Abstract

Dealing with sustainability-related environmental, cultural, economic, and social justice issues is a challenge. Case in point is a “wealthy eccentric” who bought a house but “cut the whole lot down,” such as the beautiful display of grass, plants, and flowers around the house and a huge old avocado tree that nicely shaded the house, and then “covered the yard with asphalt” simply because “the grass required cutting, the flowers needed tending, and the man wanted more sun.” So what can we do about him, and is the house not “after all … his property?” Thomas Kasulis’s references to a Japanese professor of philosophy in "Intimacy or Integrity: Philosophy and Cultural Differences" may suggest solutions to this problem. The professor settles a hard issue by suggesting a rotating mirror installed atop of the skyscraper that blocks the sunlight to a beloved “sunny little park” in the neighborhood, so that the mirror that closely follows the celestial motion brings back to the park not only sunlight but also "life" itself. To solve these problems, we need an engaged but impartial spectator’s sensitivity to "particularity" through sympathy and imagination. This way of thinking is emphasized by Smith personified by the Japanese professor. Only in this way can we truly communicate or “persuade” people to make a good deal. Communication, for Smith, is what really starts and sustains commerce as the secret but “real foundation.” Communication ultimately means the art of deal making -- to create and explore any "common ground" of interests in ways otherwise inconceivable; it also indicates an aesthetic of the useful to promote culture as “common property.” How to handle the “wealthy eccentric” problem then? There should be solutions accordingly.