THE IDEALS, PLURALISTIC CULTURE AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

Authors

  • Tran Van Doan

Abstract

This paper will contend that social progress should always be determined by noble goals and ideals (truth, goodness, beauty, holiness). That means, social progress is achieved first by human search for these noble ideals, and then by human continuous effort to realize them in a concrete form, to cultivate them and make them flourish. A society makes real progress only when it is trying to take "a step forward" closer to the ideals of truth, goodness, beauty, and holiness. Traditional values are conceived of, first, as the ideals of a society, and after a long history of being tested by their life-worlds, "passed on" (traditio) to the next generations. Traditional values are the real testaments of social progress. We argue further that, since traditional values represent the ideals of a certain society, and since we are always orienting towards these ideals, then a step closer to traditional values means social progress also. Precisely in this context that we may say that progress means both "a step forward" and "a step backward."

Author Biography

Tran Van Doan

National Taiwan University, Taiwan

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Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2005): July - December 2005

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Articles

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