The dialogue of civilizations: An Eisenstadt legacy

Abstract

The thesis of a ‘clash of civilizations,’ famously voiced by Samuel Huntington in 1993, draws support from selected social science generalizations and the fact that all historical civilizations organized around core beliefs and values condemned outsiders. This thesis can be challenged by showing that civilizations are internally complex, including elements that also develop nonexclusionary themes; and by specifying a human need for ‘dialogue’ driven by compresent needs for attachment and differentiation. The historic emergence of those inclusionary sub-traditions can be documented by looking at the cases of Gandhi in India, Ueshiba in Japan, and a number of historic and contemporary figures in the Abrahamic civilizations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Keywords

Bonhoeffer Buber civilization dialogue Eisenstadt Gandhi Huntington Khan Stoics Ueshiba

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