MPAS 2003 III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

1
MPAS 2003III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Introduction
• There are no specific area studies methodologies
  as such
• Application of researchers disciplinary
  background to a problem in a given society /
  culture in the region
• However, applying disciplinary approaches,
  conceptualizations, theories, etc. to non-Western
  societies (or even to different societies in the
  West) problematic

2
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM
Todays lecture
3
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• This lecture is about how to tackle these issues
• What problems arise when one studies other
  cultures / societies?
• How to become aware of these problems?
• How to account for them in research?
• Done here by dividing different disciplinary
  approaches into two categories and discussing
  them separately

4
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Human sciences are usually divided into those
  using positivist (or explanative) approaches
• Many disciplines in social sciences, such as
  political science, sociology, economics, etc.
• And interpretative (or hermeneutic) approaches
• Many schools in humanist sciences / arts, such as
  history, anthropology, literature studies, etc.

5
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• In interpretative approaches human beings are
  viewed as an intentional actors who, in a given
  situation, follow certain culture-bound rules and
  principles, which define the rationality of ones
  behaviour
• To understand and make sense of peoples
  behaviour, one has to know the relevant rules,
  values, ideas, and norms in a given society and
  judge behaviour only according to these rules

6
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• For positivists, human behaviour can be explained
  through causal origins and social structures that
  are open to more universal inquiry
• No need to study individual intentions and
  therefore cultural specific values, beliefs,
  worldviews, etc.
• Both of these approaches face area studies
  problems in different, but related, ways
• The problem of relativism / universalism

7
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Positivist question Can there be universal
  knowledge that can be rigorously codified into a
  scientific theory and applied to all societies
  and cultures?
• Interpretative question Can there be meaningful
  rendering of other societies values, ideas, ways
  of thinking, to our languages and values?
• Below the interpretative approaches are discussed
  first

8
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Interpretative approaches face the challenges of
  cultural relativism and ethnocentrism
• Cultural relativism
• Two forms
• Strong form is a refutation of the possibility of
  universal forms of knowledge above historical
  societies,
• Weak form is a more modest realisation of the
  need to understand other cultures based on their
  own values

9
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Weak form can be found for example in many
  anthropological studies, where cultural
  relativism and ethnocentrism can be defined as
  follows (Plog and Bates)
• Cultural relativism the ability to view beliefs
  and customs of the other people within the
  context of their culture rather than ones own
• Ethnocentrism Tendency to judge the customs of
  other societies by the standards of ones own

10
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• The tug-of-war between relativism and
  universalism is probably as old as the Western
  practice of science
• Begins with the disputes in classical Greece
  between the Sophists and their opponents
• Different forms of relativism have also staged a
  comeback in the post-war Western philosophy of
  science, social sciences and humanities

11
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Especially in post-modern theories of knowledge
  (critical approaches)
• The modern form of relativism has found its way
  to East Asian studies since the late 70s
• The this problematique is actually much older in
  Orientalist studies (anthropology, history, and
  literature studies)
• Relativism also discussed under various other
  names and titles

12
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• For example
• Clifford Geertz and thick and thin forms of
  knowledge (or descriptions taken originally
  from Gilbert Ryle)
• Thin knowledge is acquired through uninformed
  observation (counting cats)
• Thick knowledge is acquired through combining
  observations with knowledge of cultural codes
  pertaining to certain forms of behaviour
• Thick knowledge represents weak cultural
  relativism typical to many anthropologists

13
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Other concepts used to refer to the same division
  are emic and etic (by linguist Kenneth Pike)
• An "emic" account of human behaviour is its
  description in terms that are meaningful
  (consciously or unconsciously) to the actor
  (thick, interpretative, hermeneutic)
• An "etic" account is a description of a behaviour
  in terms familiar to the observer (thin,
  explanative, positivist)

14
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Those using the weak relativist approach usually
  see that there is a way of producing meaningful
  accounts on other cultures in observers own
  language
• Some approaches deny this possibility in
  principle
• Strong cultural relativism

15
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Used in some approaches of philosophy and
  sociology of knowledge to refute the possibility
  of the existence of all forms of universal
  knowledge (relativism of knowledge and value
  relativism)
• Incommensurability used to describe situations in
  which direct translation between two semantic
  systems (a theory or a natural language) is
  impossible due to a lack of similar concepts
  (also called absolute relativism) (Sankey 1997)

16
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• In interpretative studies the problem of
  relativism is closely related to the that of
  translation
• Can there be meaningful rendering of other
  societies values, ideas, ways of thinking to our
  languages and theories?
• In East Asian studies some translation is
  inevitable
• There are nearly 300 languages in East Asia
  (Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese, Minnanyu and
  Korean most widely spoken)

17
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Language and translation the significance of
  language for thinking is evident
• Higher-level thought relies mainly on language
  and the language we speak influences the way we
  think
• Languages embody the concepts, categories and
  notions that our cultures use to categorise and
  sort out the world
• Languages differ in their descriptive qualities
  (vocabulary, tenses, etc.)

18
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Benjamin Worf and extreme linguistic
  determinism -gt language determines the ways
  people comprehend the world (linguistic
  straightjacket)
• -gt Dilemma for interpretative approaches
• If people are conscious and rational actors and
  their rationalities are culturally defined and
  can be fully comprehended and expressed only in
  their original languages, then we cannot ever
  understand them fully outside their own languages

19
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Radical line no language is totally translatable
  to another, only partial translation is possible
  -gt Only partial understanding of East Asia is
  possible?
• Related relativist view is strong relativism that
  regards reality as socially constructed, so
  that there is nothing real outside languages
• Nothing can be said about things (if indeed there
  exists separate things at all) without using a
  language -gt reality is language based

20
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• These are two separate approaches (coming , more
  or less, from linguistics and sociology
  respectively), but they pose a similar problem
• -gt Human communities live in different linguistic
  universes that are incommensurable with each
  other
• Accepting this would pose serious problems to
  interpretative approaches
• Only acceptable way would be to study other
  cultures and societies in their indigenous
  languages

21
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Criticism against strong relativism
• Empirical criticism various forms of strong
  relativism deny the possibility for people from
  different cultures to fully understand each other
  but evidence suggests otherwise
• Reduction to absurdity if strong relativism were
  true, why should it stop at (not well defined)
  community level?
• -gt Individuals cannot understand each other
  either and therefore whole human communication
  would be impossible

22
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• 3) Weak relativist criticism Languages do
  constrain what and how one can communicate with
  each other, and there is a power aspect to
  language as well, but physical world limits what
  can be said about it
• Example (John Tresch)
• We are restricted by the linguistic
  straightjacket only as long as we are not aware
  of any alternatives to it

23
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Language has a connection to the nature, which
  strong form of relativism denies
• Researchers can inhabit a double phenomenal
  world and from this perspective have
  objectified (from the point of view of another
  culture) access to two different world-views
• Persons using two languages can become aware of
  their differences vis-á-vis their ability to
  describe the world

24
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Thomas Kent (based on Donald Davidson)
• The source of objectivity in interpersonal
  relations is in the interaction that takes the
  form of a triangle between two people and a
  common stimulus
• Language does not come between the perceptual
  world and us instead, it is a tool of
  communication created in communicative
  interaction for this purpose
• gt Languages can be reworked when needed

25
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• The door demonstration the manipulation of
  natural environment through instructing other
  people in foreign languages possible
• -gt In some cases at least, the content of the
  message must have similar meaning to all at least
  with a satisfactory level of precision

26
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Other criticism of linguistic straitjacket
• 1) Worf used incorrect evidence and did not
  understand Hopi well enough
• 2) Evidence from brain research Abstract thought
  and communication is partly based on language,
  but not the way humans recognise natural
  surroundings (dimensions, sizes, speed,
  directions, differences in colours, temperatures,
  etc.)
• Even ½ year old babies recognise their
  surroundings

27
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Weak linguistic relativism Languages guide
  perception as much as certain things are regarded
  important in grammar
• E.g. some languages do not make clear distinction
  between the number of objects they describe
  (Chinese, Mayan), so for speakers of these
  languages observing numbers of objects is not so
  necessary than for those using other languages
• Language influences thinking, but does not
  constrain it (one can change between different
  semantic systems)

28
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Further practical ways for solving translation
  problems
• Ways to overcome difficulties in a translation
  between natural languages are more pragmatic than
  philosophical
• Translation is about not about words, but their
  meanings.
• Attaining strict semantic correspondence to words
  is usually not required, and it is only partially
  feasible in any case
• Smith the three levels of translatability
  (total, partial, untranslatable)

29
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Important for research using interpretative
  approach
• Languages are expandable systems
• Using loanwords or direct phrases (polylingual
  translation)
• Explaining concepts through analogues
• Using and redefining words taken from the
  tradition of ones own language
• Philip Lewis "abusive fidelity," i.e. breaking
  rules of grammar and presentation also possible
  to a degree (limited by intelligibility and
  readability)

30
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• An example of typical polylingual (and slightly
  abusive) translation (from a Chinese text
  produced by the Democracy Wall Movement writer
  1979 about bureaucratism)
• In the realm of ideology and consciousness
• bureaucratism guanliaozhuyi was against
• change (wángù), conservative (shoujiù), corrupt
• (fubài), degenerated (tuìhuà-biànzhì), their
• bureaucrats philosophy is to rely on business
• capital, enjoy easy and carefree life, idle away
  ones
• time in pleasure-seeking (chihe-wánlè), putting
• personal comforts first, have long since lost
• their revolutionary fervour, have no ideals or
• goals.

31
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• In interpretative approaches the research process
  involves expanding and redefining students own
  vocabulary to include the newly negotiated
  meanings, not merely translating them to his or
  her own
• Researcher should try to create a common
  vocabulary with the research subject
• Teaching readers new things is allowed!

32
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• An interpretative student of East Asian studies
  is therefore not predestined to either use only
  the languages of the object culture or mechanical
  translation
• Needs awareness of ones approach and ability to
  rework, when needed, the semantic systems
  (theories, natural languages) that one uses

33
III EAST ASIAN STUDIES AND RELATIVISM

• Next lecture how to deal with relativism in
  theory-based (positivist) area research?