LOTT, Greige (University of North Florida)

The third task is to explore two consequences of such a narrative understanding. The first is the idea that space in fact has the status of a place insofar as for something to be a space is for it to have a very distinctive significance for us, one that came fully into view only with the rise of modern science in the West in the seventeenth century. The second is the idea that the notion of place has after all a deep commonality with the notion of space insofar as even our understandings of the places within which we dwell can and in certain cases should be subjected to the sort of critically reflective scrutiny that has traditionally been associated exclusively with the concept of space.

By examining these various theses and their interrelations I hope at once to shed light on the character of philosophy as a discipline and a practice, and to develop and defend the idea that philosophy is and must be a conversation of all human beings, that is, of all rational beings with our kind of body, whatever their historical and cultural circumstances.
MAHOOTIAN, Farzad (New York University)
“Alam al-Mithal: Geographies of Speculative Experience”
The 12^th and 13^th century Sufi masters, Suhrawardi and ibn Arabi, conceived alam al-mithal, the imaginal world, as the world of real possibilities. They considered this to be an intermediate world less material than the actual world, but more material than the world of ideas: the real interface between the actual and the ideal. Otherworldly realities that shape spiritual striving (prophecy, grace, miracles, etc.) were thought to be located in the magnificent cities of alam al-mithal, accessible by active imagination and non-literal thinking.
The actual world has changed radically since the 13^th century, thus changing alam al-mithal with it. My thesis is that the imaginal world is metaphysically congruent with the world of models and theoretical entities, including prana, qi, entropy, subprime mortgage derivatives, ideal gases and other entities that shape our intentions and actions upon the actual world. Furthermore, I suppose that the denizens of alam al-mithal are metaphysical cognates of Whitehead’s “propositions,” what he called “lures for feeling,” and, specifically, “intellectual feelings” arising from the integration of physical and conceptual feelings. While propositions are typically judged as true or false, Whitehead maintained that the mode of “suspended” intuitive judgment is best suited to intellectual discovery and invention.
Modern thought has populated the imaginal world with many entities whose purposes are sometimes questionable. These run the gamut from the more empirical to the more ideal, the wondrous to the quotidian, and all of them capable of materializing and feeding our noblest and basest aspirations. For millennia, religion supplied map, compass and guidance to the imaginal world, but that world is now populated by previously unimagined entities. Furthermore, the tough-minded realism of modern thought has largely driven imagination into the shadow world of entertainment and intensely subjective diversions. Rehabilitation of the status of the imaginal could have fruitful impact on a more informed and intentional grasp of the power of imagination to shape individual and collective futures.
MAJOR, Philippe (National University of Singapore)
“Rethinking the Temporalization of Space in Early Republican China: Liang Shuming’s Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies”

One of the most fundamental aspects of the conception of space within the intellectual scheme of Western modernity, especially from the Enlightenment on, has been a gradual temporalization of space, in the sense that different locales have been accommodated within a unilinear meta-narrative of a human evolution perceived as emancipatory. Within this conceptual scheme, the spatial other becomes a temporal other as well, so that a European traveller to China could observe the indigenous population not only from a cultural (spatial) distance, but also from the vanguard of history. To observe the other from the future, as it were, meant that various dichotomies could secure a distance between self and other: agent vs subject of history, rational vs superstitious, autonomous vs heteronomous, etc. This temporalization of space, in Fabien’s terminology, meant a “denial of coevalness;” that is, an impossibility to dialogue with the other as a contemporary.

Interestingly, this denial of coevalness could also be related to a desire to uproot Europe and its others from their geographical and historical settings, and transplant them within a universal, abstract, imagined, and hierarchical meta-narrative. The modern narrative told of primitive people determined by their geographical locations (warm climate = laziness, etc.), but also of a path which could enable them to gradually free themselves from this determinism through a process of modernization, conceptualized as a disembodiment, an uprooting from local cultures equated with an entering into the universal culture of modernity. In practical terms, this temporal narrative made possible a discursive universalization of a spatially limited culture: that of modern Europe.

While the European philosophical critique of both the denial of coevalness and the meta-narrative of uprootedness (notably in Heidegger) has attracted quite a lot of attention, it remains little known that before the publication of Being and Time (Sein und Zeit; 1927), Liang Shuming (梁漱溟; 1893-1988) was already providing a critique of at least some aspects of the modern narrative touched upon above, a narrative which became pervasive in China during the New Culture Movement (新文化運動; 1915-1927). In his classic work Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies (東西文化及其哲學; 1921), Liang provided both a critique and a reworking of the European meta-narrative of modernity. While opposing the idea that China could be temporally behind the West, notably by re-establishing coevalness through a cultural relativism which would allow different locales and cultures to be on a historical path autonomous from that of Europe, Liang nevertheless adopted the framework of the European meta-narrative of modernity. However, this framework was emptied of its Eurocentric content in Liang, and modern European culture, as the universal future of humankind, was replaced by Eastern cultures (that of China and India).

In this essay, I will first outline Liang’s critique and reshaping of the modern meta-narrative, before discussing the many tensions within his discourse, between space and time, localism and universalism, and tradition and modernity. Particularly, I will draw attention to the tension between his goal, which is to highlight the value of the local cultures of China and India, and the tool provided by modernity in order to achieve this goal: a meta-narrative which abstracts cultures from their locale in order to universalize them. This tension, I will argue, meant that the Eastern cultures Liang wished to revalue could not but be de-historicized, abstracted, and fetishized. The traditions upheld by Liang were thus uprooted from their spatio-temporal locales in a manner that cannot but remind us of the status of European culture within the Eurocentric meta-narrative of modernity Liang wished to criticize.

MAKAIAU, Amber (University of Hawai’i)
“The Intellectually Safe Ethnic Studies Classroom: A Space for Cultivating and Nurturing Civic Relationships”
The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate how the philosophy for children Hawai‘i (p4cHI) approach to deliberative pedagogy can assist educators in creating intellectually safe democratic schooling spaces for students and teachers in diverse cultural contexts.

It is organized into three main parts.

 
MALHOTRA, Ashok Kumar (SUNY at Oneonta)

The topic of "Space and Place" in terms of how they are connected and yet different from each other is an intriguing one.

An insightful philosophical discussion of this experience of how these concepts are treated in the various philosophies and religions of the world requires a comprehensive approach involving the philosophical, contemplative, literary, mythological and scientific perspectives. How spaces become places of sacred worship?  How cities such as Varanasi, Gaya, Jerusalem, Mecca etc., mountains such as Mt. Kailash, Mt. Meru; Mt. Sinai and Mt. Hira as well as an entire country of India or Israel or Thailand etc. move from spaces to sacred places of worship on this earth? How inhabitants of these countries and cities find their identity by populating it? What is it that is added morally, ethically, economically, educationally, geographically, aesthetically and spiritually to transform spaces into places which become so sacred that people are ready to fight to sacrifice their lives to secure them their status. I will discuss how these external spaces are converted into sacred places of worship through the injecting of ethical, moral, religious, spiritual and mythical values.

 

Similar to the church, mosque or temple situated in the physical place that is constructed in the outer space, this inner space is converted into the sacred place or temple within. The Tantric Yoga system is an excellent example where this space is understood in terms of seven places called chakras where the universal consciousness resides or reveals itself. These chakras, which are located in the special space of the body, become seven distinct places to deliver the universal consciousness within the person.

This presentation is a philosophical reflection on and a comparative study of Arnold Berleant’s recent work, “Nature and Habitation in a Chinese Garden”, included in his book Aesthetics beyond the Arts. It reviews Berleant’s notes on the subject and the object relation, the bodily reaction, and the aesthetic experience evolved when situated in the environment of a Chinese garden. His reading of the nature and habitation in a Chinese garden is examined, and compared with the related comprehension of contemporary Confucian scholar Tang Junyi.

Tang proposes a metaphysical manifestation in the design of traditional Chinese architectures and gardens and the interactive relation between man and Nature in his influential work, The Spiritual Values of Chinese Culture. The comparative notes expand the reading of Berleant on the subject, which is suggested by Tang 's discussion of "hiding" (藏), "cultivating" (修), "resting" (息)and "wandering" (游) in a Chinese garden. Parallel correspondence is reviewed between the two writings, which invites comparative aesthetics and critical responses.

MANDELSTAM, Joshua (University Hawai'i)

“Where Do We 'Belong'? The Relation between Personal Identity and Location”

When discussing notion of 'belonging', two interpretations come to mind: one of the individual or culture belonging to a place, and another of the 'place' belonging to a particular person or group. This paper will then examine the difference between these two very different ideas of belonging, and how each may effect one's idea of personal identity - the interplay of how the relationship to the environment effects the sense of self, and of culture. Many tribal communities, including those of he Hawaiians, Native Americans, etc., defined themselves by the land they lived on. The traditional Western conception of 'owning' land led to many wars over territory, and some attempts to continually acquire more. Other peoples have illustrated nomadic tendencies, carrying their culture with them wherever they go, as evidenced by the Bedouin Tribes, and the Judaic culture after the diaspora.