The following appeared in Volume 98, Number 1 (Fall, 1998) of the APA Newsletters

Contributors are expected to consider, among others, the following questions: Why not justice? Why might justice not serve the cause of reconciliation? Why the preference for truth-telling? Why amnesty and not punishment? Are there lessons here for other societies even when the kinds of crimes that characterized South Africa under apartheid have not taken place in them?

The initial focus for this theme turns on South Africa because I, the editor, am persuaded that the broad spectrum of opinion there will serve us better to understand the choices that have been made in the aftermath of the demise of apartheid. A later number will focus on reactions from philosophers elsewhere after the initial publication. Such contributions will include analyses of the phenomenon of Truth Commissions in places like Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, and El Salvador. Contributions of both kinds are invited.

Possible contributions for this issue should examine the philosophical issues raised by the ongoing transitions to manifold forms of democracy around the world. There is a notable absence of comparative angles in the dominant forms of contemporary democratic discourse in the North American academy. But it is not an exaggeration to say that politicians have been quick to claim credit for many of these transitions and it has not been difficult for them and their opposites in academia—especially in political science—to celebrate these transitions, however flawed they may be, as indicative of the triumph of "Westernism". Whatever one’s attitude to this type of chauvinistic triumphalism, one cannot deny that in many parts of the world, movements for democracy have been marching under banners that, if they are not exactly replicas of those flown by earlier struggles for liberal democracy, are not unlike the latter. Chinese students in Tienanmen Square adopted a miniature statue of liberty as one of the icons of their struggle. South Africa has gone one step further than the United States by explicitly recognizing homosexual rights and abolishing the death penalty after its elections in 1994.

What do these developments portend? A revivification of liberalism? What lessons do they hold for the future of liberalism in, say, the United States?

Deadline: February 15, 1999.

Do you know of philosophy-related work or research that should receive a free listing in the forthcoming International Directory of Philosophy and Philosophers? Can you direct us to people and organizations whom we might contact, to ask about this kind of information? Please reply to the address below; e-mail is especially encouraged. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated, and will benefit the international scholarly community. Thank you for your time and assistance.