PHILOSOPHY OF PEACE AND PEACE EDUCATION

Abstract
As the architect of Uechi Ryu Karate-do, Kanei Uechi formalized an Okinawan system of karate which was developed from Chinese Gongfu. In his September 27, 1982 “Letter to All Karatekas of the World,” he emphasizes the importance of courtesy towards others (above even physical techniques in karate) and describes his art as an instrument for character building which transcends “nationality, race, sex, age, [and] religion.” Uechi’s view that karate can bring people together from different countries in a universal brotherhood and sisterhood is similar to the ancient Stoic notion and contemporary cosmopolitan perspective which ask people to consider others’ well-being, regardless of nationality. Chirot & McCauley’s list of strategies to prevent future genocides in Why Not Kill Them All includes cultural exchange as an important approach and Kanei Uechi provides a good example of it, especially when he suggests that people should treat others with courtesy and respect to build a more peaceful world. Authors who offer praise for cosmopolitan contamination in order to undermine notions of cultural purity such as Anthony Kwame Appiah also help clarify the challenges of a global citizenship which aims at peace. As an art form which has been exported all over the world and shaped by multiple regions and traditions, Uechi Ryu Karate-do offers a type of cultural exchange between different peoples and nations. As a martial art, it is associated with combat and war. However, like most forms of cultural exchange, it increases the likelihood of peace among people and across nations.

De pace fidei is certainly one of cardinal Cusanus’s most famous and most read texts. It has received various interpretations and even today scholars do not agree unanimously on certain crucial aspects of Cusanus’s position. Indeed, although twentieth-century historiography seems to agree on De pace fidei’s distance from the modern, illuministic ideal of tolerance, the same does not apply to the evaluation of the role of Christianity in relation to the sharp and synthetic expression, «one religion in a variety of rites», which effectively sums up Cusanus’s proposal. According to the writer of this piece, the only way to understand the De pace fidei is to read the work and try to reconstruct its contents by collocating them in the wider context of the cardinal’s philosophical speculation: Cusanus’s position towards interfaith dialogue can only be fully grasped if it is thought of in the wider  context of his philosophy. The dialectic between the One and the many, and that between the uniqueness of truth and the variety of its expressions, are the speculative bases of the work. In order to establish interfaith and intercultural dialogue, Cusanus wisely combines both the negative dimension of the hidden God, and the positive dimension of the plurality and variety of religious creeds. Both aspects – the ulteriority of God and the plurality of his expressions – combine in order to build peace based on faith. Dialogue is not accidental in the search for the peaceful coexistence of different religions; rather, it is an essential element of the search for and investigation of the divine truth, as well as of one’s personal and  communal faith and religious perspective.

Estas reflexiones constituyen el núcleo de la video conferencia que el autor realizó en el marco de las VI Jornadas de Investigación y Docencia del Centro de Investigaciones de Trabajo Social (CITS) de la
Universidad del Zulia, en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Concretamente, responden a la invitación de la Dra. Rocío Belandria y su  estudiantado de Trabajo Social en la asignatura «Negociación y Conflictos». La perspectiva des de la que se desarrollan es la de una filosofía para hacer las paces que venimos elaborando (Martínez Guzmán, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015a; Martínez Guzmán y París Albert, 2004) más de 20 años y que tiene su vertiente docente en un Máster
Universitario y Doctorado en Estudios Internacionales de Paz, Conflictos y Desarrollo.

A logical God
exists, in separation from the philosophical or speculative God of religion, and capable of reuniting atheists and theists into a formidable force for good against the twin problems perplexing humanity at
present:  the intellect question and the cooperation question.

building policies and practices, but also address their feasibility. Finally, the development of education and peace research can be enhanced by rigorously designed evaluation studies. How do we measure the outcomes of peace-building policies and practices? The choice of criteria for measurement may depend on the local context, but the discussion and establishment of fair and adaptable evaluation methodology can further enhance education policy and practices favoring peace and thus enrich the research in this field.

This work examines the idea of deliberative rationality as it relates to peace. It shows that deliberative rationality constitutes a culture of peace or that it can encourage peaceful coexistence among men. It insists that all acts of violence begin in the mind and, therefore, that it is in the mind that the foundation of peace must be laid, if we are to achieve any meaningful degree of it. But what is deliberative rationality? What is a culture of peace? How does deliberative rationality promote or enhance the culture of peace?