Benedetto Croce, Aldous Huxley, Humayun Kabir, Harold J. Laski, Lo Chung-Shu, Salvador de Madariaga, Jacques Maritain, F.S.C. Northrop, Arnold Schoenberg, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – these are some of the contributors to this issue of the Courier.
To mark the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, we decided to take a detour into the past to enable us to better orient ourselves in the future. This explains the title of this issue: “Back to the Future”. ...
Aldous Huxley, Humayun Kabir, Harold J. Laski, Arnold Schoenberg – these are some of the contributors to the latest issue of the 📰#UNESCOCourier dedicated to Human Rights
罗忠恕_百度百科
羅忠恕是一位在國內外具有一定影響的哲學、心理學學者，他熟悉英語、還懂法語、德語。對實驗心理學、希臘哲學、荀子哲學、哲學與現代教育等有較深研究。他在擔任教學工作的同時，還勤於著述。寫有較多的論文，曾先後在國內外報刊發表，重要的有《孟子的心理學思想》、《荀子的唯物主義心理學思想》、《英國的教育概況》、《中國古典心理學》、 《中國古代的法家思想》、《道家哲學老子和莊子》、《王充及其評論》、《墨子與墨家哲學》、《孔子——中國古代教育家的教育理論和實踐》、《中國傳統的人權思想》、《中國大百科全書·心理學》“孟子”、“荀子”條目。他寫的《康德》一書，收入《萬有文庫》，受到國際友人的好評。重要譯著有《世界各國基本情況手冊》、《希臘哲學譯述》、《成都畫冊》、《中文譯英文》。他在四川大學人口研究所工作期間，撰寫了《學習馬寅初新人口論的體會》、《中國人口思想概述》、《婚姻、家庭、生兒育女的心理學問題》、《怎樣提高我國人口質量》、《加強人口研究、普及人口教育、注意心理因素》等質量較高的論文，發表在歷年四川人口學會《論文集》上。
羅忠恕在推動國際文化交流方面也有較大貢獻。他少年時代，就熱愛祖國幾千年來的燦爛文化。出國期間，深感學習西方文化的重要，他認為“文化是推動社會前進，為人類謀福利的必不可少的工具，如果能實現東西方文化交流，就更有助於人類的發展。”因此，一九三九年十一月，在英國牛津大學倡議成立“中英大學文化合作委員會”，得到該校校長、院長、教授的熱情贊助。後來又在劍橋大學由李約瑟博士約他會見劍橋大學的校長、院長、教授多人，成立了“劍橋大學與中國大學合作委員會”。一九四一年，他約請李約瑟博士來成都講學，並為李約瑟寫《中國古代科學技術史》，收購中國古籍數千冊。現在李約瑟已在劍橋大學修建了一個中國科技史圖書館。一九四二年與名教授蒙文通、顧頡剛、錢穆等人在成都組織“東西文化學社”，他被推選為社長。任職期間，他約請國內學者張東蓀、馮友蘭、梁漱溟、邵子力諸人，以及國外學者泰戈爾、羅素、杜威、愛因斯坦參加“東西文化學社”，親自主持學術講座，交流東西文化。後又得到劉文輝的讚助，在成都華西後壩購置了學社社址，成立東西文化交流所。並以該地為中心，經常集會討論有關世界學術和文化交流問題。一九四五年四月，在美國舊金山制訂聯合國憲章時，“東西文化學社”起草了有關聯合國文化交流意見書，提出教育、科學、文化合作規劃。意見書由我國代表團散發給出席該會的各國代表，其主要建議在聯合國憲章中都得到了體現。建國後，黨和國家重視文化交流，羅忠恕有機會參加多種形式的國際文化交流活動。他先後接待了來華訪問的加拿大一大學校長蘇維廉，加中友好協會會長雲從龍，世界和平理事會理事文幼章等人。交換了促進國際文化交流、大學教育課程設置和有關圖書儀器的意見；介紹了新中國的巨大變化，國家對退休人員的優厚待遇等情況。一九七九年，他在四川大學人口研究所擔任教學及研究工作，有更多的機會接待外國來訪的學者，交流有關學術、教育、文化及人口問題的意見。一九八0年以來，美國哥伸學院每年均送二十二名在校學生到四川師範學院學習，他每年都為這些留華學生講中國古典哲學和心理學，深受歡迎。
Wide Angle
A Confucian approach to human rights
A Confucian approach to human rights
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United Nations: Babel of the Millennium, 1999, an installation by Chinese artist Gu Wenda, part of The Divine Comedy of our Times project.
“The basic ethical concept of Chinese social political relations is the fulfilment of the duty to one’s neighbour, rather than the claiming of rights. The idea of mutual obligations is regarded as the fundamental teaching of Confucianism.” This is what the Chinese philosopher Lo Chung-Shu (1903-1985) wrote in his response, titled “Human Rights in the Chinese Tradition” to UNESCO’s survey on the philosophical foundations of human rights, sent on 1 June 1947. An excerpt follows.
Lo Chung-Shu
Before considering the general principles, I would like to point out that the problem of human rights was seldom discussed by Chinese thinkers of the past, at least not in the same way as it was in the West. There was no open declaration of human rights in China, either by individual thinkers or by political constitutions, until this concept was introduced from the West. In fact, the early translators of Western political philosophy found it difficult to arrive at a Chinese equivalent for the term “rights”. The term we use to translate “rights” now is two words “Chuan Li”, which literally means “power and interest” and which, I believe, was first coined by a Japanese writer on Western Public Law in 1868, and later adopted by Chinese writers.
This of course does not mean that the Chinese never claimed human rights or enjoyed the basic rights of man. In fact, the idea of human rights developed very early in China, and the right of the people to revolt against oppressive rulers was very early established.
“Revolution” is not regarded as a dangerous word to use, but as a word to which high ideals are attached, and it was constantly used to indicate a justifiable claim by the people to overthrow bad rulers; the Will of the People is even considered to be the Will of Heaven. In the Book of History, an old Chinese classic, it is stated: “Heaven sees as our people see; Heaven hears as our people hear. Heaven is compassionate towards the people. What the people desire, Heaven will be found to bring about”.
A ruler has a duty to Heaven to take care of the interests of his people. In loving his people, the ruler follows the Will of Heaven. So it says in the same book: “Heaven loves the people; and the Sovereign must obey Heaven”.
When the ruler no longer rules for the welfare of the people, it is the right of the people to revolt against him and dethrone him. When the last ruler Chieh (1818–1766 B.C.) of the Hsia Dynasty (2205–1766 B.C.) was cruel and oppressive to his people, and became a tyrant, Tang started a revolution and overthrew the Hsia Dynasty. He felt it was his duty to follow the call of Heaven, which meant obeying exactly the Will of the people to dethrone the bad ruler and to establish the new dynasty of Shang (1766–1122 B.C.)
When the last ruler of this dynasty, Tsou (1154–1122 B.C.), became a tyrant and even exceeded in wickedness the last ruler Chieh of the former dynasty, he was executed in a revolution led by King Wu (1122 B.C.) who founded the Chou Dynasty, which in turn lasted over 800 years (1122–296 B.C.). [...]
The right to revolt was repeatedly expressed in Chinese history, which consisted of a sequence of setting up and overthrowing dynasties. A great Confucianist, Mencius (372–289 B.C.), strongly maintained that a government should work for the Will of the people. He said: “People are of primary importance. The state is of less importance. The sovereign is of least importance”.
Mutual obligations
The basic ethical concept of Chinese social political relations is the fulfilment of the duty to one’s neighbour, rather than the claiming of rights. The idea of mutual obligations is regarded as the fundamental teaching of Confucianism. The five basic social relations described by Confucius and his followers are the relations between (1) ruler and subjects, (2) parents and children, (3) husband and wife, (4) elder and younger brother and (5) friend and friend.
Instead of claiming rights, Chinese ethical teaching emphasized the sympathetic attitude of regarding all one’s fellow men as having the same desires, and therefore the same rights, as one would like to enjoy oneself. By the fulfilment of mutual obligations, the infringement of the rights of the individual should be prevented. So far as the relation between the individual and state is concerned, the moral code is stated thus: “The people are the root of the country. When the root is firm, the country will be at peace.”
In the old days, only the ruling class, or people, who would be expected to become part of the ruling class, got the classical education; the mass of the people were not taught to claim their rights. It was the ruling class or would-be ruling class who were constantly taught to look upon the interest of the people as the primary responsibility of the government. The sovereign as well as the officials were taught to regard themselves as the parents or guardians of the people, and to protect their people as they would their own children. If it was not always the practice of actual politics, it was at least the basic principle of Chinese political thought. The weakness of this doctrine is that the welfare of the people depends so much on the goodwill of the ruling class, who are much inclined to fail in their duties and to exploit the people. This explains the constant revolutions in Chinese history. [...]
Artist: Gu Wenda
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