Philosophy in Civil Society and Nation Building.pdf

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Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change
Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 22
Freedom, Cultural Traditions and
Progress
Philosophy in Civil Society and Nation Building:
Tashkent Lectures, 1999
By
George F. McLean
The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy
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Copyright © 2000 by
The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy
Gibbons Hall B-20
620 Michigan Avenue, NE
Washington, D.C. 20064
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
McLean, George F.
Freedom, cultural traditions, and progress : philosophy in civil society and nation
building , Tashkent lectures , 1999 / George F. McLean.
p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I. Culture and values ; vol.
22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Civil society. 2. Culture. 3. Liberty. 4. Pluralism (Social sciences). I. Title. II. Series.
JC337.M35 2000
00-031601
306’.01—dc21
CIP
ISBN 1-56518-151-4 (pbk.)
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter I. Levels of Freedom
Lecture I. Freedom as a Life Project
Chapter II. Culture as Freedom Shaped Through Values and Virtues
Lecture II. Cultural Traditions as Cumulative Freedom: The Synchronic Dimension
Chapter III. Civil Society and Culture
Lecture III. Civil Society and the Emergence of the People
Chapter IV. Progress and Pluralism
Lecture IV. Cultural Traditions as Prospective and Progressive:
The Diachronic Dimension
Chapter V. Globalization as Diversity in Unity
Lecture V. Pluralism and Globalization
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5
13
21
37
45
101
111
119
139
157
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Introduction
George F. McLean
The great drama of the last part of the 20th century has been the implosion of communism.
Much attention has been given to the limitations of that system which led to its collapse, but
relatively little has been devoted to the new and emerging sensibilities which made the old
ideology suddenly so intolerable. In other words we have interpreted these great changes
retrospectively in terms of "freedom from" but have given too little attention to the "freedom for"
on which the future will be built.
This has derived centrally from a new ability to look at things and interpret life not only
objectively as something beyond or other than the one who knows and decides its future, but
subjectively, that is, in terms of the actual consciousness and valuing by which we shape our future.
The emerging appreciation of subjectivity has opened new awareness of the nature of freedom.
For if ‘to be’ for a living being is ‘to live’ and for a conscious being is ‘to live consciously’, then
‘to be’ for a human person is to exercise freedom and to do so with others and in time. That is, to
live in a cultural tradition and in the structures of civil society.
The present work seeks to unfold some of the import of this appreciation of subjectivity for
social life. It sees (a) freedom as the properly human exercise of life and being; (b) the pattern of
values and virtues as constituting a cultural tradition which gives form to freedom as lived by a
people; and (c) civil society as the structure through which this freedom’s exercised. Hence, the
exercise of freedom in the formation of a culture and civil society will be the path of social
progress. This, however, must face three major challenges in our time the tendency of many to
consider tradition statically in a fundamentalist manner that impedes progress, the diversity of
peoples within and between cultures, and the diversity of cultures within a civilization.
The structure of this work reflects basically two levels of philosophical communication. The
first is written, the second is oral. The first tends to focus on the issue and the philosophical
materials at hand in order to respond to that issue. The second focuses rather on the particular
hearers, on their experiences and concerns to which it brings the resources of philosophy. The
difference becomes apparent upon reading a paper written on the basis of a set of notes and
listening to a lecture based on that same set of notes.
In the past the latter text would be simply discarded in favor of the former. Today, however,
as we come to appreciate the significance of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the pursuit of
insight and truth, the latter promises to retain its own significant along with the former. Hence in
this work the chapters have two parts, the original and prepublished text and the transcription of
the lectures as actually presented to the set of philosophers taking part in the program.
The program itself is a matter of special philosophical interest. Its context is the great change
of vision going on in many parts of the world in the aftermath of the ideologies at this turn of the
millennium — but perhaps no-where more dramatically than in Central Asia. There the decision
has been made to form a series of new countries which never before existed. For this it is necessary
to establish the proper identity of the peoples. This must be distinguished from that of Russia to
the North, for which it is necessary to reach back into earlier stages of their rich cultures —
nomadic, Islamic, Christian, and Zoroastrian — as one bores ever more deeply into time. At the
same time, in asserting their Islamic roots it is necessary to avoid both falling into the
fundamentalism which lurks at the southern boarders if these are asserted too strongly, and
alternately falling afoul of the same fundamentalism if the assertion of identity is too weak.
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