Cultural Diversity and Transversal Values: East–West Dialogue on Spiritual and Secular Dynamics
click here to return to earthmodal home

---

Table of Contents

Opening Statement 1
by Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO

1st Session: The East–West Encounter in History
Moderated by Jean Pierre Boyer, Secretary-General of the French National
Commission for UNESCO

The Confucian ethic and the spirit of East Asian modernity 7
by Tu Weiming

The impact of cultural transfers on secularism in France 14
by Jean Baubérot

Deus nyorai and the fear of Christianity in Japan in the Meiji period 20
by Hartmut O. Rotermund

Buddhism and Christianity: an in-depth encounter 28
by Michiko Ishigami

Universalism and transversalism: dialogue and dialogics in a global perspective 38
by Michael Palencia-Roth

2nd Session: Mediators and Means of Dialogue
Moderated by Katérina Stenou, Director of the Division of Cultural Policies
and Intercultural Dialogue, UNESCO

The Silk Roads as routes of dialogue among civilizations 53
by Eiji Hattori

Society systems and value systems: nomadic cultures as means and actors of dialogue 58
by Jacques Legrand

Views of the world common among various cultures along the Silk Road 68
by Kosei Morimoto

Modalities of intercultural dialogue 76
by Fred Dallmayr


Towards a civilization based on beauty, from civilizations based on truth and goodness 84
by Heita Kawakatsu

3rd Session: Cultural Diversity and a Plurality of Values
Moderated by Françoise Rivière, Assistant Director-General,
Executive Office of the Director-General, UNESCO

A new view of the present civilization from the universal viewpoint 93
by Takafumi Matsui

Science’s conception of human beings as a basis for moral theory 99
by Henry Stapp

Concepts of time: cyclical or linear? 104
by Odon Vallet

Sustainability as viewed from an ethos of rice cultivation and fishing 106
by Yoshinori Yasuda

Woods and sanctuaries in Japan 111
by François Macé

Perspectives of language: cultural differences and universality in Japanese 119
by Mizue Sasaki

4th Session: The Impact of Modernity on the Transfer of Cultures
Moderated by Moufida Goucha, Chief of the Section of Philosophy
and Human Sciences, UNESCO

Confucian values: a catalyst for modern Europe 129
by Danielle Elisseeff

East Asia and the evolution of common values 133
by Yersu Kim

FromWatsuji’s concept of ‘human’ to beyond the limits of modern ontological topos 138
by Augustin Berque

The impact of modernization on the conservation of historical heritage in China 145
by An Jiayao

The mundialization of lifeworlds in the age of globalization 150
by In-Suk Cha

Christian values and modernity: in praise of the conscience 154
by Francesco Follo

5th Session: Transversal Values in a Diverse World
Moderated by Eiji Hattori, Deputy Director of the Research Center
for Moral Science, Institute of Moralogy (Japan) and Chargé de mission
to the Executive Office of the Director-General of UNESCO

Towards a renewal of the concept wa for the culture of peace 163
by Naoshi Yamawaki

Why the civil society is not good enough 167
by Amitai Etzioni

‘Hieroglossia’: the importance of sacred traditional languages to the great civilizations of Europe and Asia 179
by Jean-Noël Robert

Islam and the Knowledge Society 187
by Mhamed Hassine Fantar

The network of interdependence as a basis for transversal values 196
by Nobumichi Iwasa

Final communiqué 205