CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY
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Prof. Tu Weiming, former Director
of Harvard's Yenching Institute, and a foremost scholar in
Confucianism, believes that to protect or advance a culture, we
must first understand it. But how do you define culture?
Prof. Tu suggests a "Four Dimensional Anthropo-Cosmic
Framework", which looks at four universal dimensions of culture:
Man's relationship with him/herself (Sense of Self), Man's
relationship with his community of fellow humans (Sense of
Community), Man's relationship with the environment, both
natural and man-made (Sense of Place), and Man's relationship to
the heavens (Sense of Spirit). Culture, in other words, is a
manifestation of a person¡¯s holistic view of his/her
relationship to the cosmic order - hence the term "anthropo-cosmic."
Culture is therefore unique to each person, to each region, to
each country, and it is constantly evolving, or rather
co-evolving, among its constituents. Under this framework, it is
clear that arts, music, philosophy, religion, etc., are
expressions of culture, rather than its determinants.
Insofar as culture represents the integrated worldview of a
person¡¯s relationship to Heaven (Ì죬spiritual realm), Earth
(µØ£¬physical realm, including the man-made and natural
environments), and Man (ÈË£¬social realm), a healthy culture
fosters a harmonious relationship among the three. And this
parallels the goal of sustainability as currently defined, which
is to promote the health of the natural environment, the economy
and society.
Moving beyond the current definition, I submit that a more
complete definition of Sustainability is that it fosters the
Health Of Human Culture, defined as the health of an
individual¡¯s relationship to Self, Community, Environment and
Spirit. Once the health of human culture is restored or
sustained, we will not only sustain the health of the natural
environment, the economy and society, but also the individual's
physical, mental and spiritual health.
We will have achieved "Cultural Sustainability".
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