Valid materialism
a Western offering to Hocking's "civilization in the singular"
pp. 354-368
in: Leroy Rouner (ed), Philosophy, religion, and the coming world civilization, Berlin, Springer, 1966Abstract
"Today, we seem to stand on the threshold of a new thing," Professor Hocking wrote a decade ago: "civilization in the singular." 1 It is too early to predict what the contours of this single civilization will be, but not too early, I think, to ask what each of the great enduring civilizations — East Asian, South Asian, and Western — has of greatest worth to contribute to it. My personal hunch is that East Asia's contributions will prove to be largely in the area of social relationships, South Asia's in psychology, and the West's in man's relations with nature. Asia's contributions provide themes for another day; here I shall be concerned with what the West has to offer.
