Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I'd call it political culture

Hans Küng, president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic, writes about European and Asian potentials for integrating values, standards, and "attitudes of ethical-religious traditions." His main point is that while the bases for such political culture in Asia are different from those in Europe, they aren't all that different in some ways.

It's a philosophical consideration of one step in the formation of political culture. If you'd like your students to consider these ideas, this essay is a good place to begin.

The Globalization of Ethics

"Many Europeans doubt that Asia can catch up with Europe in terms of regional integration. But Asia not only has the type of stable common ethical foundations that were so important to European integration; it also has a well developed set of moral principles, some of which were an established part of Asian culture long before similar principles were adopted in Europe...

"Of course, Asia does not yet have a cohesive core culture comparable to that of Europe, which is founded on the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Enlightenment. But Europeans ought not to be too arrogant, because, in recent years, that common European culture has itself proven to be fragile...

"Although Asia seems to lack Europe’s cultural core, there are core ethical constants that have long governed Asian societies and indicate common ethical foundations. Indeed, in some respect, Asia has more experience with intercultural relations than Europe..."

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