Issues of Recognition in Pragmatism and American Transcendentalism
Wed 16 – Fri 18 December 2015, University of Helsinki
Faculty Hall, Faculty of Theology
► Co-organized by: Kyoto University, SPIRITS International Project “Philosophy as Translation and Understanding Other Cultures” (Kyoto University), The Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition (Academy of Finland, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Stockholm Office), Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
The event is open for everyone, no registration required.
16-18 December 2015 PUBLIC PROGRAMME
In the age of globalization, borders between cultures and nations have become all the more fluid. Tragedies produced by tensions between religious values have increased. It is an urgent task today to reconsider how to live with different cultures – where the what is different understood potentially to go beyond the grasp of one’s comprehension. In particular, with the pressing need of internationalization, it is an urgent task for higher education in Japan to shift its manner of thinking towards new ways of coexistence – towards a reconstruction of center-peripheral structures in the light of dissent and the experience of marginalization.
To address this issue, and in virtue of their distinctive geo-political perspectives, Finland and Japan together have the potential to decentralize dominant Euro-American thinking. Geographically and historically, Finland has been located at the periphery of Europe and has had to live with the intersections of multiple cultures and languages. Likewise Japan, on the periphery of Asia, is under pressure, domestically and internationally, to engage with diversity as a response to globalization.
Against this background, and in the light of ongoing academic exchange between Finland and Japan, this international and interdisciplinary conference thematizes the issue of recognition in the context of living with other cultures. Centering on American philosophy (pragmatism and transcendentalism) as its guiding thought, and interconnecting this with studies on education, religious studies, political science, aesthetics, literature, etc., we shall approach the question of recognition, reconsidering its relation to the nature of human being and language. We shall be engaged in dialogue dedicated to the question of understanding other cultures in the light of interdisciplinary, international and practical aspects.
The conference will create a unique forum for dialogue for mutual reflection that goes beyond the conventional framework of Euro-American thinking: a hub of researchers from Japan and from
Northern European countries including Finland will be joined by scholars from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and the United States. The voices of young and female researchers will especially be encouraged.
For more information, please see the attached program.