Gray's Oral Presentation on Diffusionism


The topic of cultural and philosophical diffusion was addressed by Wallace Gray at the meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC) in Pomona in June of 1996. For the experts on the roundtable, Gray had composed a complex position paper which was too long to present orally in its entirety. For the purpose of sparking general discussion, he used a somewhat spontaneous speaking mode, with handouts, to bring out John Plott's chief ideas on diffusion. The following is a summary of Gray's remarks and some of the more important responses of the panel and audience, plus some more lengthy quotations from Plott which were turned up by the discussion and Gray's subsequent reflection on it. Before his departure to teach one year at Kitakyushu University in Japan from April 1997 to March 1998, Gray added to this page his longer and more complex paper to round out this update on the Plott Project in the Global History of Philosophy. (Incidentally, Gray's present E-mail address continues in effect both at his home and while he is in Japan.)

THE ORAL PRESENTATION

John Plott's Contributions to Discussions of Diffusionism

Rather than read my paper I'd like to summarize and supplement its main points during my allotted time. Some of you may be relieved and others irritated when I tell you that I shall not attempt to define "civilization." Instead, I commend to everybody's attention the concise and ironic comment by William Ralph Inge {pron. = -ing} (1860-1954) on a narrower topic: "A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a common hatred of its neighbours." [If you really are interested in the problem of defining civilization click here.]

	A model philosopher of philosophic diffusion would manifest
the following six characteristics:
	a) a sense of timing or priority as to when diffusion may be
		invoked as a likely explanation,
	b) a sense of what exactly has been diffused as well as the
	c) degree to which it has been accepted or modified;
	d) discernment of the differences between the diffusion of
		artifacts (or tangible goods) and the diffusion of ideas 
		and philosophies,
	e) the limitations of the processes of diffusion to explain
		all parallel developments in human culture; and, finally,
	f) openness and humility about the more speculative
		non-diffusion theories which are set forward to explain
		parallel developments.
	I hope to show that John C. Plott is the philosopher par
excellence of the diffusion of philosophical ideas.  Since the above
outline only recently occurred to me, I follow it only in a general way
in the two handouts before you. 

Handout #1: Plott's Eight Contributions

1. THE COMPLETENESS PRINCIPLE

Silk roads carried ideas, too.

Cf. William H. McNeill: Buddhism travelled trade routes and affected traders. C315 = Civilizations and World Systems (ed. S. K. Sanderson, AltaMira Press, 1995), 315.

Plott, II, 98: "Silk and spices, and occasionally a monk or philosopher, as well as diseases and ideas, all travelled the silk routes." [Note "routes" is plural and may include sea roads as well as land.]

Plott, with Wallace Gray, New Keys to East-West Philosophy (hereafter, New Keys; Hong Kong: Asian Research Service, 1979), 31-32: "Moreover, since it was the monks (and nuns, too, by the way) who were literate and had privileges and immunities in the world, it is by virtue of their wandering free of charge along the merchant routes that Ideas travelled and gave a remarkable degree of ideational unity to the whole of Eurasia in these centuries of 'other worldliness.' Indeed, one could almost turn the tables and claim that the monks did generate another world, not in imagination only, but on planet earth." = "civilization" in Wilkinson's sense? C46

In a much more recent book than New Keys, namely, From Africa to Zen: an Invitation to World Philosophy (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1993), Editors Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins argue in their introduction (xiii) that there were no isolated centers of Western or Eastern philosophy:

"In addition to the radical differences in philosophy and culture we find across the globe, we also find, almost everywhere we turn. . . confluences and influences, ideas swapped and shared along with foodstuffs, satins and spices, amalgamated theories evolved from once-warring myths and ideologies, global philosophy as a long-cooking stew instead of a scattering of 'centers' or a worldwide intellectual 'human condition'. . . ."

Plott usually contends that there is not yet a global philosophy, but he might accept the term "global philosophy" more readily were it to designate, as here, "a long-cooking stew" and not a finished and complete synthesis.

2. A HEURISTIC AXIOM

Look for diffusion before assuming independent origination of an idea or system of ideas.

Plott tends to look for evidence of diffusion even though he may come eventually to acknowledge the importance of other factors. This may be brought out in his unpublished corpus even more clearly than in what is published. For example, in commenting on relations between Greece and India in the ancient world, he writes that "it is well known that Aristotle sent 'scientists' along with Alexander to collect biological specimens. That these would be interested in other matters of philosophy and science, given Aristotle's own versatility, and that they might indeed interchange ideas with Hindu and Buddhist and Jaina ascetics and pundits, scarcely needs to be suggested.

It is amazing, in the face of these things, nevertheless how our text-books deceive us by giving the impression that the 'Greek Miracle'happened, as it were like the birth of Athena out of the head of Zeus, virgin and adult, finished product, without even benefit of midwife or any other outside influence. (Actually, for that matter not enough has been done even in comparisons between Greek and Hindu mythologies. But this is not our field)." This is from Plott's typed commentary on The Age of Imperial Unity, General Editor R. C. Majumdar, Vol. 2 in the series The History and Culture of the Indian People (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 45th ed., 1986).

In the discussion of some of these points, Professor Gordon Hewes and others doubted that any lingua franca could be adequate to carry complex scientific or philosophical ideas back and forth across Eurasia. Plott's partial answer to this problem may be contained in a reference found in his unpublished corpus to one of Asoka's inscriptions and edicts (c. 274-232 B.C.), the Kandahar (Shar-i-Kuna) Inscription. Plott's general introductory note to the edicts of Asoka shows both the civilizational and global human significance of Asoka.

"What follows is no more than an invitation to much more detailed investigation into the historical career and role of one of the most outstanding rulers in the whole of human history thus far. Every high school student is taught about the importance of Alexander the Great; and of course even in our Sunday-school Bible class, we learn of the story of Darius and Daniel-in-the-lion's-den. And perhaps later in our undergraduate courses we even learn something about the Battle of Marathon whereby the Greeks repulsed the Persians. . . . Hopefully, our educational systems will, where they have not yet done so, also teach us something of the . . . importance of figures like Asoka and Shi Huang-Ti, who unified China in a way that Asoka united India for the first time. But Asoka stands unique in world history as the model of the Buddhist ruler who renounced violence and sent ambassadors to all the then-known world (probably including China and the Mediterranean?) in order to spread the Buddhist Dhamma (Dharma: teachings) and follow his example in the renunciation of violence.

"Fortunately, he followed a Persian (!) custom of leaving engravings on stone in witness to his Vision and great Humanist hope for and work for a peaceful world. As such he presents as much of a challenge even to our 20th century as any Greek or Old Testament figure, as the selections below testify.

"But he is important for our more specific task for the additional reason that these--or at least some of these--inscriptions bear witness to the fact that Communications between India and the Mediterranean--and no doubt with China also, since coins have been found that bear witness to that--were completly open, in such a way that it is perhaps mistaken to assume, in the Axial Age, any division between 'East' and 'West'. . . . [T]he first entry below . . . is taken from the Addenda in the book by Radhakumud Mookerji simply under the title ASOKA, published Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1972.

"NOTE - This [Kandahar] inscription is important for the fact that it was written in both Greek and Aramaic rather than in any Indian language. This is explained by the fact that there were colonies of Greeks and of Persians, Aramaic being the lingua franca of the Great Persian Empire, which before Alexander (whose career preceded Asoka's by only a generation or so; he died in 323 B.C.) stretched from the Peloponnesian peninsula well into India, since in 330 B.C. Darius III had invaded India in order to recruit troops in order supposedly to repulse the onslaught of Alexander. The version from which we are taking this gives the original texts and a reconstruction in the prakrt (or dialect then in use in India), as well as translations of both the Greek and the Aramaic texts. . . ."

SAMPLE FROM PLOTT'S EXCERPTS: "Since then [since the coronation of Asoka] there has been decrease of suffering and for all people misfortunes have been averted through his instrumentality, and there has been all over the world Peace as well as fellow-feeling."

3. A CIVILIZATIONAL DISCOVERY

Civilizations tend to mirror the major philosophies and philosophical differences worldwide.

Cf. Wilkinson: There is today "only one civilization, a single global civilization." C46

One of Plott's favorite themes is that "particular types of philosophies and a wide variety of types of philosophies can be found in virtually every geographical region." (II, 117) Perhaps Plott has done more than most comparativists to bring out parallel differences among the philosophies of the various civilizations.

4. A HISTORICAL DISCOVERY

Scientific readiness and even scientific discoveries are found in China as well as the West.

Plott: In commenting on Joseph Needham's Chinese Astronomy and the Jesuit Mission (1958) Plott writes, "The surprising thing is that so few people even know at all that the Chinese were interested in astronomy before the Jesuits made their contribution to the history of culture and philosophy in China." (New Keys 267)

C319, n.1: McNeill neatly summarizes the types of discoveries impressive both to him and to Plott: "Gunpowder, printing, and the compass, three critical factors in Europe's ascension to world leadership after 1500, were Chinese inventions, and reached the far west during the time when the political unification of northern Eurasia by the Mongols made movement back and forth across the whole continent unusually safe . . . . [Concerning early gunpowder technologies Needham] traces their westward diffusion with new precision."

5. THE GENIUS MIRROR

A philosopher of genius may mirror crosscurrents of intellectual exchange in Eurasia at least.

Plott on Plato (I 97-98):

"Although we have been accustomed to study all these things in isolation, we must shift to the one-world perspective and see Plato as a one-world philosopher. Is there anything in any of the schools, Chinese, Indian, and Semitic, in addition to the Greek background which. . .is not in his dialogues?"

[Plott's question is not merely rhetorical. He always invites counter-examples and the uncovering of overlooked evidence.]

"Thus, in all three civilizations not only dialogue but dialectic as such emerged about the time of Plato. No longer was merely single-point inspiration adequate as philosophy; counterposing these 'points' against each other to reveal contradictions and thus evoking open-endedness became the norm from henceforth for the rest of the history of [humankind]."

6. REFORM POTENTIAL

Philosophers/philosophies provide feedback for civilizational reform and redirection.

Because of contributions 5 and 6, Plott would probably say to the ISCSC that it is time once again to visit the relationship of "great individuals" and the cultures which tried to "civilize" them.

One of his chief illustrations would surely be Asoka whose Rock Edict III and Pillar Edict IV Plott quotes at length and with approving comments. Asoka's officers were to work with all sects in establishing and promoting righteousness. Since sometimes people who are tortured or imprisoned die accidentally, Asoka recommends the Middle Path. Plott interprets that to mean just and moderate treatment of prisoners and accused. The Edict continues. "Envy, Anger, Cruelty, Impatience, lack of application, laziness, and fatigue intervene with the attainment of this middle path. Therefore each of you should try to be sure that you are not possessed by these passions. Plott comments, "This, mind you, is addressed to public officials, not to ordinary lay folk." Rock Edict XII speaks of growth in "the qualities essential to religion in men of all faiths." "This growth may take many forms but its root is in guarding one's speech to avoid extolling one's own faith and disparaging the faith of others improperly or, when the occasion is appropriate, immoderately.... For if a man extols his own faith and disparages another because of devotion to his own and because he wants to glorify it, he seriously injures his own faith." Plott's "Final Reflection" in this section brings Asoka's relevance right up to the minute in our own century: "U Thant deliberately modelled his position as Secretary-General of the United Nations on the career and example of Asoka. Probably he will never be adequately appreciated, because the good he did was always in a quiet non-sensational way. But probably as a result he minimized conflicts that otherwise might have become really critical. His profound humility and appeal to all-and-sundry for humanist tolerance leaves a challenge to us like that of Asoka."

7. OPENNESS

Plott resisted the temptation to crystallize any of his findings, perspectives, or theories.

Therefore, right up until the time of his death he expressed dissatisfaction with some of his own formulations and invited dialogue, criticism, and improvement concerning them. He admired Plato's openness, dialectic, and multidimensionality. (I, 101)

8. LINKAGE OF DIFFUSION AND INDEPENDENT ORIGINATION (Gray's extension)

Diffusion is a creative process, not just a passive one.

Plott realized that cultures and civilizations adapt what they borrow or steal from each other. I would also suggest that whenever an idea passes forward in time or across in space, the receiver shows either innate or developed readiness for that idea and hence already has some ownership of it.

Handout #2: The Eight Days of Diffusionist Creation

 	(in the light of John C. Plott's Global History of Philosophy 
	as interpreted and extended by Wallace Gray)
The First Day

"Let there be form; let there be light."

Cf. Hewes at B48 = THE BOUNDARIES OF CIVILIZATIONS IN SPACE AND TIME (ed. by Melko and Scott, UP of America, 1987), p. 48: ". . .there was no time in the Hittite history or theology at which it was entirely separate from the surroundings. . ."

The Second Day

"Let there be separation on a grand scale."

Without separation of basic units from each other, diffusion makes no sense. Cf. Melko: Civilizations are "clearly separate entities." C29

Relative to Day 1 and Day 2, Plott was willing to live with a certain inexactness. That is the serious reason for not pinning him down on his civilizational definitions. Even speaking functionally, he refuses to be pinned down as to whether Plato's anticipation of subsequent philosophies and his shaping of civilizations is more important than Chu Hsi's summation and extension of an already highly developed civilization.

The Third Day

"Civilizations arise each according to its kind."

The Fourth Day

"Civilizations manifest great lights and lesser lights."

Cf. Wallerstein on the "nomothetic" & "ideographic" temptations. C241-245 and McNeill on the agenda for world historians: both "cultural differentiation" and "important commonality". C318

The Fifth Day

"Civilizations expand and interact over the waters, as well as on the land, and more recently have been reshaped from the air, the air waves, electronic mail, space satellites, etc."

In reference to Days 4 & 5, Plott (V, 273-275) pays close heed both to geographical and ideological content when addressing questions of what diffused from whom and from where.

For example, he resists the tendency of some authorities to find Madva of 13th century India borrowing from Syrian Jacobite Christians who were not too far south of Madva's Udipi but who had monistic tendencies quite opposite to Madva's dualism. Also the Malabar Catholic Christians were much further south so "it is highly unlikely that they had any communication with the Udipi area." Muslim trade patterns make Muslim influence more likely because of both geographical and ideological proximity.

The Sixth Day

"Civilizations and the persons who inhabit them are potentially good."

The Seventh Day

"And God rested - and so should diffusionists."

Rest is needed for new energy, for consolidation of insights and for the right sense of direction before moving ahead. Cf. McNeill: Of his famous work on Western civilization in the global context, McNeill says, ". . . I missed the centrality of China. . ." C306

The Eighth Day

"Creation continues, as does the understanding of diffusion."

Diffusion is across time as well as across space and may even transcend totally secular or earthbound dimensions.

SUMMATION: Plott finds significant similarities among the ideas and even the thought-systems of many cultures and civilizations. Using the commonly accepted methodologies in the social sciences he finds reason to accept or reject ideational diffusion as the explanation of given parallelisms. When he rejects diffusion, he looks to biographical, situational, or even spiritual/revelatory possible explanations for philosophical similarities and independent origination. But he is modest in advocating the more speculative possibilities. Finally, although he finds the overview of period shifts the hardest to characterize accurately, he senses that when thinking in China tends to become more concerned with monism than pluralism and with system than with unintegrated insights, similar shifting is occurring in Europe and India.

In the general discussion of Plott's contributions, Dr. Eiji Hattori gave support to Plott's tendency to consider the diffusion of philosophical and religious thinking to be both earlier and more substantive than most textbooks acknowledge. Hattori is Advisor to the Director General of UNESCO. Readers of Japanese will find his book "Bunmei no kousa ro de kangaeru" [thinking at the crossroads of civilizations] fascinatingly informative. The book is a 1995 Koudansha publication.

Dr. Midori Yamanouchi Rynn shortly before the 1996 Pomona meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, gave my wife and me a beautiful Japanese brocade which conveys the theme of diffusion in a strikingly esthetic way. Dr. Rynn is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Scranton and a longtime leader in ISCSC. A Russian student at Southwestern College, Konstantin Smirnov, has scanned in a section of the brocade for this website. If you would like to see the brocade, which represents four Persian kings hunting lions, click here.

 For further information or idea exchange
contact: 
      	    Wallace Gray, Ph.D.			
            Southwestern College   E-mail:  gray@sckans.edu
            Winfield, KS 67156     Home page on the Plott Project:
            Phone (316)221-8330    http://www.sckans.edu/~gray/plott95.html

Gray's address while in Japan (April '97 to March '98) will be:
		Professor Wallace Gray
		6-3 Harugaoka
		Kokura-minami-ku
		Kitakyushu-shi, 802 JAPAN

Go back to the Plott Project home page.