Inclusive Humanism

The diversity of interconnected cultures on a bounded planet requires more shared orientations. The humanities and politics have to face fundamental questions: What does a humanism look like that does not move too rapidly to universalize the views and historical experiences of the European or American world? How can we conceive of globality as a new entity without playing unity and diversity off against one another? Does a world culture need common values or only rules of human exchange? And how do we keep the terms “culture” and “humanity” from being misused as weapons in identity wars? Any realistic cosmopolitanism must proceed from an understanding of humankind as one entity without fitting cultures to some sort of global template. Answers can be gained by deploying shared characteristics of humans as well as pan- cultural commonalities. This book offers an anthropologically informed foundation for addressing pertinent questions of intercultural exchange.

Studies the University of Bonn. Study of geology-paleontology (Diploma) and then the Ethnology in Cologne, PhD 1987, habilitation 1995th Main areas of research: Cognition, city culture, cultural change, local knowledge and Cultural universals. Regional Interest: Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

Recent books: Basic positions intercultural Ethnology (Nordhausen, 2007), What is the People have in common? (Darmstadt, 2007) and The Theory unexhausted. evolution and creationism in science and society (together with Thies and Lammers, Aschaffenburg 2008).

Foreword
Introduction: Beyond the “Global Village” and a “World in Fragments”
Chapter 1: First Contact
Chapter 2: All different, all equal: Culture beyond Difference
Chapter 3: Planetary rather than Global: Constructing a Realistic Cosmopolitanism
Chapter 4: Pan - Cultural Commonalities
Chapter 5: My Identity, Your Identity, Our Identity: Cultural Encounters
Chapter 6: Concentric Dualism as an Obstacle for Humanity
Chapter 7: Commonalities in Our Worldviews?
Chapter 8: Causes of Universals: Our very Nature - and so more!
Chapter 9: Planetary Humanism, Human Rights and Negotiated Universals
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index