Perspectives on Culture, Values, and Justice

This book explores three central concepts, namely justice and human rights, ethics and values, and intercultural learning. These are important to everyone in a multicultural society and of special interest to students and scholars of philosophy, cultural studies, religious studies, and other related disciplines. In this volume, a pluralistic approach is adopted to examine ethical and value questions. Accordingly, readers will learn much from the interaction between Western and Eastern methods of ethical inquiry. The impetus for this collection of essays is the notion that cultural diversity represents a source of exchange, innovation and creativity. Consequently, cultural diversity is as critical for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. Furthermore, cultural diversity is a property of the entire community, just as biodiversity is a property of the entire ecosystem. Therefore, understanding and learning from cultural pluralism is as central to social and cultural stewardship as protection and restoration are to biological diversity. Within the pages of Perspectives on Culture, Values, and Justice readers will experience a growth in perspective and a greater understanding of issues of culture, value, and justice. A major starting point for these contemplations is that culture and values are integral to our identity and the essence of who we are and what we do.