INTERCULTURAL PHILOSOPHY: THE VIENNESE PROGRAM

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INTERCULTURAL PHILOSOPHY THE VIENNESE PROGRAM

• Prof. Fritz G. Wallner, Universität Wien

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Table of Content

• 1. The major misunderstanding of intercultural
  philosophy
• 2. Change in the self-understanding of philosophy
  
• 3. Methodology of intercultural philosophy

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1. The major misunderstanding of intercultural
philosophy

• The major misunderstanding
• Intercultural philosophy Comparative philosophy
• An outcome of Western philosophy To understand
  philosophical concepts stemming from other
  cultures by application of concepts of Western
  culture, e.g.
• Confucius writings are grasped by ideas of
  Western ethics.

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• Presupposition of the comparatively orientated
  intercultural philosophy philosophia
  universalis.
• The core presupposition of the philosophia
  unversalis there is only one true philosophy and
  one type of science leading to fundamental
  insights that cannot be doubted.
• Fundamentum Inconcussum (Descartes)
• European Universalism

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An undeniable fact there are outcomes of
thinking of other cultures that cannot be
properly interpreted in the Western style.
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• Example of the mistaken fundament of comparison
• Confucius work is interpreted as ethics.
• Confucius does not formulate ethical rules, he
  does not even offer something like a valued
  ethical behaviour or a system of ethical values
  neither it is possible to find a type of
  intuition in his writings.

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• Example The Use of Confucius in Contemporary
  China
• An adequate understanding of intercultural
  philosophy is important not only for academic
  interest but also for the everyday understanding
  of life and society.

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• Luhmans system theory European philosophy is a
  closed system and that influences of other
  culturally stamped philosophies create not more
  than irritation at the outer border of the
  system.
• Before European philosophy tries to come to an
  adequate understanding of Confucius, his writing
  are classified as ethical writings the system
  inherent language and with it the system immanent
  concepts are in work before the process of
  thought starts.

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2 Change in the self-understanding of philosophy

• A change in the self-understanding of philosophy
  Philosophy is in principle a product of a
  specific culture.
• This statement is valid for all forms of
  philosophy, including European philosophy.
• Pointedly speaking, European philosophy and
  science presupposes necessarily European culture.

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The specific feature of European philosophy

• Its alleged higher reflection potency, outshining
  all other cultural outcomes in deepness of
  insight.
• The philosophical thought touches the inner
  kernel of reality, and this alleged power bases
  the overblown claims.

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• Science actually is a successor of philosophy,
  because the scientific self-understanding
  contains this claim of finding the truth but in
  an unreflected manner.

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A crucial issue

• Do I plead for relativism if I do not concede
  philosophy the capacity of leading to the one and
  only truth and if I, even stronger, claim that
  there are as many truths as different
  philosophies?
• The answer of this question reads yes and no.
• Pleading for a strong relativism is, actually,
  not a good choice because this type of relativism
  loses every hold that theory necessarily
  presupposes.

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Hence I plead for a very specific kind of
relativism. I try to introduce this soft kind of
relativism into the discussions of philosophy of
science since many years finding, that my
efforts are quite prolific.Relativity instead of
relativism.
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A contrast between the claims of European
philosophy and classical Chinese philosophy
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Chinese Philosophy

• Chinese philosophyPre-Platonian thinking?
• Chinese philosophy is not European philosophy in
  its infancy!

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The statement Chinese medicine is a mode of
philosophy.

• We should interpret neither Chinese medicine nor
  Chinese philosophy in the Western sense.
• The statement does not express that Chinese
  medicine is nothing more than theoretical
  reflection.
• The statement expresses the inseparable
  connection of reasoning and performance, the
  unity of Western theory and practice.

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Chinese medicine is a mode of philosophy.

• Modern ways of researching Chinese medicine by
  applying the Western method arsenal are mistaken,
  e.g.
• The whole pharmacological research of herbs
• Experience in Chinese medicine, a very different
  kind, is not adequately respected by the
  scientific research endeavours of the Western
  world.

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3. Methodology of intercultural philosophy
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Main ideas of this part

• Constructive Realism the intercultural
  philosophical approach to explain science in an
  adequate way
• Strangification the methodology of
  Constructive Realism
• Bad, worse, and worst ways of a comparatively
  orientated intercultural philosophy in
  approaching Chinese medicine Halo
• Important points to consider

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Constructive Realism

• Pre-suppositions are hidden or unconscious.
• How to reveal hidden pre-suppositions of
  scientific proposition systems?
• Constructive Realism both an interdisciplinary
  and intercultural approach to science.
• Strangification for revealing hidden
  pre-suppositions and prerequisites of a
  scientific proposition system, representing one
  of the core ideas of Constructive Realism.

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Strangification making implicit pre-suppositions
explicit

• The idea of strangification transferring a
  proposition system from its original context to a
  different context observing what happens with the
  proposition system
• The very point of strangification to reflect a
  set of well-defined pre-suppositions that are
  implicitly given in the original context of the
  proposition system
• Constructive Realism a hermeneutical philosophy
  of science for it offers a methodology
  strangification - to make the implicit
  pre-suppositions explicit.

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Strangification

• Making understandable for a specialist in the
  strangified proposition system, and improving the
  self-understanding of a specialist. E.g.
• The case of language We are able to understand
  an utterance of pain if and only if we can
  explain our pain to another person
  (Wittgenstein).
• The case of scientific proposition systems
• The case of translation Hence, a good
  translation catches up with the hidden
  presuppositions.

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Bad, worse, and worst ways of a comparatively
orientated intercultural philosophy in
approaching Chinese medicine Halo
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Halo

• Halo a Hungarian term used in astronomy in
  order to refer to the ring around stars.
• Halo can be applied to philosophy of science
  meaning different interpretations and
  understandings of science - scientific thinking
  and the halo of scientific thinking. E.g.
• The abstract formulation of Einsteins relativity
  theory (scientific) and popular formulations of
  relativity theory (halo)
• The halo is very important for the reception of
  science in the public discussion.

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The bad way of a comparatively orientated
intercultural philosophy in approaching Chinese
medicine Halo

• Western philosophy is taken as the structure of
  understanding.
• The structure of Chinese thinking is rebuilt by
  application of Western concepts.
• Every Chinese concept is connected with Western
  concepts Chinese thinking refers to Western
  thinking.
• Paul Unschulds book, What is Medicine?

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The mistake of this bad procedure

• We use the structure and the rules of Western
  thinking to describe Chinese thinking
• If there is something that cant be understood in
  Chinese thinking, it must be wrong according to
  this procedure (or, in the best case, naïve or
  pre-scientific).

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The worse way of a comparatively orientated
intercultural philosophy in approaching Chinese
medicine Halo

• Many people in Western world try to understand
  Chinese medicine by reading the halo books of
  Chinese medicine.
• This halo of Chinese medicine is then compared to
  the halo of Western medicine.
• Example interpreting the meridians in Chinese
  medicine as a kind of the Chinese understanding
  of the nervous system
• In the halo of Chinese medicine there are a lot
  of interpretations that can work out very
  negatively if they are taken serious and literal.
  

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The worst way of a comparatively orientated
intercultural philosophy in approaching Chinese
medicine Halo

• The starting point of the comparison is the halo
  of Western thinking and it aims at the halo of
  Chinese thinking and returning from there.
• People who are trained in Western science and
  have not the first idea concerning Chinese
  medicine.
• Esoteric writings a special cultural need of the
  Western world is satisfied, but Chinese
  philosophy and Chinese medicine are not
  adequately discussed.

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• Actually, in this way no camp takes advantage of
  the encounter the Westerner does not understand
  anything, and the idea or concept to be
  understood is distorted and hence misunderstood.
• The constructive-realistic strangification
  procedure offers help in this situation.
• An example translation of pi with spleen

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Some important points to consider

• 1. Avoid similarities!
• 2. Dont look to materials that can be applied to
  build up a system which can be compared with the
  Western medicine!
• 3. Come to an absurd conclusion this is most
  important, but most frustrating as well!
• 4. Look for the reason of absurdity! Look why
  this system is absurd in your context!

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Ongoing studies on Chinese medicine by applying
the method of strangification

• Metaphorical associations in Chinese medicine
  the difference between the understanding of
  organs as localised entities to the understanding
  of organs as functions of reasoning.
• A further striking difference between Western
  medicine and Chinese medicine causality.

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Thank you for your Attention!