Time and History, East and West

Sept. 28- Oct. 1, 2000
Holiday Inn Executive Center
Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A.

CONFERENCE THEME DESCRIPTION

The theme of the 2000 meeting-- Time & History: East & West-- is not a limiting theme. Both individual papers and panels are encouraged on any topic of interest. Scheduled sessions include two panels devoted to the thought of J. N. Mohanty (Temple University in Philadelphia and Emory University in Atlanta), one of which will be an "author meets his critics" discussion. Student participation is also encouraged.

Conference participants who are not already members of the SACP are expected to pay 2000 membership dues in order to become Society members. Questions can be directed to dallen@maine.edu.
 

• Click here for a conference registration form.
• Click here for an SACP membership form.

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
 

Until recently, discussions about time- and history-conceptions in the East and West have been dominated by clichés, such as: the Western conception of time is linear whereas the Eastern conception of time is cyclic; or, the West under the Judeo-Christian influence developed history while the East, especially India, remained ahistorical.

However, contemporary investigation is demonstrating that these clichés have no factual basis. Stephen J. Gould, for example, argues that Western culture has employed both the metaphors of time's arrow (time as linear) and time as cyclic in different contexts. This may be said of the Eastern conception of time. We are overdue to abandon simplistic generalizations and take a look at facts.

We must address the idea of time with new eyes. Our task makes it imperative that we take into account not only empirical and scientific theories, but also metaphysical ones. We need to consider what conceptions of natural processes have persisted in a culture, what cosmological theories of the universeís origin have been held, what techniques have been used to measure time, and what units of time have been used for calculation.

We also need to consider other questions in need of a fresh appraisal, such as: Is time finite or infinite? Is time a changeless order of moments (McTaggartís A-series)? Or is it a flowing stream flux (McTaggartís B-series)? How is time in any culture connected to human experience, consciousness, or subjectivity?-- (considering, for instance, Augustine, Kant,  and Husserl on one hand and Aristotle, Taoism, and modern physics on the other). How is time related to space in a given culture?

As for historyóthere is, first, a need to determine what kinds of historical writings are to be found in ancient cultures such as those of Greece, India, and China. What value has been placed on history by various cultures? What connection does the prevailing conception of history in a culture have to its predominant religious world-view, to its ecshatological conception? What connection does this conception have to the relation between human beings and gods?

In the context of religion, the distinction between sacred and profane time, sacred and profane space, must be considered as it has occurred in different cultures. We must further ask-- Has there been a conception of human progress in every culture; if so, do these conceptions bear a recognizable pattern?

In the Indian context, it is also important to ask how the ideas of karma, rebirth and moks\a relate to time and history. Do karma and rebirth operate in the same dimension of time as other natural events, or in another dimension? Given that history is the history of community while karma is that of an individual, does it make more sense to argue that karma operates in a dimension that is essentially different from history? Or, could we argue that the history of a community is the outer manifestation of the invisible karma of its members? In the context of moks\a, it needs to be examined whether moks\a transcends time and history, while as a phenomenon still occurring in history.

Similar questions can be raised in terms of Confucian and Taoist thinking. Is the Taoist notion of eternal return based on the cyclic conception of time? Likewise, is the Confucian remembrance of a long forgotten tradition to be preserved by learning founded upon a linear conception of time? What of the relationship held by other complex metaphysical concepts from other intellectual traditions to these two central concepts, time and history?

These are only some of the avenues which participants might explore. These subjects promise numerously varied nuances for investigators to examine, amplify and modify in accordance with their own insights and interests. It is only at the end of such a research project that we may be in a better position to be able to think about the larger questionó where do conceptions of time and history differ in the East and the West?ó without falling prey to the usual clichés and unexamined hypotheses of overly simplistic formulae.

Registration forms and fees should be sent to:

Bina Gupta, SACP President
Department of Philosophy
437 General Classroom Bldg.
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211

www.umaine.edu/~sacp/IM2000/announce.html
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Last updated July 9, 2000.