Humanities and Culture

Past Projects – 1980s

• The Industrial Rise of East Asia: In 1987, the Academy initiated a study of what was referred to as “the economic miracle” of the rise of industrial East Asia. The focus of the study was to better understand the role in industrialization of Confucianism, which was long thought to be incompatible with the spirit of capitalism. More specifically, the project looked at the role of culture, including moral education, political authority, and social solidarity, as an integral part of economic dynamics. The study sponsored a cross-cultural workshop and an interdisciplinary conference. Conclusions included the thesis that Confucianism may actually have helped industrial East Asia develop a different form of modern industrial capitalism, one that may turn out to be more consequential for the 21st century than the classical model. Resulting publications include a transcript of workshop discussions and an edited collection of conference papers. The underlying assumption of these scholarly and investigative efforts continues to be that “culture matters” in economic development.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1987-1996
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Tu Wei-ming (Harvard University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATIONS:
  “The Confucian World Observed: A Contemporary Discussion of Confucian Humanism in East Asia,” eds. Tu Wei-ming, Milan Hejtmanek, and Alan Wachman. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992. Available from publisher.
  
  “Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Moral Education and Economic Culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons,” ed. Tu Wei-ming. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Available from publisher.
  
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: Henry Luce Foundation
  
  
• Paul Tillich and American Thought: A distinguished and controversial philosophical and cultural theologian, Paul Tillich has been described as an eminent interpreter of the 20th century. The breadth of Tillich’s interests is a remarkable example of one individual transcending many disciplinary boundaries, reflecting the essence of the Academy and its membership. In 1979, the Academy held a meeting in New Harmony, Indiana, to develop a study of the influence of Tillich’s work on contemporary life. The collaborative resulting volume, published two decades after his death, is a compendium of the work of a remarkably wide-ranging American theologian, as seen by scholars from many fields in the humanities.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1979-1985
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: James Luther Adams (Harvard Divinity School) and Wilhelm Pauck (Stanford University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “The Thought of Paul Tillich,” eds. James Luther Adams, Wilhelm Pauck, and Roger L. Shinn. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985. (out of print)
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: National Endowment for the Humanities, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation
  
  
  

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