Executive Vice Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies and Researcher at the World Ethics Institute Beijing at Peking University, Professor of Department of Philosophy at Grand Valley State University; Major research fields: Chinese and Comparative Philosophy, Modern European Philosophy, Philosophy of Causation, Philosophy of Cultivation; Selected works: Confucius: The Man and His Way of Cultivation (2016), Confucius Making the Way Great (2010), Wandering: Brush and Pen in Philosophical Reflection (co-author, 2002).

Speech Abstract

“One Belt and One Road” and the Dialogical Civilization

The “One Belt, One Road” initiative put forward by China is not just an economic development plan or geopolitical strategy. Embodied in it are the concepts of the “community of common destiny” and “win-win cooperation” that include the model of dialogical civilizational. This model is deeply rooted in Chinese traditional thought. Its holistic mentality and biological view of causality not only do not exclude the rights and interests of individuals, but they are the ultimate guarantees for them. It also provides a chance rectify the name of Marxism by interfacing the last hundred years of history with the previous direction of development. Transforming this concept into a guiding principle and a mode of behavior will hopefully result in a radically different world order than our current one of endless conflict dominated by the idea of individualism. This is a historic opportunity and responsibility given to China.