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n 11 ,4 ci \{' FI\iE COSMOLOGIES : ,(- An Tmnressi oni stic - PDF document

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n 11 ,4 ci \{' FI\iE COSMOLOGIES : ,(- An Tmnressi oni stic Presentation uJ o wltdrt uar uu16 Goa.l s - kocesses and Ind-icators of T)arro-'l nnmani TTI\T ITnirrarq-i irr Pnniont lrvJuvvt ,svsrvPrrrErrvt dr 6tudes du

  1. n 11 ,4 ci \{' FI\iE COSMOLOGIES : ,(- An Tmnressi oni stic Presentation uJ o wltdrt uar uu16 Goa.l s - kocesses and Ind-icators of T)arro-'l nnmani TTI\T ITnirrarq-i irr Pnniont lrvJuvvt ,svsrvPrrrErrvt dr 6tudes du Institut universitaire d5rrel nnncmpni - Ceneva. rllvrl v, Pnner nrena.red for the Network Meeting, GPID Fifth 2l JuIy - ! August 1980 Montreaf,

  2. -1- fn General And tr{estern Cosmolosr In Particufar 1. On Cosmologies A Bild.rs Eye Vier^r A glance at the-^orld- map tod-ay tefls us one very imnorta.i'rt fael.: there is Western civilization in la.wers of d'i fferent d-epths al-most all over the world, there are Westerners almost all over the worfd-rwhereas the other civilizatiors seem to be more con- centrated" in specific areas, their sed-imentations in other parts of the worfd. much l-ess conspicuous and their representatives few and- (r ) far betweer\l'This basic as;rmmetry alone :nkes it mand-atory to single out l,/estern civil-i-zation for particular attention: what is it that has mad-e it if not world-civilization at least a donr-inant civillzation? And, in a more moralizing vein:rnrhat is good- about what has it this, and what j-s bad brought of positive values to the rest of the world it - to what extent has it been a carrier about of d-irect and struc- (z\ tural violencg as a Western macro-culture?'-/ To explore such questions is to explore the anatomy of civilizations in generaf and Western civllization in particular as nothing in this world. can be understood, grasped on its oi^m terms but also has to be seen in terms of how it alone, d-iffers from what- ever it can be compared- with. Western cl:_lizati-on has to be seen as one a.monc others- More n.erti r:'r'larl v- v/e sha'l-l f.tcus on three otlLer rv! v ytj! civj-lizations: the Hindu, Sinic and Nipponic - using teqrns that - ( d-o r) not refer to countries but precisely to civilizattonsi-' .n qrr"pr l/r | 1 -2f.1 ^n rh^h ll ll r the CUf tUf e Shaf ed. ' VLvLLLLAULVLT ilLV@ lJ 9!LVL[, Wg t by large parts of hurnanity, across countries and- nations, even across continent,s and throughout vast spans of tine. That this neverthel-ess is a fruitful concept inspite of the tremendous variations within a is often more clear to outsiders cltl-:.zation than to i-nsid.ers: in- siders being nes',-erized- by the linguistic, religious and otherwise ethnic bord-er-fines within a civilization, trying tc c,-.me to grips with d-ifferences rather than with similarities o for instance in efforts to l-earn the idioni of their inmed-iate neighbours in space and time. Ortsid"ers will see similarities: a Japanese will see basic

  3. -2- similarities between a Norwegian l-iberal of protestant stock and a Romarrlan marxist with an orthod-ox-catholic l."t souta(4) It is these sinilarities we are particularly concerned with- Thew are fnrrnd ei, thp dooner lawers nf the c1Ll_17ation and d-o ^- +r^e surface as facls and. artefacts. Thew a.re nari:'lw -^+ --*^-- | avvv ffW U 4PPYaa Uir Ullg DUlf @Ug a- @!Lq aI UYIO9 UD. urJ v _y*r embed-ded in the deep structures of the material, human and non-human civiLizatron, partly organization of the societies in that in the deep i-deology, the world Inaps, Weftanschauungen, cosmovisi5nes of that civilization. We shall- refer to this deeper aspect of a civili- (c) zation as a concept as a cosmolobii and see this that rela tes to civi- lization much the same way as the psychological construct of a 'rperso- nality" refates to a human being. fn both cases there is a process of to get d-orrrn abstraction to the d.eeper, more invariant. In both cases that kind. of erploration fead-s one to the unquestioned- assumptions, to aspects so normal- and- so natural that they become like the air "^ ".^ eod - C)onspnrrontl v f.hc nnqmnl norr nf r ni rri 1 i ryal' ^-^...^i ^li aI'OllnO 1J-S r tlnl.LO-iJruyu. wvrroyquvrru-Llr, InelCOSTIIO-LOgJ "f Ont \ o / qc uv,Laf,+ uJ vL a ,ru,r.d.rl bein$l'may not be knovrn to those mrrnh *ho nnrcano] i +.- ^f peopfe themsefves - but when confronted with the results of such ex- thew r^ri I I rrqrr2l lrr :nnoni-. snpg Or-O""rrOrtS bV OUtSiderS and- inSide-s items, have a questioiring attitud.e to others and reject still others. In other word-s, cosmology analysis shoufd constitute a good- basis for dialogues within and between insid-ers and outsid-ers about the nature of a civilization. Let us dispense one issue with from the very begiruring: cosmology analysis does not take a stand- on the, in ou-r mind very false and al so vor'l/ Wcsi.arn - d i r:hotomrr gfttpgleria]iSm vS . ideaf ismlt A cos- molog;r is expressed both in the street pattern of Pari; with its (ltace center at the Etoife Che.rl-es de Gauffe) and" the avenues radia- ting outwards, the road. nap of tr'rance with its center in Paris and the route nationalesrad-iating outward-s.the airline network of Air F?ance center at Roissy (Ctrartes d-e with its Gaulfe again) and- the airlines 'r prn.no.aiso: ^.,+-.^-^^ --r.-^-.^ ^-r a.s in the COmmr-inaUt6 Cef_ -^^.i^+.i-- -^ LAqLA UIffH VqUWAIUD. 4UVVY 4II UU ,Ialrt,al rre. oJ I tain id-eas and conceptions Flrench seem to have about r:nquestioned

  4. - )- z the primacy of F?ench civilization. What comes first, deep structure or deep ideologi,r is seen as a chicken/egg problem: the chicken begets a new chicken the egg, and- - as someone has pointed through out - the ee"c her"ets a. ne1/ e,c".c" thropgh the ChiCken. Thus, cosmology is a "family of things"/"scheme of is which deep structures and d-eep ideologies thingsrrconcept. lt that collrmon. It points toward-s a holistic of a civiL:-zation have in ana- lrrsi s of .a e'irril iz.et,-t on - an cffort to find. coillmon themes that the rna- and id"eal aspects of the civilization terial can be seen as implemen- one shoufd be abfe to invoke a cosnofo&r by one fi- tations of. Ideally, gure an image so powerful alone, that the essence of that civilization is carried- in that imase alone. We are not in possession of such imagery so our approach wif} have to be more anafytical. More precisely, vre :hal1 simply assume that in ord.er to explorc a cosmolory we should at l-east have some in- are nrc.cniqad in thsf forrnation "-"-'Hi about how the foflowins 6 entities \l - '/ coSmolog]r: Person-Nature Space Person-Person Time Pers on-Trans'o ersonaf Krrowledge Other aspects cou-ld be mentioned-, for instance something on the nature for just of hurnan action - but it will be left the time being, as we out African, Amerindian (North (poty- have left and South) and Pacific nesian, and Melanesian) Micronesian civtLtzations. The focus here is on a mod-e of analysis rather than on completeness. 'r,o the civilizations Let us then return singfed- out rnake use of the Occi-dent/Orient for attention. We shalf d-istinction, /^\ j o nrahl i t amc li a on,l hrr mnn-- wpl I k6owi nr" tha.+ COnSidef ed. OUt Of da t".\O/ ! wJ tL@tLJ wLf rravw!116 url4 u r u ID ulv arfu lJrvulsfll@ Two rronr val id noints of criticism are often a..e"ainsi this levellcd j-s similar distinction: that medieva] Europe in rm.ny regards to the or more particularly Orientrand. that lndia, the Hindu civilization,

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