This book explores three central concepts, namely justice and human rights, ethics and values, and intercultural learning. These are important to everyone in a multicultural society and of special interest to students and scholars of philosophy, cultural studies, religious studies, and other related disciplines. In this volume, a pluralistic approach is adopted to examine ethical and value questions. Accordingly, readers will learn much from the interaction between Western and Eastern methods of ethical inquiry. The impetus for this collection of essays is the notion that cultural diversity represents a source of exchange, innovation and creativity. Consequently, cultural diversity is as critical for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. Furthermore, cultural diversity is a property of the entire community, just as biodiversity is a property of the entire ecosystem. Therefore, under-standing and learning from cultural pluralism is as central to social and cultural stewardship as protection and restoration are to biological diversity. Within the pages of Perspectives on Culture, Values, and Justice readers will experience a growth in perspective and a greater understanding of issues of culture, value, and justice. A major starting point for these contemplations is that culture and values are integral to our identity and the essence of who we are and what we do.
About the Author: Chandana Chakrabarti is a former Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the International Programme of Davis and Elkins College. She received her PhD in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and completed her postdoctoral work in philosophical psychology at the Australian National University in Canberra. Her other postdoctoral work was done at the University of Notre Dame and at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. She is a specialist in South Asian philosophy, comparative religion and comparative philosophy. She is Vice-President of the Society for Indian Philosophy and Religion and associate editor of the Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religion. Her books include Some Central Topics in Indian Philosophy; Religion and Politics of War (edited with Joel Wilcox); Rethinking Mysticism (edited with Gordon Haist), Politics, Pluralism and Religion; Morality and Spirituality in the Contemporary World, with Sandra Fairbanks; and Paradigms and Perspectives on Value and Reality, edited with Richard Vulich. Tommi Lehtonen is a Professor in Applied Philosophy and Social Ethics at the University of Vaasa, Finland. He specializes in ethics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of religion. His current research focuses on the concept of a point of view, sustainable investment, and values and ethics of governance. He is the author of After Secularization: A Philosophical Study of the Preconditions of Religion and Punishment, Atone-ment and Merit in Modern Philosophy of Religion. He is the editor of Philosophical Studies in Religion, Metaphysics, and Ethics, with Timo Koistinen, and Perspectives in Contemporary Philosophy of Religion, with Timo Koistinen. He has also published widely in philosophical and theological journals.