THE RELEVANCE OF THE RISE AND FALL OF PARADIGM FOR THE DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATION

Ernest Wolf-Gazo

Dr. Wolf-Gazo is currently Professor of Philosophy at the
American University in Cairo. He holds his PhD from Bonn University. He was
a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, and has been Visiting Professor at
ISTAC, Kuala Lumpur, Lovain University, and Middle East Technical
University.

The Rise and Fall of Civilization is a classic theme in
European historiography, ever since Gibbon's published his famous Rise and
Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon's "Rise and Fall" turned into a
paradigmatic scheme to be followed by many historians and philosophers of
history. The idea of a dialogue of civilizations would have been too vague,
since civilizations were considered to be classical, i.e., excellent and dead,
or only one civilization would be considered the one which is alive and the
ruling empire. In that sense a dialogue was never possible for the simple reason
that civilizations were not considered to be equal. To have a dialogue it takes
two equals: that situation Is a novelty in the 20^th, and certainly,
in the 21^st century. The acknowledgement is that there are varieties
of civilizations, old and new, those have their own style and their own
respective qualities to offer history. Thus, there is a rejuvenation of the old
philosophy of history in a new form. Be it ancient Egypt, Classical Greece,
Rome, Ottoman, Persian, British, French, Dutch, not to say the least, Islamic
civilizations, the dialogue in the long run will extend into discourses between
civilization in such a way that the cultural ramification of each civilization
will be scrutinized on equal basis, but with qualitative difference. There are
thing Islamic civilization can offer us to improve our quality of life in a
different way, say, from ancient Egyptian civilization, which offers qualities
that would supplement, if not enhance our understanding of the universe at
large. Having said this, we are now ready to embark upon the theoretical
frameworks of thinkers such as Spengler, Ortegay Gasset, or Toynbee, steeped in
Gibbon, in order to see to what extent the treatment of "Rise and Fall" of
civilization had influenced the general mentality of the educated public in the
20^th century. This presentation wants to show that we are in a
transitional phase from the "Rise and Fall" model to the "Dialogue" model, if
not the "Discourse" model of civilizations. The implications are far reaching,
not the least, a new understanding of civil society, cultural achievements by
human beings of different nationalities and cultural manifestations.