Philosophical Foundation Of The. Huntington's "clash Of Civilizations" Theory And Its Criticism

As is clearly stated in Samuel Huntington's masterpiece "The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of world Order", the world conflicts, after the Cold War, is largely characterized by the clash between civilizations and their representative nations and the whole world is politically and culturally falling into the shadow of inter-cultural conflicts of varied forms. In addition, Huntington firmly believes that growingly modernized China will develop into a world super-power and join the scramble for the world hegemony. As a result, the cultural conflict in today's world will inevitably take the form of the clash between the west culture and Confucianism China.Comparatively speaking, Huntington's interpretation, largely differing from the Cold War ideology, is obviously very creative and original. In consideration of the growing number of cultural conflicts in the current world, it is even very persuasive and rock-solid. Nevertheless, since it fails to elucidate the fundamental cultural mechanism which nurtures the rampancy of cultural conflicts, Huntington's theory is unavoidably attacked and largely muffled by the counterparts arguments for the very simple reason that all the theories are short of a consolidated philosophic basis.The dissertation, in the light of historical materialism, intends to make an in-depth criticism on the philosophic basis of Huntington's theory on the cultural clash and points out that its philosophic basis is absolutely of determinism, empiricism and non-historicism. Therefore, we are in desperate need of a more penetrating vision of the deeply-rooted causes that trigger the explosion of cultural clash in the light of historical materialism.In the second chapter, two perspectives are particularly highlighted in this dissertation: First, the very pointed criticism on modern culture and its basis of rationality made by the Frankfurt School with Adorno as its representative. By depicting the very typical logic of modern culture, Adorno and his colleagues further the critical theory sociologically initiated by Marx Weber and philosophically by Hegel. As is widely acknowledged, the Frankfurt School makes such a brilliant accomplishment in the line of critics against modern culture and its modernity. Secondly, the extensive criticism on the capital and the modern technology. As a typical reflection of the modernity of capitalism culture, the unstoppable offensive progressiveness of modern technology and the unsaturated instinct of the modern capital is thoroughly examined by Karl Marx and Martin Heidegger. We are endowed with an advanced view on the modern culture on the fresh horizon revealed by both great thinkers. Drawing on the selective review of the historical criticism theories, this dissertation attempts to land on the conclusion that it is the developmental logic of capitalism society that matrixes the cultural clash in the current world of modernity.To further elucidate the conclusion above, the dissertation, in the third chapter, joins the discussion on the very popular subject of American Exceptionalism. It is argued that, in the modern culture, the social and cultural basis of American Exceptionalism has been radically destroyed and the myth of American culture has been vaporized under the tidy of social Darwinism. Further, in the light of Gramscism, it is concluded that the evolution of American foreign policy is fundamentally determined by the principle of the maximum of American national interest.In the last chapter, a discussion on the future role of China and Chinese culture on the international world is extensively undertaken in relation to Huntington's prediction that China is going to develop into a hungry capitalism nation in hunting for its world hegemony. The dissertation intends to argue, with a specific review of China's tradition of pacifism, that Chinese modernization, as an echo to its stable tradition and peaceful practice, will pave out a new road with Chinese characteristics by rejecting being assimilated by the uniformed modern practice of western powers. In this sense, China's modernization tends to be a possible example for the other nations by throwing some lights on the overcome of negative instinct of modernity.