Philosopher Tim Scanlon Touches on Beef Protest, Dokdo
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
The World Congress of Philosophy ― or what many call ``the Olympics'' of philosophy ― ended Tuesday after a week-long run. The event's 22nd edition, held for the first time outside of Europe and North America, attracted some 2,600 thinkers including renowned Harvard professor Tim Scanlon.
The congress was an opportunity for both veteran and the rising generation of philosophers from all over the world to congregate, and be inspired by the non-Western backdrop.
``I'll be going home with more to think about,'' the 68-year-old Indianapolis native told The Korea Times. ``I was really struck by this sense of common history, which seems to be an important element in holding Korean society together.''
Scanlon's belief comes despite experiencing firsthand a candlelit vigil opposing American beef imports and bringing to light a clash between liberals and conservatives. As a ``zealot'' supporting freedom of speech, he said he wasn't bothered by the ``peaceful demonstration.'' But if rioters start attacking police, then it is not freedom of speech, he said.
``When the (Sungnyemun) gate in central Seoul was burned, people, as they were I imagine, felt very sad and that sadness was something shared,'' he said, explaining that mutual affinity for history and culture can serve as a common basis in this climate of conflict.
The United States also suffers from a growing rift among the haves and have-nots and opposing ideological camps. But it is an immigrant society ``thinly'' bound by constitutional ideals and belief in a ``well-ordered society'' ― when legal systems and basic economic orders are just and recognized as people as satisfying (John Rawls, ``A Theory of Justice''). ``At least in Korea you can be united by a sense of identity and culture. We may have that but it's thinner, and that perhaps makes things more difficult for us.''
Scanlon said he loved meeting other philosophers, especially those under 40, at the conference. His first visit to Korea also led him to meet an even younger thinker, Kim Da-in, a 19-year-old high school senior who won a philosophy competition and served as Scanlon's English guide. Kim also joined in the talk, and in addition to her question about the rallies, she raised another hot topic: the territorial dispute over the Dokdo islets.
Korea and its former colonizer's long-standing history of cooperation and discord bring to application one of Scanlon's subject matters ― the idea of blame, or ``a reaction to what is perceived as the impairment of a relationship.''
``Our relationships as individuals are defined by certain rules, expectations for how we treat each other, and it applies for separate sovereign countries,'' he told Kim, and if one of the parties violates those norms, then that challenges the basis for cooperation. Blame arises, perhaps justifying one party in withdrawing their intention to cooperate or make friendly overtures. This is natural, because treating an offender nicely can be self-demeaning, he said.
``If one nation has dominated another, then the dominated nation feels properly that as it were contrary to its own national self-respect to just forget about that,'' he said. While apology and forgiveness seem to be logical steps, simply ``bowing and being humble'' or saying everything's OK won't help.
``In this kind of case where there's a very complicated history, what seems necessary is some kind of mutual acknowledgement of the complexity of the history and mutual acknowledgement of the need to acknowledge the past and understand what the next step is going to be,'' he said. ``It's hard to do between individuals and it's presumably harder between nations.''
Scanlon recalled a speech about human rights and the obligation to help others by a young Russian philosopher at the conference. ``It was very interesting to hear what someone from Vladivostok had to say about it, because in the United States there's a sense of responsibility and guilt, or should be. One can get a bit warped by the distinctive historical role of the United States, like Japan and (its imperialistic past with) Korea. You feel that you're part of a power that has perhaps a disproportionate impact on the rest of the world, it creates a sense of uneasiness but it affects in other ways in which you see these issues,'' he said.
Scanlon also visited the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. ``It was a very moving experience,'' he said. He said it raises an unsolvable conundrum. ``While the (North Korean) regime is threatening, the North Korean people are starving… I don't have any solution to any of this. It made me feel forcefully about the complexity of the picture,'' he said.
But perhaps blame and forgiveness don't have to go as far as relationships with others, for people are constantly battling with their sense of moral obligation.
First one needs to answer to what degree a particular case can be addressed by individual action or institutional change, Scanlon said. In case of the former, one may, for example, be troubled by the dire conditions of slaughterhouses and refuse to eat meat, yet doubt one's impact.
``Taking individual action is not the act of refusing meat but the signal you're sending to other people,'' he said. Thus the ripple effect of ``small publicity effects'' of actions makes a difference. In any case, acknowledging that something is wrong and reflecting upon it in and of itself is important. ``Sometimes people don't want to think about things because they don't want to discover something they've been doing is wrong,'' he said.
An academic who has studied and taught at Harvard and Princeton Universities his entire life, Scanlon said he feels ``very severe limits'' of philosophical ideas reaching out to a larger public. But economists widely believe the social benefits ― and inspirational power ― of education outweighs its costs. Kim wishes to major in philosophy when she enters college next year. Did the professor inspire her? Her bright smile said it all.