Cultures and Development) Brussels, and UCOS (University Centre for Development Cooperation), Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB). PhD in Moral Sciences, VUB. Post-doctoral fellow at the Interdisciplinary Centre Leo Apostel, (Clea) VUB.
Raúl Fornet-Betancourt
Table of Contents
Worldview and Cultures: philosophical reflections from an intercultural perspective. An introduction, Nicole Note, Raùl Fornet-Betancourt, Josef Estermann and Diederik Aerts; Ways of the Intellect: Forms of Discourse and Rationalization Processes in the Arabic-Islamic Context, Jameleddine Ben Abdeljelil; Comparative Philosophy: a methodological approach, Ulrich Libbrecht; A Methodological Framework for Cross-tradition Understanding and Constructive Engagement, Bo Mou; Cosmopraxis and contextualizing among the contemporary Aymara, Koen de Munter and Nicole Note; A Worldly View of Worldview Metaphysics, Helen Lauer; Andean philosophy as a questioning alterity: An intercultural criticism of Western andro- and ethnocentrism, Josef Estermann; Intercultural philosophy from a latin-american perspective, Raúl Fornet-Betancourt; Hermeneutic philosophy and human experience: An intercultural perspective of worldviews and life world in the Mapuche culture, Ricardo Salas; To an intercultural construction of rationality, Dina V.Picotti C; Universalism and relativism of knowledge dissipate. The Intercultural Perspective, Rik Pinxten.