Final Written Report for The Theme of My Blog

My reflections on Cosmopolitanism & Peaceful-Coexistence:

Last time I have used the Western example of Toronto as a cosmopolitan place, which is a large multi-cultural place that has made Canada famous for its art & culture. But this time, I haved used Hong Kong the Asian example, as a cosmopolitan place as well. According to Immanuel Kant’s Cosmopolitanism, (from my interpretations) he considers that in a society, individuals have the right and freedom for the affiliation that they find suitable for them. Inspired by his thinking, I think in a society, there are million types of people and that each individuals have their own thinking and pursuit of own style of life. Some may find commerce and grand architectures as the type of life they find beautiful; while some others find preserving traditional values and cultures is more essential. Due to the influence of democracy today, sometimes it is difficult to determine which interest and ideal is more influential than the other, since everyone has the right to pursue their own interests, as long as they don’t hurt other’s rights and interests. So under the cosmopolitan world, all interests have their meaning and function that all will contribute to the well-being of this world. With commercial and trade interests, societies then can become prosperous and more open up to the outside world. With preserving the traditional values, societies can also benefit from the fume of its cultural influence in order to create their own uniqueness. This uniqueness also represents the personality and characteristics of their society. And that is why, there are many styles created under different cultures. Both the West and Oriental have their individual styles and perceptions; though they are quite different (due to geographic reason). But if both sides open up themselves and try to understand each other’s background and history, they will discover many surprises and then reduce the distance (gap) between them.

One important thing I’ve realized is that both Aristotle (Greek & West) and Confucius (The East) were born during the same era (very close); and that both of them had the famous philosophy discourse on “Doctrine of the Mean”. I thought to myself, does that indicate God had created them the same time and sent one to the West and the other to the East? And their mission was to promote and advocate the meaning and lesson of “Temperance”? So, in a globalized world and being influenced by the universe and cosmopolitan, if all sides remain respectful and open up to each other’s uniqueness and perspective, peaceful co-existence should not be too far to reach.
God Bless & World Peace!