Johann P. Arnason

Understanding intercivilizational encounters.

The notion of a ‘clash of civilizations’, which now seems to have become a fashionable cliché, should be discussed in the context of a broader set of questions: the problematic of intercivilizational encounters. This is an important but very underdeveloped part of the research programme now known as civilizational analysis. The article begins with a brief survey of the Indian experience. Indian history includes a long succession of intercivilizational encounters, both those initiated from the West (by Greeks, Muslims and Europeans) and those that brought Indian influence to bear on other regions (as did the spread of Buddhism to East Asia and the ‘Indianization’ of Southeast Asia). These examples serve to sketch a phenomenology of encounters. For a more theoretical approach, the article turns to the work of Benjamin Nelson, who first introduced the concept of intercivilizational encounters. His analyses focus on the encounters that involve contacts or conflicts between the basic ‘structures of consciousness’ that define different civilizations. Such interactions can lead to fusion or to prolonged internal conflicts, but they may also be instructive because of the very absence of significant effects: in the latter case, fundamental blockages to intercivilizational borrowing or engagement are built into the structures of consciousness. For Nelson, the early modern encounter between China and the West was a prime example of that kind. The last part of the article takes the question beyond Nelson’s historical cases and relates it to the advanced phase of modernity, where the dominant type of encounters is three-cornered: it involves Western and non-Western civilizations as well as the new (modern) civilizational patterns adumbrated in the West but open to redefinitions in other contexts.

Civilizational Patterns and Civilizing Processes

The notion of civilization has from the outset had a double meaning: unitary and pluralistic. Both aspects were important to the development of the social sciences, but attempts to theorize them at the level of basic concepts are of relatively recent date and the results still controversial. While the idea of civilization in the singular found its most seminal expression in Norbert Eliass analysis of the civilizing process, classical sociology did not go beyond inconclusive reflections on civilizations in the plural, and a more explicit frame of reference for comparative analyses has only begun to take shape in the last few decades (most importantly in the work of S. N. Eisenstadt). This article outlines a provisional model of civilizational patterns and suggests ways of linking it to the study of civilizing processes. The main structural components to be noted are cultural interpretations of the world (understood as latent problematics, compatible with a variety of articulations); institutional constellations, with particular reference to the frameworks for political and economic life; and representative ideologies, linked to canonical texts and embodied in the strategies and self-images of sociopolitical elites. The dynamics of these interconnected factors must be analysed in several contexts: on the level of civilizational complexes which encompass whole families of societies; in the historical dimension, stretching across successive generations of societies; and with reference to regional configurations and their distinctive historical patterns. This conception of civilizations provides a background to the analysis of intercivilizational encounters, and a better understanding of the latter theme - on the whole neglected by civilizational theorists, with the notable exception of Benjamin Nelson - will in turn serve to develop a more interactionist theory of civilizing processes.

Alternating modernities : The case of Czechoslovakia

The relationship between multiple and successive patterns of modernity has emerged as a central issue in current debates. But the problem must be posed in different terms in different settings: there are regions and states where the sequence of patterns can be reconstructed in terms of an internal logic, whereas in other cases, it is conspicuously dependent on historical and geopolitical contexts. This article deals with the history of the Czechoslovak state (1918–92) as an example of the latter kind. The discussion begins with reflections on the background: the path from a national movement to a multi-national state. Socio-political constellations within this state reflect unresolved tensions between liberal and organized modernity, but also between different versions of the latter. The state was destroyed by the briefly ascendant Fascist version of organized modernity and then reconstructed on the basis of the Communist one. The Communist takeover was due to geopolitical circumstances, but facilitated by a strong current of indigenous radicalism; at a later stage, however, this current found expression in the most ambitious attempt to reform the Communist version of organized modernity.

Civilization and State Formation in the Islamic Context: Re-Reading Ibn Khaldūn:

Ibn KhaldØun’s theory of history has been extensively discussed and interpreted in widely divergent ways by Western scholars. In the context of present debates, it seems most appropriate to read his work as an original and comprehensive version of civilizational analysis (the key concept of ‘umran is crucial to this line of interpretation), and to reconstruct his model in terms of relations between religious, political and economic dimensions of the human condition. A specific relationship between state formation and the broader context of civilizational processes appears as the most central theme. This civilizational approach is then contrasted with the most influential recent Western interpretation, put forward by Ernest Gellner. Gellner translates Ibn KhaldØun’s analysis into functionalist terms and thus tones down its historical and civilizational specificity. The consequences are most obvious when it comes to discussing the unity and diversity of the Islamic world, especially with regard to the Ottoman Empire.

The Modern Constellation and the Japanese Enigma: PART I 1. Western Projections and Japanese Responses

even a remotely comparable record of successful competition with Western capitalism on the latter’s own ground and through several successive stages industrialization, imperialist, struggle for global power, and finally a phase of exceptionally rapid and sustained economic growth. As I will try to show, a closer look at the background reinforces the first impression. But this suggestion should be clearly distinguished from some more substantive assumptions with which it has far too often

Social Theory And The Concept Of Civilisation

1. Two developments testify to the growing importance of eivilizational perspectives in the social sciences. On the one hand, the comparative analysis of civilizations is increasingly recognized as a central rather? than 3 marginal theme; in particula.r, Weber’s pioneering attempt to link the comparison of Orient and Occident to other concerns of social theory now appears as the most important part of his legacy. In this regard, Benjamin Nelson~s work paved the way for a new understanding of Weber. On the other hand, more attention is paid to the dimensions

The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives

Notes on Contributors. Series Editors Preface. 1 Introduction (Johann P. Arnason). Part I Expansion and Transformation. 2 From City-State to Empire: Rome in Comparative Perspective (Kurt A. Raaflaub). 3 The Transition from Republic to Principate: Loss of Legitimacy, Revolution, and Acceptance (Egon Flaig). 4 Strong and Weak Regimes: Comparing the Roman Principate and the Medieval Crown of Aragon (D. A. Cohen and J. E. Lendon). Part II Late Antiquity: Division, Transformation, and Continuity. 5 The Background to the Third-Century Crisis of the Roman Empire (Adam Ziolkowski). 6 The End of Sacrifice: Religious Mutations of Late Antiquity (Guy G. Stroumsa). 7 Contextualizing Late Antiquity: The First Millennium (Garth Fowden). Part III Destinies of the Roman Legacy. 8 The Franks: Romes Heirs in the West (Matthias Becher). 9 The End of Rome? The Transformation of the Eastern Empire in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries CE (John Haldon). 10 The First Islamic Empire (Chase F. Robinson). Part IV Comparative Perspectives. 11 From City-State to Empire: The Case of Assyria (Mario Liverani). 12 Chinas Early Empires: The Authority and Means of Government (Michael Loewe). 13 The Legs of the Throne: Kings, Elites, and Subjects in Sasanian Iran (Scott McDonough). 14 The King of Kings: Universal Hegemony, Imperial Power, and a New Comparative History of Rome (Peter Fibiger Bang). Part V Conceptual and Theoretical Reflections. 15 The Roman Phenomenon: State, Empire, and Civilization (Johann P. Arnason). 16 Roman-European Continuities: Conceptual and Historical Questions (Peter Wagner). General Index. Index of Sources (selective).

Introduction Demarcating East Central Europe

Regional divisions have probably been more salient and their meaning more contested in Europe than in any other part of the world. The debate on this subject is complementary to the ongoing dispute on European exceptionalism, seen as a macro-regional or civilizational feature, and it is no more likely to be settled in definitive terms. Regional boundaries can only be drawn in approximate ways, allowing for borderline cases and overlapping spaces that can be of crucial importance. The criteria and the more detailed models of division depend on analytical as well as historical contexts; changes to geopolitical or geo-cultural settings may impose new frames of reference. To take an example of some significance for the field to be explored in this issue, Soviet domination from 1945 to 1989 provided an obvious rationale for the idea of Eastern Europe as a region, but the abrupt demise of the whole Communist power structure highlighted the limits to more extensive use of this construct. A very different situation has taken shape during the past 15 years. It is, at this stage, hard to predict how further progress of European integration will affect the pre-existing – often blurred and conflicting – patterns of regional division.

The Modern Constellation and the Japanese Enigma - Part 11

The starting-point of the previous discussion was the Habermasian conception of the modern state and the broader theoretical framework in which it is embedded.* As we saw, the notion of a &dquo;project of modernity&dquo; is very different from visions of an automatic or uniform progress. Its implications for the concrete strategies and processes of modernization are nevertheless very restrictive; Habermas allows for deformations and imbalances, caused by the uncontrolled expansion of economic or political subsystems, but as he sees it, there can be no overall counter-project that would amount to an alternative vision of modernity. In this sense, his image of modernity is still closed. If we want to challenge its basic assumptions, a confrontation with the Japanese experience would seem to be one of the more promising lines of criticism. As I have tried to show, the unique developmental pattern of the Japanese state is only the

The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations

Series Editor s Preface vii Contributors viii Introduction 1 Johann P. Arnason, Kurt A. Raaflaub, and Peter Wagner Part I The Greek Experience in Long-term Perspective 19 1 Exploring the Greek Needle s Eye: Civilizational and Political Transformations 21 Johann P. Arnason 2 Transformations of Democracy: Towards a History of Political Thought and Practice in Long-term Perspective 47 Peter Wagner Part II Ways of Polis-making: Grasping the Novelty of the Political 69 3 To Act with Good Advice: Greek Tragedy and the Democratic Political Sphere 71 Egon Flaig 4 Democracy and Dissent: the Case of Comedy 99 Lucio Bertelli 5 Democracy, Oratory, and the Rise of Historiography in Fifth-century Greece 126 Jonas Grethlein 6 Political Uses of Rhetoric in Democratic Athens 144 Harvey Yunis 7 Law and Democracy in Classical Athens 163 Adriaan Lanni 8 Democracy and Political Philosophy: Influences, Tensions, Rapprochement 181 Ryan K. Balot 9 Inscriptions and the City in Democratic Athens 205 Elizabeth A. Meyer Part III Changing a Way of Life: Democracy s Impact on Polis Society 225 10 The Impact of Democracy on Communal Life 227 Sara L. Forsdyke 11 The Demos s Participation in Decision-making: Principles and Realities 260 Claude Mosse 12 Democracy and Religion in Classical Greece 274 Robin Osborne 13 Democracy and War 298 Lawrence A. Tritle Part IV Political Concepts and Commitments 321 14 Perfecting the Political Creature : Equality and the Political in the Evolution of Greek Democracy 323 Kurt A. Raaflaub 15 Tyranny and Tragedy in Nietzsche s Understanding of the Greek Polis 351 Tracy B. Strong 16 The Liberty of the Moderns Compared to the Liberty of the Ancients 371 Nathalie Karagiannis and Peter Wagner Index 389