Search results

Throughout human history, the idea of moral universalism has repeatedly appeared, but always in some less than universalistic, & hence morally compromised, form: in the religious imagination & culture, in the ideologies of liberalism & official socialism & in the liberal theory of the state, & in the informing worldview of the modern human & social sciences, especially anthropology. This discussion raises the question whether, & poses the possibility that, despite all the travails that globalization processes are unleashing worldwide (& perhaps even unknown to, & despite the political preferences of, many of globalization's more ardent champions), the present era of advancing globalization may be ushering in a truly historical moment & change in the history of the human moral imagination. By producing for the first time, no matter how unevenly, a single, interdependent humankind &, in prospect if not yet in actuality, a single worldwide human community, globalization processes may be producing an objective, experiential basis for the emergence of a genuine & uncompromised moral universalism: as a successor to, & to transcend, the sequence of selective intimations & incomplete intuitions of human universality that has hitherto constituted the history of humankind's moral imagination. Adapted from the source document.

The Asian economic crisis of 1997 highlighted the inherent instability of the new worldwide economic order being created by highly mobile capital, & also its destabilizing social & political effects, especially in the transitional societies that had proved so hospitable to the champions of globalization & to proffered capital inputs. Whether these societies are destined to be subsumed & captured by globalization processes, or whether they & their citizens have any possibility of capturing some genuine benefits from advancing globalization, may rest on whether these transitional states & societies can assert, or at least influence, the terms of their engagement with those processes. This will not be possible, however, if people, societies & states capitulate in advance to the forces & processes of globalization as irresistible. This issue is explored through the grounded investigation of four key questions: Do globalization processes serve any ends beyond themselves? How might one grasp the best, & make the most, of globalization? Is the logic of the market immutable & inflexible transculturally, or is it amenable to varying forms of cultural inflection & political supervision? Can what globalization delivers be drawn upon selectively, or is it instead a "package deal"? 146 References. Adapted from the source document.