The Cultural Pluralism, Values and Meaningful Life Project to be realized within Berlin Practical Philosophy International Forum, e.V., aims at showing and discussing the complexity, heritage, and achievements of various cultures in the context of their ideas about the good, worthy, and meaningful life.

Probably, each established form of collective culture puts forward specific models for the good life and offers long-term values and ideals that are worthy of realization throughout all human life, not merely at some of its stages. For example, eudaimonia (happiness) and aiming at wisdom in ancient Greece, sanctity and aiming at salvation in some religious cultures, heroism in patriotism-oriented political cultures, family life in traditional cultures, cultivation of native language in ethnic cultures, or financial success in consumption-oriented cultures. 

A culture or sub-culture that is deprived of such all-life-long ideals is incomplete or immature though, perhaps, inspiring from some other points of view. We can see much of it on the Internet, especially on social media. The technological revolution and the digital culture that it generates, accelerate many cultural transformations in many contemporary societies that, indirectly, have a profound impact on ideals that refer to the meaningful life of its members, especially the young.

Discussing cultures understood collectively does not preclude us from elaborating on culture understood individually, according to the Ciceronian model of cultura animi or cultus animi, which is the individual cultivation of the mind. Originally an agricultural metaphor for the cultivation of the individual soul or mind, it came to be associated in the West with the liberal arts, philosophy, and the humanities.

Our ambition is to develop these two, individual and collective, meanings of the term ‘culture’ so as to get culturally enriched and, on the other hand, contribute to the contemporary debates about the condition of cultures in their plurality and their basic values.

Chris Skowroński, PhD

John Lachs’s Practical Philosophy

 

Chris Skowroński (Opole University/Berlin Practical Philosophy International Forum) talks to Sami Pihlström (Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki) on the occasion of the Berlin Forum’s international conference they both co-organize at the Finnland Institut in Berlin (July 10-13, 2017). The general title of the conference is “Pragmatist Kant” and its main idea is to discuss various aspects of the pragmatist philosophy and the Kantian philosophy as seen from the viewpoint of their mutual interrelationships. Professor Sami Pihlström is talking about his own contribution to the project. He discusses his ideas that are present in his paper/speech, entitled “Jamesian Pragmatism, Rortyan Ironism, and Kantian Antitheodicy.” He briefly explains some practical aspects of his theoretical investigations on religion, ethics, evil, suffering, and others. For example, one can detect a practical dimension of a philosophical discussion on suffering while looking for its possible justification. More generally, some people can ask: is there any deeper sense in suffering? Various philosophies provide us with different answers to this question. Both pragmatism and Kantianism do not see any cosmic, divine, and universal justification of evil and suffering.

Sami Pihlström is a professor of philosophy of religion; his recent book, co-authored with Sari Kivistö, is entitled Kantian Antitheodicy: Philosophical and Literary Varieties. In his numerous books and papers he investigates the problems of metaphysics and religion in the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism, and its relationships with the philosophy of I. Kant and the Kantian tradition in general.