Reforming Democracy for an Age of Global Warming through Ancient Chinese and Greek Philosophy

The Northern Lights Confucius Institute and Institute of Philosophy, University of Iceland, present a lecture by Graham Parkes:

"Reforming Democracy for an Age of Global Warming through Ancient Chinese and Greek Philosophy"

Coping with global warming is arguably the greatest challenge we face as a species, because it’s what the United States military calls a ‘threat multiplier’. As the climate continues to break down, most of our other problems — world poverty, food and water security, terrorism, migrants and refugees, environmental pollution, species extinction — become way more challenging. Yet after more than twenty years of annual United Nations conferences on climate change, no legally binding consensus has been reached. Our current politics and geopolitics have been failing to rise to the challenge.

There are three major obstructions to progress on slowing global warming: the hefty financial clout of the fossil fuel industries, which for decades have been spending millions on spreading misinformation and promoting the status quo; the giant companies that dominate the internet, which profit from keeping us entranced by the spectacle of consumer capitalism, and allow unscrupulous agents to subvert our democracies; and the religious Republicans in the US Congress who subvert the work of key committees on science, energy and the environment, thereby blocking meaningful action by the American government. All of this is financed by a secretive gang of libertarian billionaires who have basically bought the US government.

And if we’re to minimise the risks from continuing with business as usual, the rest of the developed world will have to swiftly secure the full cooperation of China (then of India, Brazil, etc) in the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The way not to get China’s cooperation is to continue to harp on the theme of human rights and browbeat the Chinese into adopting liberal democracy, a practice that has so far proved fruitless.

We stand a better chance of productive cooperation with China if we acknowledge some beneficial features of their political system. Two relevant policies of the Xi Jinping regime are the drives to get money out of politics by eradicating corruption, and to strengthen political meritocracy—both of which derive from the regime’s embrace of classical Confucian political philosophy. What’s remarkable is that these initiatives could have been inspired by a reading of Plato’s Republic. The consonances between Plato’s recommendations and those of the Confucians and current policymakers in China suggest that the philosophy of the Chinese regime is not so alien to Western traditions.
Here each side can learn from the other: just as the Chinese regime would benefit from introducing some checks and balances, and stricter adherence to the rule of law, we for our part can reform the democratic system by ensuring that the rulers are the most competent and least self-interested that can be found. A more meaningful dialogue on these topics between China and the West can set the stage for the broader international conversation that’s required for adequate progress on coping with climate change.

Time and place: Thursday, 3 May, 5-7 pm at Hannesarholt Cultural House, Grundarstígur 10.

Graham Parkes is Professorial Research Fellow at University of Vienna, Austria, and Visiting Professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai. He is author of a number of books, e.g. Composing the Soul: The Reaches of Nietzsche‘s Philosophy and editor of Nietzsche and Asian Thought and Heidegger and Asian Thought, but also translator of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, published by Oxford University Press in 2005.

This event is open and free of charge. Refreshments for sale on site.