Conference on Knowledge across Cultures

Abstract

This conference was organized by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Toronto, Canada. Approximately 166 participants, representing various disciplines and different countries, attended the eight plenary and twenty concurrent sessions. Its purpose was to bring together Eastern and Western knowledge through culture via an exchange of ideas and deliberations, an exposition of theories, and an examination of the contributions of various cultures-mainly China's-to human civilization. The papers presented and the discussions that ensued were extremely enlightening and concentrated on the following issues: a) the contributions made to knowledge by specific cultures (mainly Chinese, Indian, and Muslim); b) knowledge transferreed from the West to the East does not consider the attributes of the East; c) the East is responsible for finding ways to adapting its cultures to imported knowledge; and d) social science knowledge is better generated when social science researchers abandon natural science methodologies (i.e., realism and positivism) and recognize that the social sciences should be based on qualitative research. There were a few papers on the above-mentioned themes that were outstanding. Abdul Rahman, in his "Spheres of Life: Inheritance, Creativity, and Society," emphasized the holistic nature of knowledge. This knowledge does not underestimate or neglect the contributions of different countries (races) in developing the present (current) civilization. Abdul Rahman indicated that the lack of a holistic view of knowlege at present has also led knowledge to be fragmented ...