Creating a Philosophy for the Future

Philosophy has emerged in many cultures, wearing many guises. Although certain ideas spread widely in pre-modernity, it is only relatively recently that it has begun to make sense to talk about a global philosophical culture in which thinkers can draw on the resources of a range of philosophical traditions, Asian and Western, to address the problems that concern them. This situation, which owes a huge debt to 19th and 20th-century scholarship in the history of philosophy, sheds new light on our understanding of progress in philosophy, the expansion of philosophical knowledge, and philosophy as an agent of cultural change. It also raises questions about the degree to which we can bring together insights and conceptual tools from diverse and independent philosophical traditions to form genuinely novel philosophical approaches that add up to more than the sum of their component parts. By showcasing the work of philosophers, as well as thinkers from cognate disciplines, whose work has roots in both Asian and Western traditions, this international conference will explore some of the ways in which boundary-crossing, post-comparative thought can contribute both to the expansion of philosophical knowledge and to the emergence of a global philosophical culture. It also considers how thinkers within such a global philosophical culture might create new philosophical tools that will be of use in a future that, given the current pace of environmental and social change, is likely to be radically different from the past. The broad goal of the conference is to make a significant contribution to the creation of a philosophy for the future.