"The God's Pottery Cup: Cultural Diversity and Biological Diversity"

Author: Ouyang Zhiyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: On the eve of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UNESCO held the Third International Academic Conference on Science and Culture in Belém, Brazil. The conference issued the "Belém Declaration," which generally proposed the importance of protecting both biodiversity and cultural diversity. The relationship between cultural diversity and biodiversity is a proposition with a broad temporal and spatial scope and high difficulty. Research on the two types of diversity has currently produced some results, particularly in the field of cultural diversity, such as discussions on global multipolarity, which have even reached a relatively heated level. However, these studies have largely remained at the level of specific sciences and some of them even contain certain misleading elements. This book reveals the intrinsic connection between the two types of diversity from a philosophical perspective, thereby exposing the essence of contemporary global issues. Main Innovations:
1) Argues the duality of globalization: it is both an objective necessity of productivity development and an artificially driven phenomenon, thus containing a considerable degree of misdirection. On this basis, it offers some predictions about the development of the international situation, thereby responding to the Western scholars' theories of the "end of history" and "clash of civilizations."
2) From the perspective of the unity of natural and social sciences, it argues the inevitability of cultural diversity and proposes that the impact of the natural environment on social development not only occurs through productivity but also directly through social psychology.
3) Conducts an epistemological and methodological analysis of the complementarity principle in quantum mechanics and applies it to the social realm, demonstrating its significance in handling the relationships between diverse cultures.
4) From the perspective of complementarity, it explores the interaction between cultural diversity and biodiversity, arguing that the only choice for solving global issues is the socialist path. Based on the historical experience of the international communist movement, it also highlights the significance of cultural context for socialist practice.
This book theoretically promotes the unification of cultural philosophy and ecological philosophy, offering an attempt to advance historical materialism. Practically, it provides a reference for observing the current international situation, helping to clarify ideological confusion and promoting the healthy development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.