A Humanism for Global Dialogue: Deweyan–Buddhist Perspectives on Co-Creating Meaning and Value Across Differences

• In Event: 52.063 - The Dewey–Soka Heritage: Dialogue, Reconstruction, and Value-Creative Democracy as Justice

Abstract

Successful dialogues across difference are essential to securing justice in the globalized world of the twenty-first century. The purpose of my paper is to reflect on what I have learned by participating in a dialogue with a Japanese Buddhist leader that does not speak English and Larry Hickman, Director of the Center for Dewey Studies. There was much for Larry and me to learn from someone like Daisaku Ikeda who is the head of a UN registered NGO and lists among his many accomplishments a prominent role in helping normalize relations between two ancient enemies like China and Japan by meeting with the then Premier of China Zhou Enlai. I will only mention a few principles that resonate with Deweyan thought.
Ikeda identifies Dewey as a fellow follower of the Buddhist ideal of the middle way. Both are religious humanists. On one side, they distrust excessive notions of self-reliance on human reason. On the other hand, they are wary of dogmatic religion. Hence, they both propose a balance between human capacities and the larger powers of the universe that lie beyond our control.
Many assume that humanism is incompatible with global dialogue. Such is the case with forms of humanism that assume some fixed and final essence of “Man” such as the secular humanists with their devotion to innate rationality. However, one may affirm the dignity of human beings and their ability to alter they own destiny without assuming some fixed and final essence. One of the surprises of the dialogue was that Buddhist notions of dependent co-origination and emptiness are highly compatible with Deweyan transactionalism.
Further, the Nichiren Buddhism of Ikeda emphasizes Zuiho-bini, which emphasizes adapting to the local culture and the customs of any region in the world. It expresses not only a tolerance toward, but also appreciation of, differences. In a world of dependent co-origination our emptiness should render us open to otherness and difference. The aim of education for Dewey was growth and we grow by cultivating sustaining relationships. This approach has compatibilities with Deweyan contextualism. It also expresses Dewey’s notion expressed in “Creative Democracy—The Task Before Us” that we must learn to “cooperate by giving differences a chance to show themselves because of the belief that the expression of difference is not only a right of other persons, but is a means of enriching one’s own life-experience” (LW 14, p. 229).
Creativity is also crucial for Ikeda and Dewey. Soka Gakkai literally means Value Creating Society. It assumes we may not only find commonality in every situation, but that we may create meaning and understanding. Practically, this has meant that among other things, Ikeda strongly supports cross-cultural artistic exchange. Similarly, in Art as Experience Dewey states “works of art are the only media of complete and unhindered communication between man and man that can occur in a world full of gulfs and walls that limit community of experience” (LW 10, p. 110). I explore these themes and others such naturalism, sympathy, and reverence.

Author

• Jim Garrison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University