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A World Republic: Prof. Otfried
Höffe‘s Lecture at PKU
By Xiao Yuan
PKU NEWS 2005--09—23
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=127695236
Peking University, Beijing, Sep. 23rd, 2005: Invited by the Institute of Foreign
Philosophy of Peking University, the internationally famous philosopher rendered a
lecture at Ying Jie Communication Center on 23 Sep 2005. In his inspiring lecture,
he described his concept and vision of a world republic.
The Era of Globalization
Globalization is a fashionable concept. Prof. Höffe confirmed the trend of
globalization in three dimensions, as the globalization in economy, education, and
culture, and the globalization of violence, and of poverty and catastrophe, which he
called ―the ubiquity of globalization‖. Then he talked about what should people do to
satisfy the need of globalization, and meanwhile, to protect the tradition of law and
democracy.
His Answer: A World Republic
A world republic, therefore, is given as a prescription. Prof. Höffe demonstrated
that, in both concerns of democracy and competition, the world republic is
appropriate and feasible.
Prof. Höffe adopted a unique way of presenting his thesis. Since it is hard for
people to break from ideas and values they are familiar with, he innovatively listed
seven representative dissidences at the beginning. They are as follows:
:
1. Only countries could have the absolute right.
2. People never have, nor will find a global order.
3. The world republic is too gigantic to execute.
4. Human right could only be protected by single countries, other than a world
republic.
5. A ubiquitous democratization substitutes the necessary of a world republic.
6. There is never a universal concept of law that the world republic could depend on.
7. The world republic could be threatened to break up.
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