Comparative Approaches To Chinese Philosophy

This anthology explores how Chinese and Western philosophies could jointly and constructively contribute to a common philosophical enterprise. Philosophers with in-depth knowledge of both traditions present a variety of distinct comparative approaches, offering a refined introduction to the further reaches of Chinese philosophy in the comparative context, especially regarding its three major constituents - Confucianism, philosophical Daoism, and the Yi-Jing philosophy. This book examines various issues concerning philosophical methodology, ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and logic, and investigates both the living-spring source of Chinese philosophy and its contemporary implications and development through contemporary resources. The balanced coverage, accessible content, and breadth of approaches presented in this anthology make it a valuable resource for students of Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy, and other related courses.

This book examines different views on the concept of truth in early Chinese philosophy, and considers a variety of theories of truth in Chinese and comparative thought.

A concise alphabetic guide to the main concepts,figures, topics and important movements of thought that have shaped Chinesephilosophy over the last three thousand years. The entries are conciselywritten, terms are cross-referenced and transcriptions are typically givenin the pinyin system. Chinese Philosophy A-Z stresses philosophicalrelevance in choosing entries while paying due attention to historical linksbetween relevant ideas and movements of thought. The volume also shows howsome of the central ideas under discussion contribute to the philosophicalenterprise as a whole. The book is aimed at students, teachers ofphilosophy, and educated non-specialists who are interested in Chinesephilosophy, particularly those readers new to Chinese philosophy.

This book examines different views on the concept of truth in early Chinese philosophy, and considers a variety of theories of truth in Chinese and comparative thought.

Wisdom and Philosophy: Contemporary and Comparative Approaches questions the nature of the relationship between wisdom and philosophy from an intercultural perspective. Bringing together an international mix of respected philosophers, this volume discusses similarities and differences of Western and Asian pursuits of wisdom and reflects on attempts to combine them. Contributors cover topics such as Confucian ethics, the acquisition of wisdom in pre-Qin literature and anecdotes of stupidity in the classical Chinese tradition, while also addressing contemporary topics such as global Buddhism and analytic metaphysics. Providing original examples of comparative philosophy, contributors look at ideas and arguments of thinkers such as Confucius, Zhuangzi and Zhu Xi alongside the work of Aristotle, Plato and Heidegger. Presenting Asian perspectives on philosophy as practical wisdom, Wisdom and Philosophy is a rare intercultural inquiry into the relation between wisdom and philosophy. It provides new ways of understanding how wisdom connects to philosophy and underlines the need to reintroduce it into philosophy today.

Chinese-Western Comparative Metaphysics and Epistemology: A Topical Approach features a comparative analysis of the fundamental metaphysical assumptions and their epistemological implications in Chinese and Western philosophy. Adopting the methodology of topical comparison that seeks to correlate two or multiple approaches to the same set of questions raised by a single topic or issue, Mingjun Lu argues for commensurability in Chinese and Western metaphysics of both Nature and the mind, and in the epistemology of knowledge dictated by these two fundamental hypotheses of the first principle or primary cause. Lu explores this philosophical commensurability through a comparative analysis of the canonical works written by Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Descartes, and Leibniz on the Western side, and by Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Lu Jiuyuan, Zhu Xi, and Wang Yangming on the Chinese side. The parallels and analogues revealed by the comparative lens, Lu proposes, bring to light a coherent and well-developed Chinese metaphysical and epistemological system that corresponds closely to that in the West. By inventing such new categories as cosmo-substantial metaphysics, consonant epistemology, natural hermeneutics, and onto-mind reading to reconceptualize Chinese and Western philosophy, Lu suggests alternative and more commensurable grounds of comparison.

How do differences in language influence comparative philosophy? Although the Orientalism famously described by Edward Said is rare today, Steven Burik maintains that comparative philosophy often subtly privileges one tradition over another since certain conceptual schemes are so embedded in Western languages that it is difficult not to revert to them. Arguing for a new approach that acknowledges how theory and practice cannot be separated in comparative philosophical endeavors, Burik provides nonmetaphysical, deconstructionist readings of Heidegger and Derrida and uses these to give a new reading of classical Daoism. The ideas of language advanced therein can aid the project of comparative philosophy specifically, and philosophies generally, in trying to overcome ways of thinking that have dominated Western philosophy for twenty-five hundred years and still frustrate intercultural encounters.

In this open access book Jana S. Rošker presents a novel dialectical method to our comprehension of diverse philosophical ideas. Analyzing philosophical discourses that have emerged in China and the Sinophone region, Rošker applies the method to examples from across the history of thought. From Ancient Chinese logicians to 20th-century intellectuals, she connects thinkers and offers fresh insights into key aspects of philosophy. The result is a series of vibrant dialogues among different intellectual traditions, providing new understandings of transcultural philosophical interactions. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Traditional Chinese philosophy, if engaged at all, is often regarded as an object of antiquated curiosity and dismissed as unimportant in the current age of globalization. Written by a team of internationally renowned scholars, this book, however, challenges this judgement and offers an in-depth study of pre-modern Chinese philosophy from an interdisciplinary perspective. Exploring the relevance of traditional Chinese philosophy for the global age, it takes a comparative approach, analysing ancient Chinese philosophy in its relation to Western ideas and contemporary postmodernist theories. The conversation extends over a broad spectrum of philosophical areas and themes, ranging from metaphysics, hermeneutics, political theory, religion and aesthetics to specific philosophical schools including Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. By engaging many time-honoured philosophical issues from a comparative perspective, this book bridges the gap between Eastern and Western thought and emphasises the need for a newly fortified global humanism and a deeper appreciation of different philosophical and religious values in an age gripped by large-scale crises. Arguing that traditional Chinese philosophy has immediate relevance to the many challenges of modern life, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Asian Philosophy and Asian Studies in general.

Presenting a comprehensive portrayal of the reading of Chinese and Buddhist philosophy in early twentieth-century German thought, Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought examines the implications of these readings for contemporary issues in comparative and intercultural philosophy. Through a series of case studies from the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Eric Nelson focuses on the reception and uses of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism in German philosophy, covering figures as diverse as Buber, Heidegger, and Misch. He argues that the growing intertextuality between traditions cannot be appropriately interpreted through notions of exclusive identities, closed horizons, or unitary traditions. Providing an account of the context, motivations, and hermeneutical strategies of early twentieth-century European thinkers' interpretation of Asian philosophy, Nelson also throws new light on the question of the relation between Heidegger and Asian philosophy. Reflecting the growing interest in the possibility of intercultural and global philosophy, Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought opens up the possibility of a more inclusive intercultural conception of philosophy.