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The history of human civilisation is a history of mutual borrowings.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Considerations of justice are also integral to efforts to generate transcultural security in the first instance and, ultimately, transcultural synergy.
Nayef Al-Rodhan
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Neuro-rational Physicalism is premised on the neuro-biological foundation of human nature, which implies that thoughts, perceptions or emotions correspond to a physical reaction in the brain.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Morality, if present, should not be relied on because it will be trumped by self interest in most circumstances.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Focusing purely on extremism, whether in the Arab-Islamic world or the West, will not alleviate the root causes of tensions between members of different cultures. It will only alienate those who do not recognise themselves in those stereotypes, and generate fear and misunderstanding.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Civilisational triumph is important because if it is not actively sought, conflictual relations between members of geo-cultural domains may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Indeed, there is no evidence to suggest innate morality. It is therefore important to create the conditions under which the expansion of our moral communities may become more likely.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
If states do not act according to principles of justice, the injustices they perpetrate will harm not just other states but ultimately also their own national interest.
Nayef Al-Rodhan
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Each high point in the history of human civilisation has taken place where the conditions were ripe and has borrowed and built on the achievements of other cultures whose golden age may have passed.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Cultural essentialism is, thus, intimately tied to power relations. Fixity, homogeneity and separateness are prioritised within an essentialist framework. Therefore, part of any effort to resist essentialism is recognising diversity within difference, contingency, mutability and connectedness.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Almost every golden age of geo-cultural domains has been characterised by good governance, exchanges, borrowing, innovation and the adaptation of earlier contributions to forms of knowledge, and rationalism.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Much of what we often consider knowledge is actually a point of view held without sufficient grounds: in a word, dogma.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Human beings are emotional amoral egoists, driven above all by emotional self-interest. All of our thoughts, beliefs and motivations are neurochemically mediated, some predetermined for survival, others alterable.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
We are therefore driven by both basic survival instincts and rational thought.
Nayef Al-Rodhan
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Humankind is conceived as primarily motivated by neurochemically mediated emotions resulting from genetic make-up and environmental influences, employing reason and engaging in conscious reflection only occasionally.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
International cooperation is required to prevent anarchic situations developing and the unmasking of ever-present brutality and injustice that results from fear for survival in such situations.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Policies should take account of the emotional dimensions of human behaviour rather than assuming rational action.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Justice is paramount to civilisational triumph because of its centrality to human dignity needs, the success of individual geo-cultural domains and the well-being of human civilisation.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
By promoting justice and thus the interests of the international community as a whole, a state will be able to make its influence over others sustainable and achieve its own national interest.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
What makes our existence meaningful is highly subjective and ultimately determined by sustainable neurochemical gratification.
Nayef Al-Rodhan
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A lesser-known fact about the geopolitics of resources has escaped public polemics. This refers to rare earth metals or rare-earth elements (REMs), a set of 17 naturally occurring non-toxic materials, which play a pivotal role for emerging technologies and which are predominantly produced and exported from China.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
In order to stop the cycle of disenfranchisement, frustration, and discontent, dignity must be central, paving the way for a governance model that is affordable, acceptable, and applicable to various regional and cultural sensibilities.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
Harmonious interstate relations will be guided by the paradigm of Symbiotic Realism that stresses the importance of absolute rather than relative gains.
Nayef Al-Rodhan -
In other words, it is my view that the brain is preprogrammed to feel good (i.e., to seek a sense of well-being/gratification). This is what I term the gratification principle. This usually occurs as the result of instinctive salient/relevant acts or what we normatively decide are salient/relevant acts.
Nayef Al-Rodhan