Kai-man Kwan – författare

The question of whether religious experience can be trusted has been hotly debated in epistemology and philosophy of religion in recent years. Kwan surveys this contemporary philosophical debate, provides in-depth analysis of the crucial issues, and offer arguments for an affirmative answer to the above question. Kwan first argues against traditional empiricist epistemologies and defends Swinburne's Principle of Credulity which holds that we should trust our experiences unless there are special considerations to the contrary. The Principle of Credulity is renamed the Principle of Critical Trust to highlight the need for balance between trust and criticism and is used as the foundation for a new approach to epistemology, the Critical Trust Approach (CTA), which maintains an emphasis on experience but attempts to break loose of the straitjacket of traditional empiricism by broadening the evidential base of experience. Kwan then widens his focus by looking at theistic experience in the contemporary multicultural context.

This book deals with the thorny issue of human rights in different cultures and religions, especially in the light of bioethical issues. In this book, experts from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism and Confucianism discuss the tension between their religious traditions and the claim of universality of human rights.  The East-West contrast is particularly evident with regards to human rights.  Some writers find the human rights language too individualistic and it is foreign to major religions where the self does not exist in isolation, but is normally immersed in a web of relations and duties towards family, friends, religion community, and society.  Is the human rights discourse a predominantly Western liberal ideal, which in bioethics is translated to mean autonomy and free choice?  In today’s democratic societies, laws have been drafted to protect individuals and communities against slavery, discrimination, torture or genocide.  Yet, it appears unclear at whatmoment universal rights supersede respect for cultural diversity and pluralism.  This collection of articles demonstrates a rich spectrum of positions among different religions, as they confront the ever more pressing issues of bioethics and human rights in the modern world. This book is intended for those interested in the contemporary debates on religious ethics, human rights, bioethics, cultural diversity and multiculturalism.