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This article focuses on the Chronology by the Graz Jesuit Joseph Stöcklein (1676–1732), published in 1729. Since late antiquity, intellectuals have been crafting chronological works with a view to making apparent God's actions in the world. These attempts were primarily based on the Old Testament, which was seen as a historiographical narrative and thus counted as a record of factual truth. New chronographical insights from China, which had been reaching Europe since the beginning of the seventeenth century, contradicted this exegetical tradition, however. Whoever attempted to relate the new findings arriving from China to the Bible had no choice but to give up certain truths in order to save others. Seen in this light, the tight framework of biblical truth led directly to creative hypotheses such as Stöcklein's Chronology, which demonstrated two main shifts in the conceptualizing of universal history: first, Stöcklein emphasized the significance of the Old Reich and therefore decentred his universal history from western Europe to (mainly) Augsburg and Nuremberg; secondly, he envisaged the Far East rather than the Middle East and Europe as the geographical centre of Christian universalism and of the beginning of universal history. One crucial step was his relocation of Paradise to the immediate vicinity of China. Discussing the manifold Buddhist, Muslim and Christian sources with which Stöcklein was playing, I argue that Stöcklein's turned the biblical story of salvation into a Chinese story of salvation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the discourse of sanātan dharm ("the eternal religion") as it exists in the North Indian pilgrimage and tourist town of Pushkar. Despite the term's complex pedigree, it is most frequently deployed in Pushkar as a code word for universalism. I consider it a technique of "brothering," a process which suggests that through blurring distinction and drawing large enough boundaries, the other can become the self. Tourism serves as a catalyst in the creation of this discourse, manifesting in a vast repertoire of sayings and phrases that promote a type of Hindu universalism. At the same time, given its place in Pushkar's tourism economy and its nationalist history, the promise of egalitarianism can seem at times tenuous. This article discusses how issues of moneyed interest and virulent nationalism shape, and are negotiated within, discourses of the "eternal religion," while simultaneously giving serious consideration to the prospect of brothering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that the High-Church Tory, Mary Astell, held political views diametrically opposed to the Whiggish Catharine Trotter Cockburn and Catharine Macaulay, it is here argued that their metaethical views were surprisingly similar. All were influenced by a blend of Christian universalism and Aristotelian eudaimonism, which accepted the existence of a law of nature, that we strive for happiness, and that happiness results from living in accord with our God-given nature. They differed with regard to epistemological issues; the means by which we can know the law of nature, and with regard to the characterization of that nature; our telos. Traces of the ethical theories developed by these women can also be seen in the works of the philosophically informed novelists, Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier, Sarah Scott, and Hannah More. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the relationship between American multiculturalism and the rise of conservative Christianity in the late 20th century U.S. through a discussion of the novel "The Poisonwood Bible," by Barbara Kingsolver. Focus is given to Kingsolver's critique of American fundamentalism and promotion of universalism, which it is argued is undermined by her cultural relativism. The possibility that Kingsolver's relativism was influenced by author Alice Walker is proposed.

There is a tension between Islamic Law and International human rights law in that many supporters of the latter hold that human rights are universal in nature such that where Islamic law and International human rights law conflict, the former must, empirically be wrong (and justifiable only in the name of cultural relativism). Because Islamic law is seen by its followers as the law of God, however, it also has a claim to universal validity. Hence, the clash between Western and Islamic orthodoxy is of two ‘universalisms’ neither of which can convincingly and empirically prove its own truth, such that either might in fact be ‘true’. An appreciation of this fact and of the normative underpinnings of the Islamic universalism enables Western observers better to understand aspects of Islamic law which clash with Western views of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Virtually everyone takes the moral supervenience thesis to be a basic conceptual truth about morality. As a result, if a metaethical theory has difficulties respecting or adequately explaining the supervenience relationship it is deemed to be in big trouble. However, the moral supervenience thesis is a not a conceptual truth (though it may be true) and as such it is not a problem if a metaethical theory cannot respect or explain it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we examine the emerging discipline of comparative theology as a valuable window into the problematic of the return of religion and theology after “religion.” The first section discusses recent historical critiques of comparative religion, focusing particularly on its emergence from a late nineteenth-century discourse that was also called “comparative theology.” This critique focuses attention on the unacknowledged normative commitments implicit in the category of “religion” as an object of scientific study. The second section presents the new comparative theology as one of several constructive responses to the dilemma, with this critical difference: whereas the recognition of normative commitment remains a methodological problem for most scholars in religious studies, it belongs to the very nature of the comparative theological project. Insofar as it encourages wider accountability and authentic vulnerability in its comparative practice, we argue, the new comparative theology represents both a way past the legacy of liberal universalism and a useful model for comparative enquiry in theology and religious studies alike. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Logical pluralism is the view according to which there is more than one relation of logical consequence, even within a given language. A recent articulation of this view has been developed in terms of quantification over different cases: classical logic emerges from consistent and complete cases; constructive logic from consistent and incomplete cases, and paraconsistent logic from inconsistent and complete cases. We argue that this formulation causes pluralism to collapse into either logical nihilism or logical universalism. In its place, we propose a modalist account of logical pluralism that is independently well motivated and that avoids these collapses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay asserts that the discourse on globalization—as filtered through the social science oligopoly of Britain, France, and the United States—is an extension of the dominant (classical) modernization/development paradigm * , traceable to Weber and Hegel, whose views contributed much toward what critics identify today as Orientalism * and Eurocentrism * . Anthropocentrism * and the belief that progress involves emulating the West (center) by the rest (periphery) are part and parcel of social science, * which tends to project its European universalism as universal universalism. This essay argues that an alternative view of globalization is possible through the perspective of Eastern, particularly Buddhist, philosophy, * which sees globalization as an ongoing dynamic process involving the entire environment in which humanity is only one actor. Daoism sees globalization as increasing diversity (engendered by the interaction of yin and yang) in perpetual interaction within unity, which the ineluctable Dao represents. . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the relationship between universalism and the philosophy of education. The authors explore how anti-universalism views have raised concern over the push to have Western schooling practices adopted in minority communities in Western democracies and on indigenous peoples residing is post-colonial regions. Critics of this practice believe that local cultural attitudes and social norms need to be incorporated into schools that would be in these positions. The authors argue that to condemn universalism altogether may be problematic for a number of reasons. They assert that the anti-universalist perspective can ignore important social issues that need to be addressed in the age of globalization.

The article presents a response to a paper that explored universalism and its application to the philosophy of education. The author discusses how the paper addressed the issue of universal justice and how justice is interpreted in a world society that is experiencing globalization. The author believes the paper helps promote discussion between proponents of universalism and anti-universalism. The author furthers the discussion by examining the concept of universalism in terms other than the oppositional relationships that may exist between two cultures.

The article presents a response to an article the commented on a paper by the authors that examined how the concept of universalism it applied to the philosophy of education. The authors attempt to clarify certain points of their argument they feel may have been misinterpreted including the assertion that they have fell victim to dichotomous thinking. They discuss the variety of opinions that make up the anti-universalism platform and note that they do agree with some of these critiques. They also note that their paper did not discuss the philosophical foundation of universalism.

This article presents an examination of deism in the U.S. in the years following the the American Revolution. The author relates the story of merchant and deist William Beadle who murdered his wife and children in 1782 and the reaction this crime had on public opinion towards deism in the U.S. The author explores how deism challenged Americans' religious views and the role deism played in shaping American religious common sense. The author discusses the religious atmosphere of the U.S. in the years following the Revolutionary War and the popularity that Christianity and Evangelicalism experienced during those years.

During the 1780s, as Kant was developing his universalistic moral theory, he published texts in which he defended the superiority of whites over non-whites. Whether commentators see this as evidence of inconsistent universalism or of consistent inegalitarianism, they generally assume that Kant's position on race remained stable during the 1780s and 1790s. Against this standard view, I argue on the basis of his texts that Kant radically changed his mind. I examine his 1780s race theory and his hierarchical conception of the races, and subsequently address the question of the significance of these views, especially in the light of Kant's own ethical theory. I then show that during the 1790s Kant restricts the role of the concept of race, and drops his hierarchical account of the races in favour of a more genuinely egalitarian and cosmopolitan view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents two ontological conceptions of sounds which include the unrepeated event (UE) and the repeatable object (RO). In the EU conception, sounds are considered events happening to and depending on material objects, and have temporal parts. The RO conception shares two principles with the EU conception, which state that sounds are particulars rather than universals and are not ordinary space-occupying objects. Lastly, it suggests that RO conception differs from the EU conception in terms of conceiving sounds to be kinds of objects rather than events.

This article examines one of the central recurrent questions in international law: the relation between the universalism of certain of its principles and the possibility that they are imperialist in nature. The author illustrates how, in this regard, international law has, from its very origins, been the bearer of a paradox; a paradox that is, moreover, constitutive of the discipline, and from which international law cannot escape without itself ceasing to exist as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

William Walker's article takes a strongly universalist view of the requirements of nuclear order. It finds recent American administrations deliberately unwilling to maintain international confidence in the necessary collective narrative of eventual universal nuclear disarmament, so causing a crisis of confidence in the Non Proliferation Treaty regime. This commentary examines how far realistically different recent US policies and declarations could have avoided such problems, given certain underlying realities and dynamics surrounding the management of nuclear weapons. It also questions how indispensable abstract universalism will be in containing future nuclear proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of conservative attempts to scale back Social Security and Medicare, by limiting the program's universality through means testing and drastic benefit cuts, have failed. Thus, after numerous unsuccessful attempts at dismantling the U.S.'s universal old-age welfare state, or even meaningfully restraining its growth, conservative critics have developed a new approach. They are wrapping promarket "privatization" policy proposals in the popular universal framework of Social Security and Medicare. What is fundamentally different about privatization is that it embraces (or at least acquiesces to) key aspects of universalism, including broad-based eligibility and benefits that "maintain accustomed standards of living," which leave universal programs with rock-hard public support. Proponents argue privatization will "save" these programs. What distinguishes this approach from past retrenchment efforts is that promarket privatization policies, while supporting key universal tenets, will retrench Social Security's and Medicare's redistributive facets. Instead of limiting the most popular features of universalism, privatization proposals limit the redistributive elements of our large social insurance programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the theological implications of Schleiermacher's theory of religion in the Speeches and The Christian Faith, highlighting its contemporary promise for making sense of religious diversity. Religion, for Schleiermacher, is neither the result of an ahistorical core experience that is everywhere the same nor the result of particular cultural-historical experiences that are everywhere different. Rather, religion is a dialectical phenomenon, a kind of affective existential potentiality built into human nature that only appears as already modified in various communal and linguistic shapes. This view represents a fruitful negotiation between universalism and particularism. And it has distinct methodological implications: as a Christian, Schleiermacher interprets religion via a double-visioned [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International law is a European tradition. Nevertheless, like many other European traditions, it imagines itself as universal. Throughout its history, it has been associated with projects such as Christianity, secular statehood, enlightenment, 'civilization', free trade and human rights. International law's association with particular ideas or preferences does not, however, even slightly undermine it. There are no authentic universals that one could know independently of their particular manifestations. The key question is a political one: Are there good reasons for extending the scope of such ideas or preferences? Answering this question may not have been assisted by the turning of some of them into kitsch. But is that the condition of their universality? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martti Koskenniemi's criticism of the 'universality' of international law, ensuing from the European tradition, initially sounds quite stimulating, although not really new. Yet, one may be inclined to think that such criticism is also rather inaccurate, inasmuch as it remains both equivocal and ambiguous. This seems particularly true at a time when general international law, as it claims in essence to be universal in scope, is under attack from those who, in the name of their assumed unique position in the world community, aim to weaken the very notion of an international legal order. Nevertheless, as this order is indeed 'cosmopolitan', in the Kantian sense of the word, it is at the same time celebrated, especially by a number of non-governmental organizations which constitute the most active component of international civil society. Martti Koskenniemi's reductive vision does not seem to take account of this important phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, which is divided into three parts, first considers the debate around the universality of human rights focusing on family law in patrilineal African countries. It begins with a consideration of the discussions surrounding the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 before moving on to look at the positions of those who advocate a universal understanding and application of human rights norms and those who contend that universalism is no more than a fig leaf for western inspired values. The second part of the article argues that the whole cultural relativism v universalism debate is really about gender issues and in particular cultural justifications found in personal laws for discriminating against women. It considers and critiques frameworks advanced for reconciling global standards with local values. Finally the article advances the argument that the global/local debate in human rights is mirrored in discussions which have emerged between northern and southern feminists over priorities and strategies for challenging patriarchy. To see whether the two groups are really as far apart as the literature sometimes seems to suggest, the article examines African originated human rights instruments touching on issues of gender, and notes that they appear to reflect a universalist construct of values found in international human rights instruments emanating from the United Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the problem of universalism and particularism in contemporaryethics, and its relationship to Christian bioethics in particular. An ethicof human dignity is outlined, which, it is argued, constrains moral discoursein the broad sense – thus meeting the demands of universalism –but which is at the same time amenable to a variety of particularist interpretations– thus acknowledging the current shift toward historicism, traditionalism,and culture. The particularist interpretations that are of central concernhere are those provided by historic Christianity. The eventual goal is toindicate how a Christian conception of human dignity can have universal normativerelevance both as a standard against which to assess competing particularistconceptions, and as a practical guide for everyday living. A Christian conceptionof dignity will in turn have significant implications when addressing contemporaryissues in bioethics. These are ambitious goals, and a full explication ofthe ideas presented will not be possible in this context. Nevertheless, thereis value in getting a bird's-eye view of the landscape before one goesabout scaling the mountains and exploring the valleys. The present essay isintended as a general geography of the moral terrain in which an ethic ofdignity in general, and a Christian perspective on dignity in particular,can provide normative guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on universalism. Compatibility with common-sense metaphysics; Price of co-location; Definition of the notion of a sum; Tyler Burge's theory of aggregates.

Focuses on philosopher Matthew McGrath's views on universalism. Assumptions listed for the falsity of universalism; McGrath's arguments' reliance on two definitions and two premises; Problems with van Inwagen's argument's reliance on false assumption about universalism; Consideration of the possibility that universalist might embrace alpha.

Presents an analysis on Peter van Inwagen's critique of universalism. Overview of the Special Composition Question which was formulated by van Inwagen; Implication of the universalism critique on the question; Summary of the theses ited by van Inwagen on the falsity of universalism.

Focuses on the philosophy of annihilation. Immortality sought by people.

In the twentieth century, religious and political liberalism have generally been congruent, as were religious and political conservatism, along the dimension of universalism and particularism. In recent years the terminology has grown confused, when communists in the ex-Soviet region are described as conservatives, and proponents both of market capitalism and of ethnic nationalism are described as liberals. Changes in content of liberalism and conservatism are .also found in religious history. The issue of married priests today is considered to be a liberal reform within Catholocism; whereas in the twelfth century, reformers attacked married priests as corruption and abuse; at the Protestant Reformation, it was presented as church reform to abolish clerical celibacy. The rhetorical contrast "liberal/conservative" ties the concepts to the mobilization of conflict irrespective of its content Our familiar congruence of liberalism and conservatism in religion and politics is historically specific; it emerged at the exhaustion of the religious wars, in the late seventeenth century, and developed along with secularization into the early twentieth century. As particularism along ethnic and gender lines becomes a major grounds of mobilization in the late twentieth century, the classic liberal/conservative contrast appears to be eroding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the long-standing debate on social welfare policy, self-sufficiency is becoming a more moderate philosophy, universalism remains on the left, and a "no help" position is forming on the right A rare consensus is resolving family policy dichotomies. People of divergent philosophies and loyalties are beginning to agree on a policy of giving support to achieve self-sufficiency. The debates and centrist tendencies as they have formed since 1979, the year the White House Conference on Families began, are summarized and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the representation of a form of Pan-Christian Universalism in the art works of Wassily Kandinsky and Dimitrije Mitrinovic. The author references a yearbook titled "Towards the Mankind of the Future Through Aryan Europe." He describes Mitrinovic's Slavo attitude and highly developed syncretism that would have appealed to Kandinsky. In addition, the author notes that Kandinsky's utopian beliefs took their origins in part from an ecstatic vision of man and divinity.

Lower class buyer-seller interaction is examined in 13 types of local consumer establishments to determine whether primary type relationships emerge. Of the 4,324 interactions studied, 492 or 11.4 percent are construed as Friendships. Of the three variables introduced to account for variation in Friendship, "frequency" of interaction picks up 50 percent of explained variance, "intensity" of interaction 38 percent, and locational "accessibility" of establishment four percent. Since those interactions which exhibit high intensity and low frequency occur in service relationships that involve expert others, it is hypothesized that friendship is a protective device used by the defenseless consumer to change the normative ground of interaction from universalism to particularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Options of cash and services in social provision are viewed from three perspectives. The author also presents guidelines for providing services, describes the compromise voucher measure, and points out merits of universalism in both services and income maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can one begin to address the question of the universalism of certain twentieth-century French philosophers and humanists when it comes to Africa? How can one explain that Lévinas, the theoretician of alterity, Merleau-Ponty, who worked on the question of intersubjectivity and was critical of Stalinism, and Weil, who fought against alienation, also produced questionable writings when it came to the colonial liberation of African subjects? How can one explain the humanism of these French philosophers and their connections to earlier historical models (primitive mentality, cultural and social hierarchies) and more contemporary anthropological and sociological works? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]