Videos
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7 September 2015For some, cultural pluralism has been considered a Trojan horse that endangers Enlightenment achievements, notes Ulrich Preuss of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. This is in part because cultural pluralism claims different kinds of reason, an idea that seems contrary to Enlightenment ideals. Interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars, Preuss contends that pluralism actually emerges from modern law, which enables freedom, conflict, and dissent. - 2 September 2015According to Ulrich Preuss, Professor of Theories of the State at the Hertie School of Governance in Germany, Protestantism and the Reformation helped define the European nation state in terms of an ideal of unity in a territorial entity, which became the standard of modernity. But, today, this notion of the nation state is being challenged by immigration, globalization, and technological changes that demand more pluralism. Interviewed during Resetdoc’s Istanbul Seminars, Professor Preuss distinguishes between plurality as a fact and pluralism as a normative, contested idea.
- 31 August 2015For some, cultural pluralism has been considered a Trojan horse that endangers Enlightenment achievements, notes Ulrich Preuss of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. This is in part because cultural pluralism claims different kinds of reason, an idea that seems contrary to Enlightenment ideals. Interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars, Preuss contends that pluralism actually emerges from modern law, which enables freedom, conflict, and dissent. – Watch Part 1
- 31 August 2015According to Ulrich Preuss, Professor of Theories of the State at the Hertie School of Governance in Germany, Protestantism and the Reformation helped define the European nation state in terms of an ideal of unity in a territorial entity, which became the standard of modernity. But, today, this notion of the nation state is being challenged by immigration, globalization, and technological changes that demand more pluralism. Interviewed during Resetdoc’s Istanbul Seminars, Professor Preuss distinguishes between plurality as a fact and pluralism as a normative, contested idea. – Watch Part 2
- 26 May 2015“Is the legendary Indian pluralistic ethos once again under challenge by attempts to homogenize and radicalize society around dogmas and creeds?” asks Rajeev Bhargava, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014. He contends that the threat is real, but an entrenched pluralist ethos and a democratic tradition of checks and balances should be able to contend with it. If channeled correctly, these forces may be able to be contained within reasonable limits and even serve to strengthen Indian democracy.
- 26 May 2015According to Rajeev Bhargava, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014, Ashoka’s 7th edict is a lesson about public political morality in deeply diverse societies. It encourages people to evolve in their own respective religious-philosophical perspectives towards a mutual moral growth, by which the Other can be enriched. Today, we call this notion pluralism. Toleration, on the other hand, encourages living back to back with a lack of mutual interaction.
- 26 May 2015“We are all incomplete in some ways,” says Rajeev Bhargava. “In order to enrich ourselves and to complete ourselves, we need to mutually communicate with each other all the time.” Bhargava references the work of the Maurya Dynasty emperor Ashoka. In Ashoka’s ideal world people should mix and practice dhamma: listening to a plurality of voices, controlling the tongue, being critical – but with moderation. In the 3rd century BCE, Ashoka wrote the 7th edict, an ethical guide to pluralism, which is still valuable today. For Bhargava, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014, the edict was not about living back to back, but face to face in search for a common ground.
- 26 May 2015Rajeev Bhargava, a Professor at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi and a scholar of issues concerning secularism, constitutionalism, and multiculturalism, looks at India during the 3rd century BCE to analyze the major social and intellectual transformation that took place under Ashoka’s rule. Bhargava contends that ritual sacrifice lost importance for a transcendental view in which the Other, the community, became of value. In his legendary edicts, Ashoka engaged in finding answers about how to live together in spite of difference. Bhargava was interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014.
- 27 March 2015Part 2 – Since World War I, every major political event has created masses of refugees and immigrant. As entire populations move, strong reactions are often triggered amongst native people. Cultural pluralism developed out of the need for an ethos that could meet differences and recognize how other cultures enrich society. “Recognition of cultures enriches society,” says Richard Bernstein, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014. “It is not a threat to society.” – Watch Part 1 of this video
- Richard J. Bernstein 27 March 2015Part 1 – “The doctrine of pluralism became important against the notion of the melting pot,” says Richard Bernstein, a professor of philosophy at The New School. Developing in America as a reaction to forms of ethno-cultural monism that emerged during the great immigration waves, the doctrine of pluralism stands in opposition to a conception of “American” identity modelled on the figure of the white Anglo-Saxon protestant. Professor Bernstein, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars, argues that democracy encourages recognition of cultural differences in sort of ‘overlapping unity.’ – Watch Part 2 of this video
