Dr. Ashok K. Gangadean

Ashok K. Gangadean, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Haverford College (Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA) where he has taught for the past thirty-six years. He was the first Director of the Margaret Gest Center for the Cross-Cultural Study of Religion at Haverford, and has participated in numerous professional conferences on inter-religious dialogue and East-West comparative philosophy.
 
His primary concern throughout his career has been to clarify the universal logos or common ground at the heart of human reason and rational life. He is Founder-Director of the Global Dialogue Institute which seeks to embody the dialogical powers of global reason in all aspects of cultural life. His book, Meditative Reason: Toward Universal Grammar attempts to open the way to global reason, and a companion volume, Between Worlds: The Emergence of Global Reason explores the dialogical common ground between diverse worlds. His forthcoming book The Awakening of the Global Mind further develops these themes for the general reader.
 
Ashok has focused over the past thirty-five years on tapping and clarifying the deeper common ground between diverse cultural, religious, and ideological worlds. In his many published essays and public lectures he has attempted to demonstrate that human reason is essentially global, dialogical, holistic, and intercultural. In his books he has attempted to demonstrate that there is a fundamental Logos or Universal Grammar underlying all cultures, religions, philosophies, and ideologies. This discovery and clarification of the fundamental Logos in human cultures, experience and life has important implications for effectively addressing the most pressing practical problems humans face today.
 
His Global Dialogue Institute has developed a powerful “Whole Child Education” Pilot Project that has been supported by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education in Indonesia. This integral approach to education and teacher training uses the power of Deep Dialogue to renovate the teaching and learning ecology of education.
 
While his earlier books attempt to demonstrate that human reason is essentially grounded in the fundamental Logos that is the common ground between diverse worlds, the Awakening attempts to communicate these findings to everyday people who have no background in philosophy and who urgently need to understand and cope with the profound changes we now face in the globalization of our cultures.
 
He is Co-Convenor of the recently formed World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality which brings eminent world leaders together in sustained deep dialogue to cultivate global vision and wisdom for the new millennium. This high level Commission has been supported generously by the Breuninger Foundation and has held annual retreats in the past three years at their Wasan Island Retreat.
 
Ashok has appeared on NBC News (Philadelphia), in interviews for CNN Headline News (Comcast Newsmakers) in the Philadelphia Region, and appeared last year in the national television series Thinking Allowed with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove. These two interviews on his forthcoming book The Awakening of the Global Mind continue to air in repeating cycles on the national scene.
 
More recently he was featured in the forthcoming series A Parliament of Minds, produced by Michael Tobias and Patrick Fitzgerald. This series arose from the World Congress of Philosophy in Boston (August 1998) at which Ashok helped convene and inaugurate the newly formed World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality.
 
He appears in a half-hour interview on his work and participated in a one-hour dialogue with Karan Singh, Robert Muller and Ewert Cousins. He has also agreed to host a forthcoming television series on “Patterns of the Universe: Bridging Science and Spirituality”, produced by Connecting Links Productions. Ashok became the host of Philly Live: Your International Connection on WYBE TV Public Television (Philadelphia, Ch 35) every Monday night. This live television show seeks to cultivate global dialogue on vital issues of international interest. After four seasons he commenced his new Global Lens show on WYBE in the Fall of 2004.
 
Ashok recently formed his ((Awakening)) Productions to begin work on producing a six-part series for television on the narrative of his forthcoming book The Awakening of the Global Mind. Also, his book Meditations on Global First Philosophy: Quest for the Missing Grammar of Logos has just been accepted for publication by SUNY Press and will appear in late 2008.
 
Watch The Philosophy of our Global Vision with Ashok Gangadean. Read his ((Open Letter)) to Global Citizens.